TMO at E3 - Sony Goes Public With the PlayStation 3, Will Ship it Next Spring

by , 11:45 AM EDT, May 17th, 2005

LOS ANGELES -- Sony late on Monday used its presence at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) to announce the details of its highly anticipated PlayStation 3 (PS3) videogame console, which the company will start shipping in spring 2006. Sony has prototypes of the console on display at its massive booth in the E3 trade show.

The PS3's core lies with the next-generation Cell processor, which was jointly developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba. Based on the PowerPC architecture, Cell features seven cores that run at 3.2GHz each. PS3 also includes a 256MB graphics chip, co-developed by Sony and Nvidia, that runs at 550MHz and can deliver 1080p resolution, which is full high-definition. The console uses Sony's Blu-Ray optical media, which holds up to 54GB of data and is currently fighting for dominance against Toshiba's HD-DVD as the next generation in DVD movies and computer storage. Apple is on the Blu-Ray committee.

Like its next-generation competitor, Microsoft's Xbox 360, PS3 offers Ethernet and Wi-Fi Internet connectivity as well as wireless Bluetooth-enabled controllers and a slot for a detachable hard drive. It also includes four front and two rear USB 2.0 ports and slots for Memory Stick, SD and CompactFlash storage cards.

Sony also said that PS3 will be backwards compatible with the more than 13,000 games previously released for the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2. The former, which launched in 1994, has sold over 102 million units while the latter, which hit shelves in 2000, has reached the 89 million sales mark. Sony noted that the PS3 is 35 times as powerful as the PlayStation 2.

Sony currently holds approximately 43% of the videogame market, with Microsoft's Xbox snaring 19 percent and Nintendo's GameCube sitting in third at 14 percent. While Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 first and will have it on store shelves by December, Sony said that the PS3 offers double the raw computing power of its next-generation competitor. Nintendo is expected to unveil details of its own next-generation console, code-named Revolution, on Tuesday. None of the three companies have announced pricing details.

Microsoft also added details to its plans for the Xbox 360 at a news conference also held on Monday. The company expects to have 25 to 40 games available by the end of the year, including "Final Fantasy XI," the latest installment in a popular role-playing game that was previously available only on the PlayStation, and a line-up of titles from Electronic Arts, including the best-selling Madden NFL series. In addition, Microsoft said that the Xbox 360 will be backwards compatible with games released for the original console.

Sony's sleek PlayStation 3