"New" PS3 coming soon from Sony, extra slim edition?

[Arris]

http://uk.playstation.com/new-ps3/

With all the great games and features you love now wrapped up in a sleek new design, there's never been a better time to get your hands on PlayStation 3.

PlayStation 3 offers the ultimate in gaming and home entertainment at brilliant value for money, and it's now available in an eye-catching design that is bound to turn heads in your living room.

Available from 28 September 2012, the new PS3 system comes with a whopping 500GB of storage and will be closely followed by a wallet-friendly 12GB version. So whether you're after instant access to memorable, fun-packed evenings with the family, or want to load up your system with tons of fantastic entertainment, we've got the right PS3 for you.

The new console offers you the flexibility to tailor your PS3 experience to suit your needs: start off with the 12GB model and then ramp up the capacity by connecting a dedicated 250GB Hard Disk Drive. This is just one of the great peripherals that will be released at the same time alongside a range of other essential accessories such as a vertical stand that offers more flexibility in how the new PS3 can be displayed.

To tie in with the launch, PlayStation Store for PS3 is set to get a new look from October 2012 too, making it even easier for you to find and download the content you love from the comfort of your sofa.

Keep an eye on eu.playstation.com/ps3 and PlayStation.Blog at blog.eu.playstation.com for more details on the smaller and lighter PS3.

Really not sure they need to churn out another version of this. I still have my first generation working 100% a-ok! This is money they could have spent on the next generation instead of repackaging a product that must be reaching the latter part of its life.

 

[Benny26]

I also have an original first generation that's still working fine.

I disagree though about the PS3 nearing the end of it's life. Sure, the PS4 is round the corner, so to speak, but I've yet to see any game released for the PS3 that takes the obvious maximum potential out of it. There are a few games next year to come that could be up to this though.

I personally think that the PS3 is one of those things that isn't getting old as fast as other tech stuff normally does due to the passage of time. It's features just don't need a whole new console to be updated or made any better, in my opinion (talking about the PS4, not the new PS3 above).

This new version from Sony is a little odd considering they already have slims out on the market and such. A bit of a head scratcher I agree...I'll be interested to see the RRP for this.

It actually gives me the feeling that the PS4 wont have backward compatibility to the PS3 when seeing this new model actually. That would basically give you 2 consoles in one, and Sony would consider themselves losing out. Same with the PS3>PS2 thing; Sony can cry "the software didn't work properly" all they want...It's obvious what was going down there.

If the PS4 isn't BC, It'll be a fair while before I pick one up that's for sure.

 

[Arris]

Benny, I didn't really mean the PS3 was dead, but at the end of the expected life of the generation of unit, think it's generally about 4-5 years for a console in the past and both Microsoft and Sony have stretched the lives of the last generation quite considerably. I agree that the PS3 tech (albeit not enough games are done at 1080P, and a lot of them that are aren't the smoothest of experiences) is still relevant today, but we know Sony was selling the original at a loss to get them into peoples homes so to have redesigned it twice to continue to sell (I imagine at loss) it to get into peoples homes seems a bit of a strange decision.

 

[Benny26]

Ah ok. I didn't have my coffee earlier and went into rant mode by accident

But yeah, I think the "life cycle" is better at being longer. Top games of today take 3-4 years of development before release with the ever better console hardware and such. Even though developers get their hands on the tech a while before any new console is released, I still think the time-frame of a console's life at which some people speak is a little fast due to the games being much more time-consuming to develop now.

It's almost like I feel the PS3 has to be given more of a chance to flower before being consigned to the history books. But on-topic: I, like you, can't fathom what Sony are doing with this new version.

 

[Arris]

I think the future of Console gaming should be "upgradability". Given that they release upgraded controllers, upgraded firmware/software, upgraded entire consoles(bigger hard driver, smaller form factors etc, bolt on media devices e.g. HD dvd for Xbox) couldn't they just put PCI-E graphics card in a noob friendly cartridge style package and allow users to upgrade to the latest version. A bridge between PC gaming and console. Take the Xbox for example, we all know it's basically a low end PC with a semi decent graphics card anyway!

Only problem is the nice ecosystem where developers only have to work on getting a game to work on "1" graphics platform and CPU combination. Saying that many of them do PC ports which have video settings/quality settings anyway, so it shouldn't change much for developers.

Think of the money that they could make from:
2013 - Xbox 720 launch
2014 - Xbox 720 graphics upgrade card
2015 - Xbox 720 superduper graphics upgrade card
2016 - Xbox 720 CPU upgrade card
2017 - Xbox 980 launch

As opposed to just decreasing sales of the console from 2013 to 2017. Wouldn't suit everyone but if you could scale the graphics for different plug in graphics cards then it would perhaps pull in PC gamers on top of console gamers (although really there aren't any PC and console gamers... just gamers )

 

[Benny26]

I couldn't see that working too well to be honest. It would make the current problem worst as far as I'm concerned. The 720 still would have a 4 year life, but developers instead wouldn't be getting to grips with just the console, they would be getting to grips with the ever releasing upgrades every year which would no doubt be really overcomplicated in that short space of time. If the console upgrade system made it's life longer (like 2 years per upgrade) then fair enough.

But then it would also add a grade system for games: where as some 720 games work on the standard system and some would require upgrades (read: more money)...That would no doubt irk a fair few people. The big downside to PC gaming is the cost of keeping up with the hardware requirements, and you know these upgrades for a future console wouldn't be cheap (especially coming from a company like Microsoft).

 

[Arris]

I couldn't see that working too well to be honest. It would make the current problem worst as far as I'm concerned. The 720 still would have a 4 year life, but developers instead wouldn't be getting to grips with just the console, they would be getting to grips with the ever releasing upgrades every year which would no doubt be really overcomplicated in that short space of time. If the console upgrade system made it's life longer (like 2 years per upgrade) then fair enough.

Good point, extending it would be required really. Obviously had a brain malfunction writing it out...

But then it would also add a grade system for games: where as some 720 games work on the standard system and some would require upgrades (read: more money)...That would no doubt irk a fair few people. The big downside to PC gaming is the cost of keeping up with the hardware requirements, and you know these upgrades for a future console wouldn't be cheap (especially coming from a company like Microsoft).

My idea was that you could use the quality/graphics settings that are used for PC ports anyway, everything would work on every Xbox, just not as many bells and whistles. So those used to PC gaming to get something that is more modern tech, and those with standard Xbox would still be able to play the titles as well. Think I'm going too far with this. Let's just say 'No'.

 

[Benny26]

I didn't think of it like that, but yeah, I guess it remains to be seen what happens in the future regarding consoles. Good to chew over it though