Whoops - don't forget Blu-ray for PS3!

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 22 September 2007 11:43

Opinion and Analysis

Despite emphasising a renewed emphasis on PS3 games at the Tokyo Games Show keynote, Sony wants us all to remember that the PS3 is “a great Blu-ray player as well” and will advertise the feature in addition to the gaming lineup. News for Gamers (N4G) has quoted a Financial Times (subscription) interview with recent Tokyo Games Show keynote speaker, Kaz Hirai, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, the division responsible for all things Playstation and gaming.

Hirai’s keynote emphasised a renewed gaming focus for the PS3, instead of focusing more on the home entertainment and networkable aspects of the über console. With more gamers on board, more consoles are sold, ensuring more games are made for what is supposed to be an ever growing audience.

The Financial Times quoted Hirai saying that he still wanted to “get the Blu-ray message out” and that is was a “balancing act” because of the stated desire to focus on gaming and gamers. Hirai was also quoted by FT as saying that “The PS3 is first and foremost a video games machine but we want to say – by the way, it’s a great Blu-ray player as well”.

The PS3’s abilities have grown since launch thanks to continuing firmware updates, bug fixes and new features, including PSP integration and remote play capabilities for gaming and media, alongside new and better games at last. Even so, the PS3 has certainly had a slow start.

While it has only managed half the sales of the Wii and the Xbox 360, this Christmas season will be vital, and one can only wonder if Sony has some surprises left for us yet that they’re still waiting to unleash, with the Tokyo Game Show having been an excellent opportunity.

Of course, we did get a Dual Shock 3 controller back for the PS3, but it should have been there in the first place – and you’ll need to buy one if you want one, money that could have gone towards a cool new game instead.

The added interaction with the PSP is fantastic, but it was promised from the start, but it certainly makes the PS3 and the PSP connected to each other and the Internet a powerful mobile platform for Sony, fighting against Apple’s iPhone, Microsoft’s Zune and UMPC’s, and Intel’s upcoming ‘Mobile Internet Devices’, one of which due for sometime in 2008 and previewed earlier this week at the San Francisco IDF looking very much like a widescreen iPhone clone.

Sony’s user base of PSP owners is growing nicely, and one can only imagine what kind of direction Sony will take with the PSP’s successor. You’d have to imagine some kind of multi-touch screen would be in use, while also delivering the PSP buttons so essential for gaming, and a motion sensor as per the Nintendo Wii remote, allowing the unit to itself become part of the gameplay and action – perhaps also serving as a ‘Wii-mote’ for the PS3 in the future!!

It’s clear that Sony doesn’t really want to de-emphasise the PS3’s home entertainment capabilities too much. Microsoft is actively advertising the Xbox 360 as an excellent media extender for Windows XP and compatible Windows Vista computers.

Sony’s media extender capabilities are very capable, and comes with the flagship feature of Blu-Ray playback to highlight its other-than-gaming capabilities. Anyone buying a big screen TV this Christmas who also wants to get a Blu-ray player is going to have a hard time passing up buying a PS3 for the purpose, unless they’re happy to go into further credit debt or simply have tons of cash and don’t mind buying multiple players and gaming consoles.

Let’s see what else Sony comes up with to wow us all this holiday season – it’s the biggest opportunity of the year to sell sell sell… we’ll see in January 2008 how well they did it!