Technology continued

However, the previous Playstation 2 had a reputation of being hard to program for and it looks like the PS3 is following in its footsteps. John Carmack, the head programmer for id Software, has been quoted numerous times as saying that while the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are fairly close in tech, the actual making of games is in the Xbox 360 corner thanks to better development software tools for Microsoft’s console. The Nintendo Wii, because of its lower tech specs, is also considered to be easy and cheap to develop for. The technology of the PS3 is high but only time will tell if game developers will be able to get the console’s Cell processor to do all the things that Sony claims it will be able to do.

The other big technology reach for the PS3 is the Blu-Ray disk drive. Sony is the major driver of the next gen disk technology, which launched just a couple of weeks ago with a $1,000 Samsung player and a handful of movies (Sony’s own Blu-Ray movie player won’t be in stores until late October, just a few weeks before the PS3 launch). The Blu-Ray disk can hold many times more data and video than the standard DVD format (which is what the Xbox 360 uses and the Nintendo Wii will use). Sony is clearly banking on the acceptance of the PS3 to push the Blu-Ray standard to consumers over the competing HD-DVD, which launched a few months ago (Microsoft will have an HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 this fall but it will be used only for movies).

Yet Sony is taking a huge gamble with launching their next-gen console with a next-gen disk format only a few months after Blu-Ray itself was introduced to the public. Early reviews from movie and tech web sites have not been kind to the Samsung Blu-Ray player with TheDigitalBits.com saying that both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have launched a year too early to the consumer market. They recommended that people stay away from Blu-Ray until all of the bugs and kinks in the format have been ironed out. One has to wonder if such problems might affect the PS3 when it launches this November.

At their E3 press conference, Sony shocked the audience with a new design of the PS3 controller, returning it to the look of the PS2 controller over the previously seen “batarang” style console that was shown at E3 in 2005. However it was what was inside the new PS3 controller that counted as the real surprise as Sony showed a wireless motion sensing device not unlike Nintendo’s Wii remote controller. The E3 press conference showed the controller being used for the upcoming PS3 exclusive flying action game Warhawk.

However, the motion sensing features of the PS3 controller were only shown on Warhawk during E3. When asked, many developers had not yet decided if they were going to use those features in their PS3 games, leading some to speculate that Sony cooked up the motion sensing features at the last minute (Sony has denied this, saying they have been developing this feature for some time). However of bigger concern to some gamers was the announcement of the lack of rumble support for the PS3 controller. Officially, Sony said that the rumble feature had to be removed to add the motion sensing features. However, many speculate that the real reason was Sony’s ongoing legal battle with force feedback technology company Immersion who claimed Sony violated their trademarks when they put rumble features in the PS2 controller. Sony has denied Immersion’s claims, despite a judge’s ruling that Sony pay Immersion for the rumble tech (the case is now under appeal.)


The tech behind the PS3 is both impressive and a concern. Can game developers use the Cell to its utmost? Will the choice of a Blu-Ray disk drive help or hurt the console? Will players decide to miss the rumble to enjoy the freedom of movement that the motion sensing tech gives the PS3 controller? Time will tell.