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Japan PS3 launch quantity slashed again -- will it ever end?
After seeing their precious PlayStation 3 launch number ravaged by component shortages and manufacturing woes, we thought our Japanese neighbors could finally feel confident in the paltry 100k share they'd been promised by Sony last month, but it looks like they've been betrayed once again. Turns out that Sony will only have 80k of the elusive PS3s prepped by the November 11th for the Japanese launch, due to another component woe. With pretty much every available pre-order slot in the country already snapped up by next-gen hopefuls, and even some of those orders on the fritz, it looks like the best chance you'll have to get the console in The Land of the Rising Sun next month will be to line up outside a non-pre-order retailer and hope for the best. Dress warm![Via Joystiq]
PlayStation 3 HD details revealed at Gamers Day
Sony hasn't exactly...forthcoming with information about its upcoming PlayStation 3 but over the last couple of days solid information has come out about what we can expect this November thanks to the company's Gamers Day event. What does it mean for HDTV owners? Some of it's good, some of it makes us shake our heads in disbelief and wonder what Sony is doing, but here it is:The Good: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is going to be a pack in with the launch consoles, so in exchange for pre-ordering early or freezing outside overnight, PS3 owners will come home with at least one Blu-ray movie to watch. While this may not be the first title to come to mind in terms of showing off incredible visual and sound quality, it is a funny smash-hit movie that most will enjoy. The PS3 loads Blu-ray movies fast. Reports are that within 10 seconds of selecting the movie from the menu, its playing. Long load times have plagued standalone Blu-ray and HD DVD players so far, in that respect, the consoles may have them beat. 18 launch titles, including true 1080p games like NBA '07. Most are multiplatform, but Madden, NBA 2K7, Fight Night Round 3 and others have added a few features to take advantage of the tilt controller, or just enhance them slightly over their Xbox 360 counterparts. HD Movies can be stored on and played directly from the hard drive, although codec support is still unknown. The Bad: No, there aren't any HD cables in the box. Really. The HD era starts now, but BYOC. That may be old hat, or maybe even preferred by many home theater enthusiasts, but for $500/$600 you shouldn't have to buy anything else to get HD out of the box. If you already have component cables from a PS2 however, the AV connector is the same and they will still work. Standard HDMI cables will of course be necessary for digital connections. Yes, there are native-1080p games, but Resistance: Fall of Man is not one of them. Previously touted as 1,920 x 1,080, 22GB of goodness, it is now merely 16GB of 720p goodness. All in all this is probably for the best, but this game is one the PS3's most anticipated games and is supposed to show why gamers need 1080p and Blu-ray...and not Xbox 360s. The PS3 does not do DVD upconverting over any connection, and there are reports that despite previous claims, it will not enhance the visuals on PS1/PS2 games. This is a joke, the console has more than enough power for upconversion, and with its HDCP-protected digital output it is perfectly capable of upscaling to 1080p. The Xbox 360 does it and there is no reason why the PlayStation shouldn't. That recently-reduced-to-400k in the US launch number is really more of a "target", which may or may not be hit due to production issues. Either start lining up now or mortgage the house to buy one on eBay, getting a PlayStation 3 in 2006 won't be easy. No included remote, the BD remote will ship "soon" for $24.99 and operate via Bluetooth, not IR. There it is, are we missing anything? All that's left now is the waiting. We hate waiting.Read - DVD upscaling "not part of the feature set" - IGNRead - PlayStation 3 launch window titles announced - JoystiqRead - Sony PlayStation 3 may not meet shipment targets - BloombergRead - Sony Computer Entertainment America Announces Extensive Line Up of Game Titles for PlayStation 3 - SonyRead - PS3 features lightning-fast Blu-ray playback and video sharing with the PSP - Ars Technica
GameStop/EB accepting Nintendo Wii pre-orders tomorrow
Okay, considering there's already some crazy things happening on eBay, and knowing full well that PlayStation 3 consoles will undoubtedly be a hot commodity in a few short long weeks, you might just need to reevaluate those plans of waltzing into your favorite game shop on November 19th and leaving happy. Nintendo's Wii isn't that likely (right?) to be sold out everywhere come launch week, but for those who don't enjoy pressing their luck (or camping out in the cold), American GameStop's are indeed accepting pre-orders starting tomorrow, while Canadian venues start October 16th. We had good suspicion that things would pan out this way, and our pals at Joystiq are now reporting that GameStop newsletter subscribers have just received official word that $50 will quasi-guarantee you a shiny white box come launch day -- but only one unit per "household" can supposedly be claimed, and the company even warns that allocations are likely to vanish "within minutes." We weren't counting on this year's "budget console" playing hard to get, but if all these sudden reports of imminent scarcity are eventually proven accurate, maybe getting your name on that list wouldn't be such a bad idea after all. [Via Joystiq, thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Playstation 3 launch misfire: Europe delayed to March '07, 500k total for Japan & US
If you were planning on buying the Playstation 3 for gaming or as a "cheap" Blu-ray player you may want to get in line now for the November 17th launch --- not so fast Europe. Due to the shortage of blue laser diodes, there are so few that the PS3 launch in Europe and other PAL territories has been scratched for 2006 and pushed back to March 2007. According to a report from the AP, there will only be 100,000 units available in Japan at launch, and 400,000 in the US. As a result, they only expect to ship 2 million total by the end of 2006, down from the 4 million expected previously. We all remember how hard it was to get the Xbox 360 last year, which launched worldwide and had approximately 400,000 available in the US. Sony still thinks they can hit their target of 6 million Playstation 3s available by March 2007 which should be approximately the same time they are available for less than double the MSRP on eBay.[Via Joystiq & thanks to all who sent this in]Read - Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Announces New March 2007 date for European Launch of PLAYSTATION 3Read - European sales of Sony's PlayStation 3 delayed until March
Blu-ray vs. HD DVD on hold for blue laser shortage?
