Sony News Wrap September 22nd, 2006: Sony Responds to Criticism

Ken Kutaragi delivered the Tokyo Game Show opening keynote last night and announced a number of new Playstation 3 details seemingly meant to counteract a number of the details surrounding the system’s release that came out earlier this year at E3. Sony revealed at both the keynote and in a press release today that the 20gig “Core” edition of the PS3 would now come standard with HDMI support. Following E3 in May, a number of criticisms were leveled against Sony in both the fan and business communities since only the 60gig model would have built in HDMI support. Sony also revealed that the price of the 20gig model would be cut significantly for its launch in Japan but not other territories. The price has dropped from 62,790 yen to 49,980 yen. It is assumed that this is also in response to the backlash against the PS3’s astronomical price tag. Yoku Ihara, head of equity research at Retela Crea Securities, said that “It’s ridiculous to decide to cut the price before they start selling the PlayStation 3,” in a conversation with financial magazine Bloomberg.

Sony also revealed the Playstation 3 dashboard during their keynote. The system’s interface seems to be aesthetically and functionally identical to that of Sony’s portable system, the PSP. It was mentioned that Sony would be following the trend set by Microsoft and Nintendo and allow the downloading of emulated games from older platforms on the PS3. Sega and Hudson, whose games will also be available for download on the Nintendo Wii, will be available for download on the PS3. There was also mention of the possibility of downloading PS1 and PS2 titles on the system but no details were confirmed.