Thats right, an official launch date has been set for the Playstation 3 in Australia!
Friday 17th November 2006!

In an almost impossable feat Sony will be releasing the PS3 worldwide within a 1 week time frame! With the Japan launch just 6 days before ours. and both Europe and the U.S.A launch date the same as ours.
The PS3 will come in two models (much the same as the Xbox360), Basic and Premium.
The basic model comes with a 20gb HDD, wireless (Bluetooth) controlers and of course the new Blu-Ray ROM and will have a RRP of $829 (probably on special for $799 for launch). This may seem expensive. But remember the original Playstation was $799 back in 1996.
The Premium model with come with an upgraded 60gb HDD, as well as WiFi, HDMI (which u can only use if u have a compatable TV which cost $5000+) and a Flash card reader. Plus other things which havent really been released yet. Its RRP is $999.
Other good news is Sony have abandoned the new "boomarang" controler which not only looks ugly, but dousnt look very easy to hold. They have gone back to the original "dual shock" controler style. The difference being that the L and R shoulder buttons are now analog (meaning the harder you press, the more it will be effected. Like the PS2 X [] ^ O buttons, but not the original PS1 digital buttons). The controler will also have "motion sensing" meaning you can tilt the controller fowards, backwards and side to side to control elements in the game (great for flight sims, and driving games)
But due to this new addon the vibration feture will no longer be present.
The PS3 will also be backwards compatable with PS2 and PS1 games. the PS3 will actually contain some orginal PS2 chipsets so it will be hardware based(unlike the Xbox360 which uses software emulation, and dousnt work with many original Xbox games). So every "officially" released PS1/PS2 game will work on the PS3 from launch!
The new Blu-Ray ROM will be a huge improvment from the original CD-ROM and DVD format. the Blu-Ray discs hold 25GB of data on a single layer disc. Much more than a DVD(4GB for single layer, 8GB for duel layer) and CD-ROM(under 1GB). This means games will look so much better, and be unbelivably bigger ingame worlds (Grand Theft Auto - San Andres will look like a matchbox)!
Also, TDK have recently announced they have a working prototype six layer Blue-ray disc capable of holding 200GB. Thats bigger than most PC HDD's! unbelivable!
The PS3 will also use Sonys new "PlayStation Network Platform" which is the same thing as Xbox live. And online platform for playing games, chatting, browsing pictures etc with others online VIA the PS3s Gigabit Ethernet.
All and all this all sounds very exciting. I'm trying to save some money each week to purchace the PS3 on launch! its alot of money. but I think it will be worth it (I CBF waiting 6 months for the price to drop).
I'll add more info about the PS3 as it comes to hand. Starting with the games we can expect for it. Theres 230 games in develeopment with 15+ avalible for the PS3 launch!
So are you excited as I am? or are you a snotty Xbox cultists and want to see the downfall for the PS3? Or what about the new Nintendo console called the Nintendo wii (pronounced wee, yes.. WEE!?!?)
Enjoy!
Graham
Friday 17th November 2006!

In an almost impossable feat Sony will be releasing the PS3 worldwide within a 1 week time frame! With the Japan launch just 6 days before ours. and both Europe and the U.S.A launch date the same as ours.
The PS3 will come in two models (much the same as the Xbox360), Basic and Premium.
The basic model comes with a 20gb HDD, wireless (Bluetooth) controlers and of course the new Blu-Ray ROM and will have a RRP of $829 (probably on special for $799 for launch). This may seem expensive. But remember the original Playstation was $799 back in 1996.
The Premium model with come with an upgraded 60gb HDD, as well as WiFi, HDMI (which u can only use if u have a compatable TV which cost $5000+) and a Flash card reader. Plus other things which havent really been released yet. Its RRP is $999.
Other good news is Sony have abandoned the new "boomarang" controler which not only looks ugly, but dousnt look very easy to hold. They have gone back to the original "dual shock" controler style. The difference being that the L and R shoulder buttons are now analog (meaning the harder you press, the more it will be effected. Like the PS2 X [] ^ O buttons, but not the original PS1 digital buttons). The controler will also have "motion sensing" meaning you can tilt the controller fowards, backwards and side to side to control elements in the game (great for flight sims, and driving games)
But due to this new addon the vibration feture will no longer be present.
The PS3 will also be backwards compatable with PS2 and PS1 games. the PS3 will actually contain some orginal PS2 chipsets so it will be hardware based(unlike the Xbox360 which uses software emulation, and dousnt work with many original Xbox games). So every "officially" released PS1/PS2 game will work on the PS3 from launch!
The new Blu-Ray ROM will be a huge improvment from the original CD-ROM and DVD format. the Blu-Ray discs hold 25GB of data on a single layer disc. Much more than a DVD(4GB for single layer, 8GB for duel layer) and CD-ROM(under 1GB). This means games will look so much better, and be unbelivably bigger ingame worlds (Grand Theft Auto - San Andres will look like a matchbox)!
Also, TDK have recently announced they have a working prototype six layer Blue-ray disc capable of holding 200GB. Thats bigger than most PC HDD's! unbelivable!
The PS3 will also use Sonys new "PlayStation Network Platform" which is the same thing as Xbox live. And online platform for playing games, chatting, browsing pictures etc with others online VIA the PS3s Gigabit Ethernet.
All and all this all sounds very exciting. I'm trying to save some money each week to purchace the PS3 on launch! its alot of money. but I think it will be worth it (I CBF waiting 6 months for the price to drop).
I'll add more info about the PS3 as it comes to hand. Starting with the games we can expect for it. Theres 230 games in develeopment with 15+ avalible for the PS3 launch!
So are you excited as I am? or are you a snotty Xbox cultists and want to see the downfall for the PS3? Or what about the new Nintendo console called the Nintendo wii (pronounced wee, yes.. WEE!?!?)
Enjoy!
Graham
