The E3 Adventure - Day One (repost from May 8)

Well, not too much to report today. Got into L.A. and got checked in to the Westwood on Wilshire. Unfortunately, I couldn't get into the Sony event, though I did catch a live feed of the event. Lots of stuff to report from there:

• The Sony PS3 will come out around November 17th in two forms ... one with a 20 gig hard drive and one with a 60 gig hard drive. The 20 gig version will retail for $499, while the 60 gig will run gamers a whopping $599.
  
  
• It looks like the PS3 controller HAS been redesigned after all. Gone is the much criticized "boomerang" controller shown off at last year's show. Now, the controller looks like a clone of the current Dual Shock controller, though this time around the controller will supposedly sport an internal motion sensor. Can you say "Wii"?
  
  
• The PSP will be getting a new series of firmware updates to add support for video RSS feeds, GPS capabilities (in conjunction with the upcoming GPS receiver), and most interestingly, Voice Over IP (VoIP) support. So, gamers may be start using their PSPs as phones soon. Plus, with the earlier announcement of an Eye Toy styled camera attatchment, video conferencing can't be far behind.
  
  
• The PSP will be getting its own line of Greatest Hits titles. The new line will start w/ five games: Ape Escape: On The Loose, ATV Offroad Fury, Twisted Metal Head On, Wipeout Pure, and Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee. From then on, titles will be added as long as they have had 250,000 or more copies sold and been on the shelf for at least nine months,
  
  
• Sony announced a continued commitment to the PS2, and announced that there are still 216 games planned for release on the PS2 by year's end.

I'll post more later, though my net connection in the hotel is a bit "wonky".

Later,
David

--EDIT--

Okay, okay ... I'm up early on Tuesday and felt the need to add something to the blog entry to clarify something. This is mainly due to Juan's comment about the $500 PS3 being the "tard pack".

Based on Sony's press conference, the ONLY difference between the $500 and $600 systems is the size of the hard drive. You're paying $100 for 3x the drive space. That's it. As far as the rest of the system goes, the released specs (to date) are:

• CPU Cell Processor
  
  
• GPU RSX
  
  
• Sound Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell-based processing)
  
  
• Memory 256MB XDR Main RAM, 256MB GDDR3 VRAM
  
  
• HDD 2.5" Serial ATA (20GB or 60GB)
  
  
• I/O USB 2.0 (x4)
  
  
• MemoryStick /SD/CompactFlash support
  
  
• Communication Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T)
  
  
• IEEE 802.11 b/g wireless support
  
  
• Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)
  
  
• Wireless controller (Bluetooth)
  
  
• AV Output:
  
  
  
  • Screen size 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
    
    
  • HDMI OUT (HDMI NextGen)
    
    
  • AV MULTI OUT (x1)
    
    
  • DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL)
  
  
• BD/DVD/CD Drive:
  
  
  
  • (Read Only) Maximum Read Speed BD 2x (BD-ROM)
    
    
  • DVD 8x (DVD-ROM)
    
    
  • CD 24x (CD-ROM)
    
    
  • SACD 2x
  
  
• Dimensions Approximately 325mm (W) x 98mm (H) x 274mm (D)
  
  
• Weight Approximately 5 kg

Hope that helps with a little clarification.

-David