question on ps3

[Rii]

My crackpot theory was that the primary focus of the PS3, at least as first, was a ploy to get blu-ray players in the homes of consumers, with the gaming kind of being secondary. I'm probably completely full of shit, but it seemed to have kind of worked out that way.

Not so much of a crackpot theory.

Asked if the PlayStation 3's role as a media center was frustrating to the company's focus on delivering games, Tretton admitted that "Kutaragi-san built the PS3 as the supercomputer for the home. We thought there was a risk of losing the gaming identity of the PlayStation 3, so we tried to distance ourself from that and understood the credibility would be built with games."

But, he continued, "I don't think we can deny our heritage of selling the PS3 short as only a games machine... The majority of people consume media beyond games. I don't think even the most hardcore gamer will associate zero value with the multimedia features."

Asked if there were any internal programs to try and convert Blu-ray and home theater buyers into gamers rather than gamers into media consumers, Tretton said Sony had "the same opportunity as the Wii" to convert non-gamers into gamers. "Now it's about throwing the breadth of the library at them."

- Gamasutra

You wonder then why they did not ditch the more expensive to produce model and keep the 20gig version.....i mean that extra 40gig, that built in Wifi and that card reader must have cost more to include than a few PS2 chips

I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

What about the original 60 GIG PS3 that first came out? Wasn't that fully PS2 compatible?

Only the launch JP 20gig and the Launch North American 60gig had full POS2 hardware backwards compat.....every PS3 launched after that had either partial PS2 compatibility or had none at all.

 

[dragunzng]

Rii, you illustrated pretty well with the link what I was going to say, which is that Sony now is a very different beast from the one that fumbled the PS3 launch.

There's BK and AK with regards to hardware (Before Kutaragi and After Kutaragi)... great as the man might have been as an engineer.

I suppose it IS true what they say, you either die the hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain! I guess Harrison died the hero then.