PS3 News - PlayStation 3 News

Sony has mentioned on its Japanese PlayStation website some of the titles that it is working on for the PlayStation 3.

The list includes the next game in the Gran Turismo series, Genji 2, Angel Rings (a RPG), Monster Carnival (an action RPG), Everybody’s Golf 5, and The Eye of Judgment.

No official release dates have been given yet, but this gives you an idea of what to expect from Sony in the next generation.

Andrew was the executive vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment America, or SCEA, (AKA) the division that oversees software development, sales and marketing of the company's popular PlayStation consoles and its portable gaming machine.

His promotion comes as Sony prepares its next-generation PlayStation 3 game player for launch amid aggressive pushes from smaller rivals Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co Ltd.

Jack Tretton and Riley Russell were each promoted within SCEA and are splitting House's responsibilities.

Tretton was named co-chief operating officer and executive vice president of sales and marketing for the North American division. In his new role, Russell will be responsible for SCEA's relationships with video game makers and game developer support.

Famitsu Magizine, reveals a list of PS3 games expected to be announced at the Tokyo Game Show.

The biggest announcements will probably be that of Way of the Samurai 3 and Project Psychic on the PlayStation 3 Check out the full list of games Famitsu revealed below.

PlayStation 3:
Way of the Samurai 3 (tentative title), Spike, 2007
Hitsuji Mura (tentative title), Success, TBA
Project Psychic (tentative title), Taito, TBA
Super Robot Series (tentative title), Banpresto, TBA
Derby Stallion (tentative title), Enterbrain, TBA
RPG (tentative title), Success, TBA

Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear Solid, reveals MGS4 is going to be a PS3 exclusive.

Devloper and creator of the Metal Gear Solid series of games Hideo Kojima has said in an interview that MGS4 is only planned for release on the PS3. He went on to say the game could be ported to other consoles, but would require additional staff, resources and would drive up development costs.
His preference is to create original titles for the Xbox 360 or Nintendo Revolution.

At a press conference held in Los Angeles, California, today, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) revealed the outline of its PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3) computer entertainment system, incorporating the world's most advanced Cell processor with super computer like power. Prototypes of PS3 will also be showcased at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the world's largest interactive entertainment exhibition held in Los Angeles, from May 18th to 20th.

Preparations are under way for launch of PS3 and new generation software in the spring of 2006.

Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of graphics juggernaut nVidia, reveals plans for a finalized PS3 GPU by the end of 2005.

Work on the PlayStation3’s Graphical Processing Unit is well on its way and should conclude with the finalized version of the nVidia built chip near the end of 2005 – this according to nVidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.

In last weeks press release, nVidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang reinforced the announcement that “It's based on the next generation GPU technology… I have every expectation that we will be able to see final production silicon later on in the year."

This news comes on the heels of an announcement made by Sony and IBM in November that the CELL processor that will power the PS3 has now been built as a prototype. Since analysts believe the PS3 won't hit the streets until 2006, the nVidia news seems to support this timetable.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and NVIDIA announce joint GPU development for SCEI's next-generation computer entertainment system, the PS3.

The worldwide leader in electronics and gaming is jointly developing a custom graphics processing unit (GPU) incorporating NVIDIA’s next-generation GeForce and SCEI’s system solutions for next-generation computer entertainment systems featuring the Cell* processor.

This collaboration is made under a broad, multi-year, royalty-bearing agreement. The powerful custom GPU will be the graphics and image processing foundation for a broad range of applications from computer entertainment to broadband applications. The agreement will encompass future Sony digital consumer electronics products.

“In the future, the experience of computer entertainment systems and broadband-ready PCs will be fused together to generate and transfer multi-streams of rich content simultaneously. In this sense, we have found the best way to integrate the state-of-the-art technologies from NVIDIA and SCEI,” said Ken Kutaragi, executive deputy president and COO, Sony Corporation, and president and Group CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “Our collaboration includes not only the chip development but also a variety of graphics development tools and middleware, essential for efficient content creation.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Sony Computer Entertainment to build what will certainly be one of the most important computer entertainment and digital media platforms of the twenty-first century,” added Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO, NVIDIA. “Over the past two years NVIDIA has worked closely with Sony Computer Entertainment on their next-generation computer entertainment system. In parallel, we have been designing our next-generation GeForce GPU. The combination of the revolutionary Cell processor and NVIDIA’s graphics technologies will enable the creation of breathtaking imagery that will surprise and captivate consumers.”

The custom GPU will be manufactured at Sony Group’s Nagasaki Fab2 as well as OTSS (joint fabrication facility of Toshiba and Sony).

http://www.nvidia.com/page/press_releases.html (Click Here to get the low-down on the latest nVidia headlines)

The three companies behind the 'Cell' microprocessor (IBM, Sony, & Toshiba) - will formally detail the chip's workings at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) on February 6th, 2005.

IBM and Sony also said they were now ready to announce the promised Cell-based workstation, which should enable software developers to begin coding for the PlayStation 3, itself set to be based on the new chip.

The companies plan to reveal more about the processor at a conference in February. However, they confirmed that Cell is a multicore chip comprising a 64-bit Power processor core and multiple synergistic processor cores capable of massive floating point processing.

The chip's makers note that Cell is not only a multi-core architecture - like the anticipated 'Antares' PowerPC 970MP - but multi-threaded too, though it's not yet clear whether support for multiple threads takes places within each core level, HyperThreading-style, or Sony and co. are simply talking about spreading threads across cores. IBM's POWER 5 architecture supports simultaneous multi-threading, so it seems likely Cell will too.

IBM and Sony also talk about big memory and I/O bandwidth - no great surprise there, given it's a 64-bit processor and what IBM has demonstrated with existing POWER and PowerPC processors. More interesting is the integration of a security sub-system. The companies don't go into any detail, but it sounds not unlike VIA's PadLock technology with its hardware random number generator. Mention is made of "high-level media processing", which could be a reference to AltiVec, the PowerPC SIMD engine.

There's also the suggestion that Cell will use a SpeedStep-style power conservation technology, allowing the chip to reduced its clock frequency. IBM's 90nm PowerPC 970 already has something along these lines.

Contrary to past speculation that Cell would ship at 65nm, its makers today said it will debut as a 90nm part using IBM's SOI technology.

As for the Cell-based workstation, it's clearly only at the prototype stage, IBM and Sony having come up with an "experimental model".

Still, it packs 2 teraflops into a standard (presumably) rackmount box, apparently, with what sounds like multiple, multi-core chips operating as a kind of cluster-in-a-box

SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT INC ADOPTS BLU-RAY DISC ROM FOR NEXT GENERATION PLAYSTATION

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI), announced today that it had begun preparations to adopt Blu-ray Disc ROM (BD-ROM) format as a medium for the next generation PlayStation®, the successor system to PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system.

Blu-ray Disc (BD) is a next generation high-density optical disc format that enables recording and playback of digital high-definition (HD) video signals and programs. BD-ROM format has a huge memory size of 54 GB (dual layer, single side), which is 6 times larger than that of DVD-ROM, and has the potential of becoming an ideal medium to distribute next generation entertainment content from movies and music to computer applications. Standardization of this format is currently underway lead by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA).

MPEG2-TS, the signal compression technology used in Hi-Vision TV broadcasting, is also used in BD, making it possible to reproduce extremely high resolution HD video images. With the introduction of the latest high-compression code/decode technology (MPEG4-AVC, VC-1), playback of high-quality video images from HD video signals becomes possible even under a low bit-rate environment. On the computer applications front, including video games, the importance of a medium with the capability of storing huge amount of data and programs is becoming greater than ever.