Sony To Go Online With PlayStation 3

In the keynote speech of the Game Developers Conference, Sony Coumpter Entertainment President Phil Harrison announced to the world that Sony will join the online gaming world with the launch of the PlayStation 3 in November 2006. Harrison told GDC crowds that the PS3 will finally offer competition to Microsoft's Xbox Live through their own online service, tentatively titled "PlayStation Network Platform".

As the BBC reports, "The service will allow users to download games and other content direct to the console's hard drive." This will allow Sony to update their games after the hardware launch, in an effort to keep statistics on sports games, up to date. The major feature will be online play, which is available through the internet on the PlayStation 2. There will also be a free tier on the network will which allow users to correspond via email, as well as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

The Seattle Times quoted Sony Computer Entertainment President Phil Harrison as saying, "In the future, we're going to go through a radical change," he told the Game Developers Conference audience. "We will be creating and servicing a network of game communities." This will be a necessity for Sony's PS3, which is years behind Microsoft's Xbox Live, which was unveiled in November 2002.

Speaking on the depth of Sony's "PlayStation Network Platform", Phil Harrison was quoted by Forbes as saying, "This opens up many new business models for us, including subscriptions, pay-to-download and micro-payments. Our revenue streams will become complex." Speaking to sales, Harrison said, "Today we make content for discs in boxes to sell in stores, but we're going to go through a radical change." That radical change includes possibilities of in-game advertising, merchandising, and game-object auctions. As MTV quoted Phil Harrison, "I believe this represents the most fundamental shift in the planning, creation, production and management [conducted by] game developers that our industry has ever seen"

All of this is Sony Corp.'s plan to take away from the success that Xbox Live is currently enjoying. Microsoft is dominating the online marketplace, as well as the sales of next-generation platforms. With Xbox 360's launch late last year, both Nintendo and Sony have been caught relatively flat-footed, and Microsoft enjoyed the luxury of no competition throughout 2005's holiday season. As the BBC reports, Xbox Live has been enjoying huge successes. "On Tuesday, Microsoft said that downloads for its Xbox 360 console, which went on sale late last year, had already sped past the 10 million mark." That has translated into unparalleled success, since "More than 85% of Xbox 360 consoles that are connected to the net have downloaded games, trailers and videos from the subscription service."

Sony Corp. also had a few other surprises to dish out at the GDC. Sony Corp. announced that they would offer the PSP (PlayStation Portable) for $200 dollars, but in a more bare-bones version. Instead of the bundle involving the carrying case, headphones and other accessories, which retails for around $250 US, the new bundle will simply have the PSP and the battery charger, and will allow the owner to decide on his own which accessories will be necessary. In a way, it's a lot like offering a price cut on the PSP, without actually lowering the price in any way.

The announcement means Sony Corp. is fighting even harder for the handheld market, a market which has traditionally been dominated by Nintendo. Adding to the competition is the fact that Sony Corp. is looking to expand their UMD titles through these new sales. It is hoped that an increase in PSP sales will lead to movie makers like Lions Gate Films and Time Warner pumping out more titles on UMD. The desired overall effect is to draw potential buyer of Microsoft's Xbox 360 away from next-gen consoles and over to the handheld market.

Plaguing Sony Corp. has been their use of the new Blu-Ray technology. Sony Corp. announced the delay of the launch of the PlayStation 3 due to copy-protection problems with the new software. However, a ray of light came in the announcement that the platform would be launched in Japan, Europe and North America simultaneously in November 2006. This will give (hopefully) Sony enough time to combat the copy-protection issue, as well as provide time to get rising costs under control. Normally, the platforms themselves are sold at below cost, so that owners can more easily afford it. The losses are then recuperated through the purchase of accessories, online subscriptions and, more importantly, purchase of the video games themselves.

Despite all the delays, the GDC was able to showcase some demo games being developed for the PS3. Included were titles such as Incognito's Warhawk, an aerial combat game, Insomniac's Resistance: Fall of Man, a first-person shooter that was played by Insomniac's president, Ted Price, and Evolution Studios' Motor Storm, an off-road racing game.

Motor Storm seemed to be the most popular of the demos, being fully interactive and highly sophisticated with its graphics. MTV reports that Motor Storm "provided the most visible and playable use of the PS3's tricks of any demo shown on Wednesday. A developer steered a yellow dune buggy through muddy terrain, its tracks digging ruts in the ground that immediately - and lastingly - deformed the track." MTV also quoted Phil Harrison as saying, after his keynote speech, "Those ruts left in the ground become gameplay obstacles to other vehicles. That is an addition to gameplay that was not possible on PlayStation 2"

Hype for all of these new aspects and demos is expected to hit a near-fever pitch at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) conference, going on from May 9th-11th for the conference, and May 12th-14th for the expo. E3 will be at the Los Angeles Convention Center this year.

[Additional Sources: BBC, The Seattle Times, Forbes, TV]