Written by Adam Woolcott  on March 03, 2006

Specials: We know more about Duke Nukem Forever than PS3

Tweet

Comments

As a refresher, we'll begin this article with all the information we know about Sony's next home console, the PlayStation 3.

It officially is called PS3

It uses a brand new media format known as Blu-Ray

Its central computing environment is powered by a fancy chip called Cell

It closely resembles a George Foreman grill

Its controller is the first one that will actually fly back to you when you chuck it out of anger

It will supposedly cost a whole lot of money

And that's pretty much it. It's been almost a year now since E3 2005, when Sony came out of nowhere with tech demos, game trailers which may or may not have been within the realm of possibility, a 'prototype' hardware shell & controller, known as the Boomerang, and a mysterious Spring 2006 release date. But since that day, we know nothing new about the system. Every major trade show has been looked at with anticipation; once, the Tokyo Game Show was going to have finished hardware and playable games, but that degenerated into the same old stuff along with the much-anticipated trailer of Metal Gear Solid 4 and little else. CES was a bust, with the Blu-Ray format itself making a splash, but nothing about PS3. Just last month there was substantial hype about the Taipei Game Show, but that turned out to be a repeat of the same old trailers we've been seeing for a year now. Only a fool would really think the system is coming out in this spring in any territory, even if spring runs between March and June.

At this stage in the game, the PlayStation 3 might just as well be the VaporStation 3.

But why? Clearly, Sony shouldn't be 'afraid' to show off the PS3; at least, you'd think they shouldn't be. Even though Microsoft has made many inroads, Sony still owns the console end of gaming. They should be out and about, puffing their chests outward at the technical terror they've constructed, showing it off at every turn. But they don't, instead leaving hordes of PlayStation gamers frustrated and annoyed at the complete lack of information. At this point, government secrets are easier to get a hold of than PS3 stuff, and it's merely a videogame console. It's easy to understand why they don't want stuff leaked out Ц competition is going to be tight this generation, with the Xbox 360 already winning over gamers, and Nintendo's Revolution looking to regain the company's tarnished reputation and offer a whole new way to play games. Even internally, they don't want to take away what's coming on PS2, especially since some of the most anticipated games the system has ever seen are still due to release, such as Final Fantasy XII. But as sensible as that might seem, the damage has already been done seeing how fast game sales have dropped off. People are holding off purchases in lieu of the next hardware cycle. But that's a topic for another time.

Compare this to a generation ago, when Sony pretty much blitzed the Dreamcast, firing off information, games, and the like in a constant flow. The hype generated by the system has oft been considered the reason for the demise of Dreamcast, as PS2 simply overwhelmed the console despite its high quality library Ц Sony convinced millions to hold off on buying a Sega product, like they did years before with the Saturn, and pick up a PS2 instead. And it worked. One would expect the same thing to happen here, and it hasn't. Instead, Microsoft has taken advantage of the silence and has become the hottest thing in gaming, while Sony watches from the sidelines inexplicably. Sure, they might be sitting back to see if the 360 flames out; though the demand has been high, the shortages, hardware issues, and a still small game library have caused concern for many. But then some of these same things could have been said about the PS2 when it came out over 5 years ago. The similarities are pretty startling.

So what is causing such silence? Is Blu-Ray not ready? Is the hardware not finished? Are the games having a difficult time reaching the promised heights of those E3 2005 trailers? It could be any of those things, or it could be all of them. Clearly Sony might have overwhelmed even themselves at E3, giving away too much too fast and going from no expectations to unrealistic ones. Development kits are in the hands of designers, and that's good. It's a step in the right direction. But other than that, the PS3 remains a mystery, an enigma, a piece of vaporware akin to the mocked Phantom. But while Sony hems, haws, and otherwise keeps everything under their hats, Microsoft gains more and more converts. Personally, as a PlayStation supporter going on a decade now, since the original PS won me over, I find it harder and harder to deal with the silence, especially with an Xbox 360 in my game room, already bringing me next-generation entertainment, and with the Revolution slowly gaining my favor as time goes on. Sure, I reserved my PS3 a couple months ago to be sure I could get one, but even with that in mind, Microsoft is making the steps to the sort of gaming dominance they hoped for, and Nintendo might be close to regaining their NES era glory...and almost by default since Sony is handing it to them.

Maybe it's price that's causing the problems and fearing backlash against an overly expensive piece of hardware, similar to 3DO. Ken Kutaragi has clamed the hardware will be very expensive (almost in an arrogant, elitist way), and most believe him going by some of the statements he's made. For a while I figured it was just a bluff to get Microsoft to do something crazy Ц and perhaps it still is, seeing Microsoft's controversial 2 SKU setup. But with Blu-Ray players shipping at $1000 dollars when the platform launches in May, it's hard to swallow the potential price for this thing, when you add that to the fancy proprietary hardware also included. But Sony isn't stupid, and they've seen it all before. Who remembers people claiming the PS2 would cost over $500? Or PSP the same? Almost every new piece of Sony hardware has gone through the same issue of price. At this point I'd almost expect Sony to come out at E3 and announce the price is $300 and cause yet another storm. But at this point $500 would be considered miraculous seeing what's under the hood. Holding off on PS3 information lets the price of components drop for a more affordable console, and that's great. But it doesn't explain the lack of games being shown off, which is really the biggest issue here. Without games, the price could be 50 bucks and nobody would buy it.

Clearly though, despite the complaints and concern, Sony has shown in the past they can make up for mistakes and silence and completely reverse momentum. After all, last year's E3 was considered a shock to many, since nobody expected the sort of presentation Sony put on, and how they kept it all secret is some sort of a miracle, especially with all the leaks and viral marketing concerning the 360. And not only that, Sony practically destroyed any momentum Microsoft had. People were talking PS3, whether it was good or bad. At this point in time, it's expected Sony will blow the lid off PS3 at E3 in May, and they will have to if they expect to launch this year. So perhaps all the whining and complaining about Sony's secrecy will be washed away then, though one can only wonder how many potential customers they've lost thanks to this PS3 blackout. I remain optimistic about the future, but it's admittedly frustrating to see event after event go by without anything new to cover or discuss. It's expected from Nintendo, a company who defined secrecy and silence, but from Sony, it comes as a disappointment.

Final Thought
As the editor-in-chief of all things PlayStation at Gaming Target, it's also greatly disappointing that we really haven't been able to start covering PS3 extensively. After all, it's tough to cover a platform that barely exists, and so few games are known about. And I know readers crave info on PlayStation 3, which makes it all the more frustrating. One can't cover PS2 and PSP alone these days. This article technically kicks off our PS3 coverage, but I didn't want to start it this way. Let's hope that as time goes on, Sony opens their mouths and start talking PS3 before even more people find their way to the Xbox 360. This isn't Sega Ц Microsoft is more than willing to crush all in their path by any means necessary. I don't want Sony to rush the hardware to market just to make people happy, but man...at least let us know what's going on!