{"id":551840,"date":"2007-03-23T06:46:54","date_gmt":"2007-03-23T06:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/551840-gaming-wars-begin.html"},"modified":"2007-03-23T06:46:54","modified_gmt":"2007-03-23T06:46:54","slug":"gaming-wars-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/551840-gaming-wars-begin.html","title":{"rendered":"Gaming wars begin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sony and Microsoft are at war. The companies are locked in a battle for control of the living room of the future. Microsoft got a six month headstart with its launch last year of the Xbox 360 in SA. The PS3 has been delayed because of the dogged insistence by Sony that the machine ships with a built-in, next-generation Blu-ray disc player. A shortage of the diodes used in the manufacture of the Blu-ray players has meant a global shortage of Sony\u2019s next-generation console. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

Finally, though, the PS3 is here, and ready to do battle with the Xbox 360. Is the machine good enough to make up for the delays and ensure that Sony keeps Microsoft and smaller rival <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

The machine, which weighs 5kg, has a powerful graphics engine and custom-designed \u201cCell\u201d microprocessor but its strongest selling point is undoubtedly its integrated Blu-ray player. Sony is locked in a pitched battle with HD-DVD \u2014 backed by Microsoft and Toshiba \u2014 to determine which movie and optical data storage format will replace the DVD. Sony\u2019s determination to include a Blu-ray player has cost it valuable time but it may ultimately prove to be the ammunition the company needs to fend off Microsoft: the Xbox 360 does not ship with an HD-DVD player \u2014 consumers who want to play HD video have to purchase one separately. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

The PS3 has several other advantages over the Xbox 360. The premium version, the only version available in SA, comes standard with Wi-Fi, which means connecting the machine to the Internet requires no wires (provided consumers already have a wireless broadband router at home). There\u2019s also a gigabit Ethernet port for wired connections. The PS3 has a 60GB hard drive (versus 20GB on the premium version of the Xbox 360) and it can easily be swapped out for an even bigger drive. It\u2019s also possible to install Linux on the PS3, turning it into a powerful personal computer. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

On the downside, the PS3 is the most expensive console on the market \u2014 by a country mile. It costs nearly twice as much as Microsoft\u2019s 20GB Xbox 360. But if one considers that it comes with a Blu-ray player and a high-speed 60GB drive the price is very reasonable. Separate Blu-ray players cost more than the PS3. The price of standalone Blu-ray players will fall dramatically in the next few years but for now the cheapest way to get one is simply to buy a PS3. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

Another negative for the PS3 is that games designed specifically for the machine are still in short supply, though it will play most old PlayStation games in compatibility mode. It will be a year, at least, before games developers start producing titles that take full advantage of the PS3\u2019s advanced hardware. Blu-ray movies are also still as rare as hen\u2019s teeth, though a few titles have recently gone on sale at specialist music and movie retailers. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

The PS3 will work with any TV that supports standard, analogue audiovisual inputs, though consumers won\u2019t get the full benefit of HD images on older TVs. Those with HD TVs, especially expensive 1080p LCD panels with digital HDMI connectors, should be blown away by the quality of the images served up by the PS3.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

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Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony finally released the long-delayed PlayStation3 (PS3) gaming console in SA this week. It\u2019s an impressive machine, and plays next-generation Blu-ray discs, but consumers may baulk at the price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}