Sony playing a little FUD with their "fact sheet"

The PS3 will probably be a really kickass system. I liken this whole thing to this analogy:

Sony is selling a 35K Mercedes Benz, MS is selling a $25K Honda Accord (and Nintendo is selling a Segway, but this isn't about them). Sony realizes that most people want to buy an Accord, but wants like hell to make its Benz the mainstream. So it is basically saying that if you *need* the GPS, extra horsepower, super sound system, leather, and built-in fridge of the Benz. This is basically what they've been saying all along, just not in such a slimy fashion.

Sony marketing has basically lost all its tact. It's ok by me to say things like "PS3: The only TRUE Hi-Def console" but this was just insulting to customers. All they had to do was just leave off "Requires" and they would have made their point without this mess.

Robert: to say composite cables don’t do HDTV is totally false. Yeah, HDMI is slightly better, but I did a test on another piece of equipment I have and I can’t tell the difference. Can you?

Sony comes with COMPOSITE cable in the box. You can not tell the difference between HDMI and COMPONENT cables.
COMPOSITE is the lowest end TV connection, even S-Video better than this. COMPOSITE can not output anything better than 480i.

I think Sony's making a mistake comparing PS3 20GB with 360 Core. It looks even better compared to 360 Premium.

I'll make it clear that I am a PlayStation fan, but I also own a 360 Premium.

360 Core is a big mistake for consumers. Without the HDD you lose out on the Live features, downloading videos, demos, arcade games and extra content for your games. Anyone buying a 360 Core will sooner or later want to buy the HDD or they miss out on the value of 360. Buying Core instead of Premium is a big waste of money and value.

Also I am speculating because I don't own a 360 Core, but how would you save games without HDD? You'd have to fork out more money to buy a memory card.

For PS3 Sony is 'forcing' you to own the HDD from the beginning. If you realise that sooner or later you will want and need a HDD anyway then it is a mute point.

My guess is the main reason Sony put a HDD in every PS3 is to boost PS3 online. It will encourage more consumers to make use of online features beyond network play.

The second reason is to help games developers. Developers can rely on having a HDD so they can use HDD features on their games. On 360 there is no guarantee of having a HDD so developers can't rely on HDD features to enhance their games.

It's not hard to see that for features the consoles rate from lowest to highest as: Wii, 360 Core, 360 Premium, PS3 20, PS3 60.

Compared to 360 Premium the PS3 20GB offers extra BD, Blue Tooth, state of the art CPU, higher deffinition, free online, plus the backing of all the best games in the industry (oh and Linux for anyone interested in being able to run just about everything on your console). If that's not worth an extra $100 I don't know what is.

Pretty soon DVD format will be replaced by new HD media so BD feature alone will save you hundreds of dollars to buy a player.

If people don't want to have the best then they can buy the cheaper console. That's their choice.

It's not hard to see that for features the consoles rate as: Wii

The real point in this chart is that Sony is finding out that most gamers won't pay the price that they are asking for and now they have to find some reason to justify their console. I am an avid gamer and own 8 systems including legacy ones. (Really wishes for Atari 2600 HD converter :) I bought a PS2 because of the features but find myself playing the xbox and 360 more and more. Why? It's the games. From what I saw at E3 this year, Sony had nothing to impress me with, so I will sit on getting a PS3 for some years to come. Sony in the meantime will push Blu-Ray and pitch that their system is cheaper than a Blu-Ray player. (Same pitch they made about DVDs when the PS2 arrived.) If people want to spend the money let them. For myself I say, "Show me the games."

My 2 cents as a Playstation fan (I have no particular love for Sony here): Sony is spinning this thing and I'd really prefer it if they just be honest. But then honesty isn't exactly fashionable.

However, when it comes down to it, I will be purchasing the high end PS3 (though I'll wait for the launch tide to pass). Sony's allocations for the console seem to be that I will be the typical buyer. So to get similar capabilities on the 360 side, I'd have to add a lot of stuff which will bring me pretty much back to the Sony's pricepoint. To those customers, their comparison isn't so absurd.

Ok, ok, you don't need all this stuff to play games but as we all know, this is still the beginning of the next generation. My favorite PS2 title God of War was miles ahead of anything that was available at launch; I'd expect PS3 to follow a similar arc.

Microsoft bet on getting to the next gen first and Sony is gambling on lofty ambition. So Robert, while your 360 works "just fine" right now, let's see where the PS3 goes next year. I think we'll see the true competition by next year's holidays instead of these pointless PR moves.

Jerome: to say composite cables don't do HDTV is totally false. Yeah, HDMI is slightly better, but I did a test on another piece of equipment I have and I can't tell the difference. Can you?

PS3 is not HDTV out of the box since it only comes with composite cables. At least, with my Premium 360, I got a component connection for my HDTV.

Christopher: by the time the game studios can do something that needs more than 4GB's of space there will be plenty of cheap HD-DVDs out there.

It's not a hatred. Just thought it was funny that Sony couldn't stick to just the facts to sell its system.

Video Game Console Wars, the new Mac vs. Windows Usenety Flamefest de jour. Why so anti-Sony? Leftover Microsoft brainwashy blender-mixes?