As much as we like to talk about the ongoing format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD and our readers comment on it, the simple fact is that very few of us actually own either format yet. This is definitely related to the high prices and growing pains early adopters are subject to but the fact is neither one is available in significant quantities yet. As more manufacturers prepare to jump in to the battle this holiday season they may not be able to because of their shared reliance on blue lasers. Only a few companies worldwide produce them and none have been able to get very good yields. Even Sony, who produces blue lasers for themselves and others, has predicted a shortage as they seek to roll out the Playstation 3 and BDP-S1 and according to this article, have suspended shipments to others. For manufacturers who have to rely on someone else for a supply, this could mean a delay until 2007 before many players and drives are launched.
Toshiba reloads HD DVD players
Not only is the RCA HDV5000 available now, the Toshiba HD-A1 may be a little easier to find in your neighborhood as they have announced they are shipping "to an increasing pool of retailers on a weekly basis". Much like the Xbox 360 last fall, the Toshiba HD-A1 and HD-XA1 have been almost totally sold out since release, but with such a limited quantity available it is impossible to know how much demand really exists. Also of note is that retailers share our frustration with constantly-shifting release dates, but remark that the few who have HD DVD players are buying nearly every copy of the titles that are available. We'd love to see the sales numbers of Rumor Has It. So if you need high-def DVD right now, keep calling retailers near you, even if they originally didn't stock it as Toshiba also claims they will be in more than 5000 storefronts nationwide by the end of the year.
Sky HD Launch delayed for many
The BBC is reporting that many in the UK are facing delays in getting high definition set-top boxes installed due to shortages. While thousands of customers have been installed already, many are getting shuffled back as much as three weeks. As our friends at HDTV UK mention, anyone who didn't preorder their install from Sky already can look forward to an install date of August, after the World Cup broadcast that people there are so looking forward to.HDTV UK however was one of the lucky few to get their high definition boxes installed already, and have a few impressions of it up. Now they finally join us in discussing such mysteries as why does every Discovery HD program feature something getting eaten? Honestly we don't know, but you get used to it after a while.
Cheaper PS3 loses HDMI, slots, Wi-Fi, 40GB
As you can see above, there are a few things different between the two PS3 SKUs planned. (Hint: the obvious alterations concern high-def output and wireless connectivity -- though Bluetooth controllers should work just fine with both, with or without any chrome case highlighting.)So what's HDMI, built-in multimedia card-reader slots, wireless internet connectivity, and an extra 40 gigabytes' hard disk space worth to you? $100? Now that Sony's gone with the 2-SKU approach with its next-gen hardware (a la the Xbox 360's premium and "Core" systems), we can expect some tough consumer choices after six months -- with console shortages possibly for another six months after that -- as $100 separates the base $499 and premium $599 versions of Sony's "Clear Black" hope.HDMI is important to those who want to take full advantage of Blu-ray high def and have the new screens to use it; MemoryStick, SD, and CompactFlash slots would be nice for the PS3 memory-card users and those will run multimedia on the system; Wi-Fi's the only way to avoid stringing ethernet cables for online access; and 360 owners might appreciate the full 60GB available to potential buyers of the premium PS3 model. Neither model comes with a second HDMI port; thankfully, one should hopefully be all most users need. The details are laid out in a feature-comparison table at the end of Sony's official PS3 hardware press release, available in both Adobe Reader and Microsoft Word formats. Determine what's most important to your PS3 ambitions there.[Image pieced together from the PlayStation.com forums; thanks, Guru]
HD shortages: They're not just for Europe anymore
We've heard quite a bit about how shortages may prevent European soccer football (whatever) fans from checking out the World Cup in high definition, but what about HDTV owners in the good ol' U.S. of A? This article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch details the problems some are having getting hold of high definition cable boxes, and according to cable company representatives, such shortages are common across the country.Tis a shame that in this land of plenty, some are still being forced to go without. As you enjoy your 1080i, 720p or otherwise this Good Friday remember those who are forced to get by on 480i, the children who are being (bit)starved and the ignorant (up)converted masses. Something must be done.
HDTV shortage hits pre-World Cup Europe
Oh boy. There is nothing worse then angry soccer football fans that could not get tickets to the games in Germany. Then add in an apparent shortage of HDTV over in Europe just before the start of the World Cup and you have a disastrous combination. There has been such a big hype about HDTV and there are new companies launching their high definition just for this event. Just image you going out to buy a HDTV for the Super Bowl and they didn't have any to sell you? How would that make you feel?Has any of our European readers noticed this shortage?
Pi = 3.60 for memory kid
15 year-old Gaurav Rajav of Salem, VA recited 8,784 digits of Pi from memory because his Dad said he would get him an Xbox 360. Unfortunately, because he failed to reach the family goal of 10,790 digits and set a new North American record (slacker) Dad said he could have the 360, but no games. Little Gaurav refused, saying he didn't deserve a console anyway (He's probably waiting for Gears of War). Thank god, because this is the kind of child abuse that makes Microsoft's supply line troubles seem all the more cruel.
