Sony’s Playstation 3 launches in Australia at midnight tonight (Thursday).Tonight is the night for video game aficionados eagerly awaiting the arrival of Sony’s latest video game console.
But beneath the glossy black surface of the Playstation 3 lies much more than a mere gaming machine.
The Playstation 3 is the latest console in a new generation of video gaming that began last year with the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii.
Sony’s new console will launch at an unprecedented retail price for a gaming console – $999 – but will feature a unique new format for watching movies called Bluray.
Bluray will allow owners of a Playstation 3 to watch films in high definition so they can see every bit of detail, as opposed to the lower-resolution picture on standard DVDs.
Stand-alone Bluray players are selling in Australia for up to $1500, making the Playstation 3 an attractive purchase for lovers of high-definition movies.
The Playstation 3 is also an integrated media hub, fitted with memory card readers, photo slideshow programs, and a 60 gigabyte hard drive – much larger than what its competitors are offering.
Users can also take the machine online, which is nothing new for PC users or owners of Microsoft’s Xbox or Xbox 360.
However, Sony promises to have its own online ‘store’ with free downloads of game demos and digital purchases of unique arcade-style or classic games.
Owners of Sony’s handheld games machine, the PSP, can also download classic PSOne games to their Playstation 3 to later be transferred and played from PSP’s own memory.
The controller, the Sixaxis, looks like a standard Playstation 2 controller, but is wireless and has lost its rumble feature in favour of a motion-control feature that can be used in certain games.
Like Nintendo’s Wii, gamers can move the controller in different angles to control gameplay, including making basketball-throwing motions or using it as a steering wheel for driving games.
The Playstation 3 will launch at 12am tomorrow (Friday) and midnight launches are expected to tonight attract gamers to specialty game stores including at Fountain Gate and Dandenong.