Sony was just doing a comparison, touting their Blu-Ray, in the usual Sonyish incompetent (wholesale misunderstanding Western markets) way about it. Sony sure has made a mess of their consumer space markets of late (iPods to exploding batteries), tho their professional camera and Sony Media software lines are going great. But then Sony has had the racisty audcity to chide Howard Stringer for not being Japanese. And their desire to "protect" the content lines, killed the consumer market side. Braking while trying to power-up accelerate.

You don't need a HD-DVD to play "HD" games, but that's not the point. Sony will use that additional space on Blu-Ray for GAMES. Xbox 360 still using standard DVD. For games made on HD-DVD (which is a non-starter of yet) yes, you will need an HD-DVD.

Xbox 360
DVD - Can play "HD" games, yes. But the game format is still DVD.
HD-DVD - No "games" in this format of yet.

Sony
BluRay - Game AND Next Gen DVD format. PS3 is the BluRay trojan horse, so Sony better not screw this up.

Essentially, the 360 add-on is just a movie player...but the mainstreram doesn't do "add-ons".

Still it's not about the "resolution" or whatnot, it's the franchise games themselves, which is why Wii will be a sleeper hit and why the DS will always "win" (marketshare-wise) over PSP. But PS3 regardless of all the troubles, will win over the worldwide market, no mattter the cost.

Face it 360 will come in second...in terms of marketshare and even eventual mindshare. But 360 doing heck of a good job courting developers and making a Live marketplace and community, Microsoft's endless blank checks sees to that.

@Eshwar
1. XBOX 360 (premium) comes with a 20GBHDD, wireless_controller, HD cable, MCEremote and still costs less(USD399) than the cheapest PS3
2. You don't need HDD for playing HD games. That's sony trying to cover their ass.
3. We'll see about cell. So far most people who know better seems claim that PS3-cell is almost same as XBOX360 when it comes to rendering games.

And did I mention that Sony still doesn't have a unified online system like Live ?
If you want to blow yourself away, just watch any HD gameplay video for Gears of War...it even beats all crappy CGI videos sony's been passing around as gameplays. :D

AGAIN i didn't say they will blow them away right away. thats because developers still haven't fully utilized the performance of the cell processor. they will eventually and thats when they will be on a different league.

And, I've seen the Sony demo games. They don't "blow away" the ones on the Xbox. Sorry. I don't know where you're getting that. Yeah, they are a little nicer, but as many Sony people love telling me, it's the game that matters not how many things get rendered on the screen.

AGAIN: you do NOT need a hard drive to play many HD games. My favorite game, Geometry Wars, worked just fine. So did many other games that came on DVD (I owned a memory control unit, not an HD at first).

Yeah, a hard drive is nice to have, but not a requirement. And it should be optional because already there's rumors that a 100MB drive is coming. Sony is gonna force you to get the drive that comes with it. With Xbox you could live without a hard drive until the 100MB one comes along.

you can play HD games but then you need a hard disk right? and thats not available on the basic xbox is it? on day one you are not going to see ps3 games that will blow away xbox 360. cell processor as you said is quite hard to program but once developers get the hang of that you don't have a comparison. the cell processor is way more advanced than any chip available in the market.

thats why as i say if you invest today in ps3 it will definitely have more value than buying a xbox 360 in the years to come. as for live, sony is launching its own platform. not sure how good or how bad its going to be. i guess we will have to wait to find that one out.

Eshwar: AGAIN. You do not need an HD-DVD to play HD games. Sorry, to say that you do need that is COMPLETELY WRONG. (I only play HD games by the way on my Xbox 360).

To say you need a hard drive to play HD games, is completely wrong. I played plenty before I had my hard drive.

As to "blowing away" the Xbox 360. The market will decide on that. From what I hear it's far harder to program games for the Sony, so we'll see what kinds of games are available on day one. The Xbox blows most visitors to my home away. Especially since most are on PlayStation 2's and don't have surround sound, nor Live play with others, nor HDTV.

But, that all is just changing the subject. Stick to this datasheet from Sony. It's false to say all that is "required."

hi scoble, i agree many people don't need HD. thats definitely true. i agree xbox 360 games are very good even without them. but thats not the point IMO.

the experience of HD games is definitely better than non-HD games. also over time (in less than a couple of yrs time) this will be the standard. everyone would want these. sony should be praised for bringing this tech to the market to make consumers adopt them and not sit behind wait for it to become popular and then add then as either an external connector or a small upgrade and so will cost the consumer even more. i am only praising sony because this console is truely a next generation console. so ps3 has more value over time. not just in HD stuff but also adopting the cell processor. trust me once developers start exploiting the full potential of this processor the games will just blow away xbox 360 (and guess what current owners of xbox 360 will have to do, either go and get a new version of xbox 2 yrs down the line or buy a very expensive external connector).

Eshwar: and you missed the point. A lot of people don't need those features. I played Xbox for months without a hard drive. And, what do I need BlueRay or HD-DVD for? I have one and most movies aren't available on either yet.

not true at all. thats totally engadget's interpretation. what sony is saying is to get the same level of features xbox costs more. i don't think its a FUD at all. its true. for example to play older xbox games you will need a hard drive (infact folks at xbox love to compare their cheapest console with sony's high end console all the time).

i think sony should be praised for providing HD out of the box through blue ray unlike microsoft's xbox which requires you to buy an external HDDVD drive. seems like engadget loves to do sony hating these days (just a few days back they had to backtrack their own posts on further europe delay launch).