CONSOLE NEWS: Sony PS3 News

[TechZ]

The word is out. Yesterday, Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe George Fornay let the PS3's European price slip. According to Fornay, the PS3 will cost between 499 and 599 euros. That translates to between $613 and $736 for us in the States.

Sony has been saying that the PS3 will be expensive for months now, and Fornay followed up his blunder by insisting that these price points are a quality deal for a Blu-ray player. Nevertheless, all previous attempts at selling videogame consoles at this price point have been rather dramatic failures, even when the systems incorporated 'new' multimedia features.

Full story: gear.ign.com

[TechZ]

In a press conference at E3 on Monday, Sony Computer Entertainment finally announced the launch date and pricing for its upcoming PlayStation 3 console. SCE America President and CEO Kazuo Hirai said the console would launch in two flavors on November 11 in Japan and on November 17 in North America and Europe. The cheapest version of the console will feature a 20GB hard drive and will retail for $499 in the U.S., €499 in Europe, and $549 in Canada. A variant with a 60GB hard drive will also ship for $599 in the U.S., €599 in Europe, and $659 in Canada. Hirai did not mention any differences other than the extra storage space between the $499 and $599 flavors.


In addition to the launch and pricing information, Sony also revealed the PlayStation 3's new "redesigned" controller.While the controller looks virtually identical to the current PS2 controller, user wrist movements can also be translated into onscreen movement. In a demonstration, a virtual duck was made to jump out of the water by moving the controller upwards. Sony is following in the footsteps of Nintendo, which has opted for a one-handed motion sensitive controller for its Wii console.

IGN just posted this comparison detailing the differences between the two controllers