lunes, septiembre 04, 2006

PS3 would save Sony if….

(Pido disculpas a mis lectores que sólo usen el Castellano, pero mi idea original para este blog era hacerlo bilingüe, al menos en los temas tecnológicos)

Sony is, obviously, a well known tech company. They are proud of their products, best of the best (I still have two Sony Triniton running... in good shape). But I think that they are also suffering their own vision. Proprietary formats and wars they do not always win.

At the beginning was Beta, and Beta was good, but people choose VHS (many of you know why) leaving 2000 also dying in the dust. In the other hand the walkman created a revolution. The waves of its impact are nowadays known as mp3.

They created Memory Stick, and it was good, but only for Sony products. In the other hand VAIO was the dream, what every laptop in the world wanted to become.

They created MD and ATRACT3, creating a war they were unable to win to MP3. In the other hand PS2 has been the most successful gaming platform anyone can remember.

And now, in the early days of High-Definition Video in the era of Gaming, they are suffering the still unborn PS3.

The first time I ever heard of Cell processor the first thought came to my mind was: I want a PC/Laptop running theses babies! Later in the article I read that PS3 would be build on top of it. And they also said, “…and we are already running Linux on Cell”.

Recently I have read a couple of articles of PS3 and Sony, and I want to put my two cents on it.

It is said that PS3 will cost 499$ or 599$ depending on the pack. And Sony will lose money each unit they sell. As we say in Spanish “Vamos a darle la vuelta a la tortilla”, lets face the music.

I imagine the 699$ PS3 (or even more$), with big HDD (lets say 80Gb+), with Linux installed and some SDK on it. Sony would sell the “Cell computer” to each freaknologyst in the planet. These freaks would spread the “Word” of Cell, developing applications for Cell platform. Then Sony would sell more low-end PS3, reducing drastically the manufacturing costs.

But more on, anyone buying a PS3 will buy games, the main profit scheme for a gaming platform. Some voices in Sony’s head would even say “…they would develop homebrew applications; they will create emulators running on PS3… that will be the end of PS3….” I do not think so. PC platform is quite open and PC games are sold everywhere. Chip-modding PS2 and XBOX didn’t kill them, it made them stronger. Eventually Sony may even find a PS2 emulator good enough to get the rid of PS2 chip on PS3!

The fact is that Sony can create a truly Multimedia-Entertainment-Platform just from PS3 if they are open-minded to open enough schemas.

El Otro

8 comentarios:

Azena dijo...

too thick for my tech level (perhaps for my english?)

*Laura* dijo...

good bay!!!.

Akhram dijo...

It's not the first time that consoles are sold for a prize lower enough to make the manufacturer to loose money, but the main profit for them comes with the games, and even accesories. Once you have the expensive console, why not to buy a "cheap" game from time to time, or a memory card, and extra controller to play with friends, and so on...

A console, at the begining, was a toy for children, but nowadays it's becoming a luxury article :P ( $699 :O ).

On the other hand, I think that make PS3 able to be used to develop "homebrew applications" is a good idea... PS2 had his own language and you could make your own programs (not easy by the way, specially if you had to make them with your standar controller, without an USB keyboard), let's hope PS3 will have one too, and more powerfull, of course :P

...maybe some day I will be able to work with a console instead of a PC XD

isterica dijo...

Aja! fantastico ¿?

Akhram dijo...

Oh, I forgot to write this...

Did you say MAME in PS3 ???

Juan dijo...

Akhram: yep. MAME on PS3, why not?

Azena, Lady Laura, Isterica: Lo dicho en la cabecera, siento que sea tan técnico y en inglés, pero esto es lo que me apetecía escribir ahora. Sin embargo prometo volver al idioma de Cervantes...

Anónimo dijo...

Ich Habe Eine Hund. Bitte!

Akhram dijo...

Jejeje, no me sorprendería nada ver el MAME en la PS3, de hecho no me sorprendería nada ver el MAME corriendo en una nevera.