To draw a crowd and create buzz, Microsoft has been releasing almost every little detail about their upcoming Xbox 360, and Sony is not too far behind in letting everyone know what is up their sleeve.
Although the release date of the PlayStation 3 remains a closely guarded secret, Sony has been less tight lipped about details on their PS3 to gain developer support at the Game Developer Conference Europe event in London.
George Bain, the Developer Support Manager at SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) Technology Group discussed the new controllers in more detail. He reiterated that the new boomerang designs were concepts only and were not necessarily representative of the final retail models. Don’t get me wrong, I think the controller looks pretty slick, but I honestly do not see the need to change the controller from the PS2 design, as it fits well and works well, especially for the number of buttons it has.
He also explained the reason behind the odd numbered limit of seven controllers were a product of the way in which Bluetooth 2.0 operates, where the console itself is considered to be the eighth device in the network.
As for the PlayStation 3’s removable hard drive, it was confirmed that Sony did consider it an important peripheral, but there has been no decision on its price, its size or most importantly whether it would be bundled with the console or available only as a stand alone extra. I really hope they learned that the hard drive is almost a key feature. If they can include a hard drive of any size with their console and still meet the $299.99 USD price mark, they will be another step above the Xbox 360 in features.