PlayStation 3 Pricing and Launch Date Set (NewsFactor)

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, move over. There's a new celebrity offspring in the spotlight, and its name is PlayStation 3. Featuring stunning graphics and a new, motion-sensitive "six-axis sensing" controller, the next-generation PlayStation 3 was officially introduced in Los Angeles by proud parent Sony, two days before the opening of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

PlayStation 3's worldwide release date is scheduled for November, which will be about a year after its biggest competitor, Microsoft's 360, was launched. The basic PlayStation 3 unit will retail for $499 and will feature high-definition Blu-Ray DVD, plus the famed Cell processor.

The Cell chip can reach a processing-performance level of 16 teraflops, or 16 trillion calculations per second. In contrast, a general-purpose PC typically has a rating of only a few billion operations per second.

The Cell is not a general-purpose CPU because it is optimized for certain applications, like graphics processing. But if the teraflop rating were the only measure of system performance, the Cell chip would place the PlayStation 3 in the top 100 fastest supercomputers on the planet.

IBM's BlueGene/L, for example, currently ranks at the top of the supercomputer chart on Top500.org with a peak performance of 183 teraflops.

PlayStation 3 Advantage?

When the PlayStation 3 launches, Sony will debut a new online game network that will allow video conferencing, micropayments for items in an online store, trading of game weapons, and much more. Many observers say that online gaming will be the key to future growth of the console world.

Xbox Live is currently the leading video-game network for consoles. Sony said that, unlike some levels of Microsoft's gaming network, its own online game environment will be free.

For some observers, such as Gartner analyst Jon Erensen, the PlayStation 3 prices were a bit of a surprise. "But this will be a great deal for a Blu-Ray player," he said. The first standalone Blu-Ray movie player, to be released next month by Samsung, is expected to cost about $1,000 by itself.

The high-end Xbox 360 goes for about $400, with only the higher-end version featuring a hard drive, while Sony said that its suggested prices for the PlayStation 3 will be $499 for a unit with a 20 GB hard drive and $599 for one with 60 GB.

Console Wars

The other surprise, Erensen said, was the PlayStation 3's position-sensing controller. "The technologies inside the controller appear to be similar to Nintendo's," he noted.

The Nintendo Wii (pronounced "we"), expected to be released in the fourth quarter, also will offer a wireless controller that can sense the player's movements, but it does not have a built-in, high-definition DVD player or an internal hard drive. Nintendo has said it intends to focus on new gamers by emphasizing gameplay rather than technological flair.

Sony currently has about 66 percent of the game console market worldwide, while Microsoft has about 18 percent and Nintendo about 16.5 percent, according to Wedbush Morgan Securities.

Experts say that the key to dominance in the console wars will be the games themselves. Microsoft said it expects to have about 50 games for the Xbox 360 on the shelves by the summer. The next version of Microsoft's blockbuster game, Halo, is expected to be demonstrated at E3.

Sony said on Monday that there will be at least 10 new games available for the PlayStation 3 at launch. These games will reportedly include "Metal Gear Solid 4" and "Final Fantasy 13." Games for the PlayStation and will play on the PlayStation 3.

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