New Controller Design And More!
Sony's Phil Harrison held a Question and Answer session with select members of the press, including AMN today. Details inside!
At today's Game Developers Conference, the Advanced Media Network was fortunate enough to participate in a Q & A session at San Jose's Saint Claire Hotel with select members of the press and Sony's Phil Harrison.
Harrison, the deliverer of the company's keynote address during the trade show made the surprising comment that "all" of the demos shown today were in fact compiled and finished in December of 2005. The Sony executive reiterated that what was shown today is still a long way from what users can expect to see when the console releases, as the provided demos fail to mimic the quality of what is currently produced.
The demos shown at GDC were entirely done in real-time and are said to be an accurate depiction of the system's hardware capabilities, however, knowing that the videos currently available are several months old, it is highly probable that their finished products will in fact be superior.
The most surprising, and important piece of news from the show came in regards to the Playstation 3's controller. Harrison was entirely conclusive in saying that the currently known controller is being revised and will in fact be "unveiled" at the Electronics Entertainment Expo in May.
It is important to note that Sony has received harsh criticism from some regarding the currently available design of the controller, and it appears that a drastic overhaul is forthcoming. Harrison heavily emphasized that the Playstation 3's controller will be "unveiled" at E3 which suggests a considerable change.
Fans of importing video games will be delighted to hear that Harrison himself confirmed that the Playstation 3's games will be region-free, enabling users to buy a game anywhere in the world and play it on their system.
In regards to the Playstation Portable, Sony's executive has also described the nature of the PSP emulator for original Playstation games. Harisson has said that the PSP emulated versions will be "exact" ports of their PS1 counterparts. The executive went on to say that it is possible additional features could be implemented, but described its probability as doubtful.
The Advanced Media Network has previously reported in our live coverage of the keynote address that Sony's online gaming network will in fact be free. This important bit of news was confirmed by Harrison today. In regards to generating profit, the executive described the wheel of fortune price grid of the network as "the world we are moving into."
In regards to the sales revenue plan (wheel of fortune), Harrison referred to the capability of the network to allow end users to purchase a considerable amount of content on the currently unnamed gaming network.
Lastly, it was reiterated that Sony plans to meet consumer demand for the Playstation 3, however a meager one million units are said to be allocated for November's worldwide release. The Advanced Media Network will keep you updated on any further developments.
