We heard some pretty far-fetched stuff back in June to the tune of a break-apart DualShock 3, and lo and behold, it seems that someone at Sony Computer Entertainment America is taking the idea quite seriously. A recent patent application was filed by the company, and it fairly clearly lays out the very kind of design we'd (not really) been expecting. In essence, the gamepad would consist of two pieces, each of which would utilize an "ultrasonic tracking system" for some type of game console / peripheral to recognize 3D inputs. Best of all, the approach here sounds significantly different enough from what's used in the Wiimote that Sony could avoid months upon months of litigation -- imagine that, right? It's hard to say whether this stroke of genius will ever amount to anything, but at least there's a chance, however minuscule.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Ruh roh. Seems that swanky new LCD on Sony's PSP-3000 could be garnering more complaints than anything else. If you'll recall, the aforesaid system was touted as having a brighter, better screen than the PSP-2000, but now the PlayStation forums are filling up with irate PSP-3000 buyers who are experiencing unexplained scanlines and totally peculiar interlacing problems. As you can see above, the 3000's screen looks noticeably worse than that of the 2000, and while we always hope that these issues are contained, we have at least one Engadget staffer and a Joystiq comrade who can attest to this being real. SCEA has been contacted and is currently "looking into" the matter -- we won't dare say that r-word just yet, but this doesn't look particularly good on the surface. We'll keep you posted.

[Via Joystiq]

Update: A Japanese Sony Computer Entertainment representative has informed us that the interlacing-like lines are just "features" of the new LCD, and currently, there are no plans to fix it with a future software update since it is in the hardware.

After some turbulent hours of confusion over this story, Sony finally got its facts straight and let the world know that it is in fact not going to discontinue its 60GB PS3 in US once current stock runs out. According to SCEA's Dave Karraker, "As announced this week, SCEA's product offering in North America consists of a 80GB PS3 available in August at $599 and a 60GB PS3 available now for $499. We have will have ample supplies of both models to meet the needs of our consumers for the foreseeable future." Apparently the confusion arose from Sony Europe's David Reeves explaining that if they cut the 60GB price in Europe, they'd run out of stock in Europe by the end of July. So, false alarm people, please resume buying / not buying your $499 60GB PS3s in an orderly manner.

Update: This has been semi-contradicted once again, with Sony now saying that they have enough stock to sell 60GB consoles for the next few months, but it doesn't sound like they'll be making any more after that. According to Karraker, "We won't be making any further announcements regarding our PS3 model hardware strategy in North America until the 60GB model is exhausted and market conditions are evaluated."

While it's no surprise that Sony's not exactly jonesing to knock a few bills off the PlayStation 3's premium price tag, it's still somewhat notable that a top exec at the company would go out on a limb and explain exactly why you won't be getting a break on one anytime soon. When asked by Game Informer whether the PlayStation 3's price cuts would be "as soon or as drastic as they were for the PlayStation 2," recently-promoted SCEA head Jack Tretton said flatly "no," adding that all the increased investment in R & D and hardware make the system "a lot more difficult to cost reduce" than the PS2. Tretton further clarified things by saying that "there's a heck of a lot more under the hood and it costs us more money to make it." Our pals at Joystiq did the math, and if that statement holds true, it looks like we won't be seeing a price reduction on the PS3 until June 4th, 2008 at the absolute earliest and, in all likelihood, not one on the level of the $299 to $199 drop the PS2 saw.

We're still waiting for the dust to settle here, but it looks like the "Father of the PlayStation," Ken Kutaragi, has been bumped out of his top spot as President of Sony Computer Entertainment, to be replaced by Kaz Hirai, the President of CEO of SCE America. Ken will now be Chairman and Group CEO, while Kaz while take on the role of President and Group COO, effective December 1st. While Ken will have oversight of the PlayStation in his new roles, it sounds like he's been largely been removed from the day-to-day operations to make way for the talented Kaz to do his thing. Speculation is rampant as to whether this is a "promotion" for Kutaragi, in order for him to think "big picture" for his console prodigy, or a demotion in response to the numerous PS3 launch foibles -- we're guessing the latter. What we do know that SCEA will, for the first time, be helmed by an American: Jack Tretton, who we're sure to be seeing plenty of over the next few years.

[Via Joystiq]

Read - SCE Press Release [Warning: PDF file]
Read - SCEA Press Release

Last week, between extended PS3 sessions, we got a chance to sit down with Sony Computer Entertainment America's Senior Vice President of Marketing, Peter Dille, who chatted candidly with us about Sony's ambitions (and failures) in the market, design decisions made with the console, and where the PlayStation platform is going both handheld and console.

Thanks for meeting with me today. So I think maybe my biggest question right now is the amount of consoles that are coming in to the States and Japan. I mean, they've been getting cut and on launch day and we're now down to 480,000 worldwide?

I don't know that there's anything new to talk about there. I'm trying to recall the last public statement about the launch number.

Last one, I think, was last week. Japan went down by something like 20,000 units.

Yeah, I think that's right. There's not a whole lot to add in terms of the public position there. We've kinda gone on record to say Blu-ray has been a challenge to manufacture. I think Jack [Tretton, co-chief operating officer of Sony Computer Entertainment of America] had some comments about that recently. I think the good news is we'll focus on day one, and then making sure there's a steady flow of hardware in weeks two, three, and four, and consumers don't have any big draws out of stock. So, that's kinda what we'll focus on, and as I said, we're gonna monitor that on a day by day, week by week basis, and steer the production based on each territory. What we know is that demand is going to outstrip the supply for some time.

So, it's really -- it's a high class problem, and we'd rather have this than the alternative. But it's still something that we'll have to deal with, and we don't want consumers to be put off by this. It's one of the reasons we're not encouraging retailers to do reservation lists -- because if we did, we'd probably have situations where a consumer couldn't even get a shot or get in with these things for six or eight months, and that's something that we'd like to avoid.

We've been scratching our heads over all the wild Sony moves during the past few months -- with pricing themselves almost out of the game right at the top of our list -- but we'd been apparently laboring under a false assumption. Silly us, we thought Sony was planning on grabbing market share in this console generation, but we were oh so wrong. "The name of the game is not market share, it's how fast we can grow the industry," says David Reeves, head of Sony Europe, who went on to say "We want to try and double digital entertainment in the next five to six years. Whether we have 40, 50, or 60 per cent market share is not that important." Good to know guys, we're really sorry for getting on your case about all this stuff, we had no idea you're not feeling so competitive this time around. As a side note, Molly Smith, Sony's SCEA PR chief who was brought on shortly after the launch of the PS1, has recently and unexpectedly resigned her post, no word why, but we're sure she's glad to not be dealing with this little sound bite.

Read - Sony not concerned with market share
Read - PlayStation PR chief resigns