Playstation 3 news!

Ken Kutaragi, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment, the company's game division, made the announcement at the firm's annual PlayStation business briefing to software licencees.

Sony plans to produce 1 million PS3s a month. 6 million will be ready by March 2007.
Other info from the conference report:

• Worldwide November 2006 launch
• Two-tiered online service model
• Requiring of HDD
• Linux on the HDD
• Basic model of online service is free
• Final dev kits will be sent in June 2006
• Full backwards compatibility with PS2 and PS1 in HD
• All PS3 games are on BR discs

It's official, and exactly what many expected - The Playstation 3 will launch in Novemeber of 2006 in North America.

Worth noting is Sony's online structure, obviously patterned after microsoft's excellent Xbox Live service. Also rumored is an iTunes like music store were you can purchase music and movies, downloaded directly to the HDD in your PS3, and support for Sony's LocationFree wireless streaming setup (similar to the xbox360 Media Center Extender functionality) which allows you to stream video and music from your PC, as well as access your streaming media from anywhere via the internet. Imagine being on the road and streaming a movie from your PS3 at home to your PSP! Or streaming some music from your extensive MP3 collection whist on the move! It may become a reality with the PS3!

If all of this is indeed true, then the PS3 will be one HELL of a machine!

Now we can only hope Sony doesn't price the system out of the game. A 449.99 US/599.99 CAN price tag wouldn't be wholly unreasonable.

From EvilAvatar.com