Late Night Consoling

They took a short hiatus, but the nuggets of PS3 info are back. Here's today's dose:

- Representatives from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe have confirmed that PS3 will indeed ship with with a 60GB hard drive as standard. The drive will be fully upgradable, with various other models offering higher capacities. All games will require the use of a hard drive to run.

- The free online service offered by PS3 at launch will essentially be equivalent to the paid version of Xbox Live, or at least that's Sony goal. There will not be an additional paid service. Rather, additional payments will come in the form of additional downloadable content, similar to how Microsoft derives additional revenue from Xbox Live Marketplace. Sony is taking something of a semi-open approach to its online service, allowing publishers to impose their own subscription fees in the case of massively multiplayer games or other high-maintenance products, but not charging a flat rate for basic use of the service.

A few months ago, Microsoft PR man Peter Moore hinted that the company may be working on an Xbox-branded portable media player and gaming device. When Origami surfaced last month, many took it as a sign that Microsoft had decided to go a different direction with its portable hardware. However, it seems that a portable gaming and media may very likely still be in the works. San Jose Mercury News reporter Dean Takahashi uncovered details of the project while researching his Xbox 360-centric book, "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." Takahashi has also written a widely-circulated expose on the original Xbox, entitled "Opening the Xbox."

Takahashi reveals that the product is targeted at both the portable media player market currently dominated by Apple, as well as the portable gaming market currently dominated by Nintendo and Sony. Heading up development is former 360 frontman J Allard, which might partially explain his sudden disappearance from the public eye, working with Xbox 360 designer Greg Gibson and Xbox financial head Bryan Lee.

Microsoft massively reorganized its entertainment divisions late last year. According to Takahashi, a primary reason for the change was to bring Allard, Lee, and Gibson together to spearhead this current project. Allard is now head of the "user experience" for all Microsoft entertainment projects, while Lee is the business chief for the same domain of products.

While it is unknown when the device will be brought to market, it won't be all too soon, likely some time in 2007. Gibson's tech team was occupied until late last year finalizing the Xbox 360, suggesting that this portable player has not yet had heavy development done.

Major figures from Microsoft and Nintendo have responded to the PS3 announcements made last week by Sony. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke at length on the upcoming generation with Fortune, while Nintendo design head Shigeru Miyamoto touched on it briefly in a general-topic interview with the Guardian Gamesblog.

- Ballmer was "palpably optimistic" about the benefits that will be afforded to his company by Sony's delay, while remaining guardedly optimistic about the progress of the ongoing Xbox 360 launch. He continued to place a great deal of confidence in being first to market this generation, pointing out, "In every other generation, the first guy to 10 million consoles was the number one seller in the generation. Did we just get an even better opportunity to be the first guy to 10 million? Yeah, of course we did." He appeared unconcerned with Sony using Blu-ray as a major feature in PS3, stating that it is largely irrelevant as "there's not going to be a lot of content in either [Blu-ray or HD-DVD] this year." When speaking on Microsoft's 360 production capability so far, he was a bit more guarded. The company is producing units as fast as possible, and is currently "sort-of on track" to meet its self-imposed revised goal of 5 million systems by June.

- Miyamoto further emphasized the wildly divergent attitude Nintendo is taking in comparison to Sony in the next generation. "Any announcement about PS3 will affect Nintendo," he admitted. "But we don't see it as a competition between the two consoles, although the customers always do." He indicated that any possible effect Sony's announcements will have on Nintendo largely depend on the expectations of particular consumers. Nintendo is currently operating under a stated goal to launch its machine some time before Thanksgiving. Speaking of which...

Business Week posted a report last week based on a Japanese analyst statement, suggesting that Nintendo's new console may launch as early as June. "If that happens and Nintendo sells around one million units," said Media Create analyst Akiteru Itoh, "Sony could have a harder time catching up." Bottom line: there's not even remotely (ha!) a chance of that happening. Nintendo has stated that, as with Sony, final development kits will ship to developers in June, so it's near impossible that launch titles will be fully polished and ready.

IGN chimed in on the story, also adding that some inside development sources have revealed to the site that Nintendo is currently planning to launch during "Thanksgiving week of 2006."

Pandemic director of production Greg Borrud chatted with IGN about the Nintendo Revolution, regarding what Borrud currently sees as the system's strengths, weaknesses, and potential.