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This upcoming Friday, March 23rd is the launch of the Sony PlayStation 3 for the “rest of the world”. Will the intervening rollercoaster of bad and good press impact this launch?In a recent interview with myself on the technology radio show Byte Into It (3RRRFM) Michael Ephraim was on top of his game as head of Sony Entertainment Australia/New Zealand.

During the interview, Ephraim was able to break down the cost of the PS3 which has been a much talked about issue with this launch. At AU$999.95 the PS3 is by far the most expensive entertainment unit in the market today.

Although, if you break it down to its bare components and compare to Sony’s nearest rival, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, a fully spec’ed up 360 with wireless connection, HD-DVD player and 20GB Hard drive is only about $15 cheaper than the PS3 with a 60GB Hard drive.

Wishing to emphasise this issue Ephriaim says ; “Go into a store and have the unit demonstrated properly,” the implication being that once the consumer sees the power of the console and componentry involved, $1000 won’t seem so much.. Detractors will point out that with the Xbox 360 modular design, these options are just that, options. If I don’t want to play HD movies in my games console I can choose not to purchase the HD-DVD add on drive or the wireless adapter if it is not required.

Sony are also banking on the success of Blu-Ray as a format, not only as the next generation of high definition disc based entertainment, but also as a selling point for game sophistication. According to Ephraim Resistance: Fall of Man is using 17GB on a Blu-Ray disc, and developers are looking for more space as time goes on.

“We are very, very confident blu-ray will win” Ephraim says. The other big negative issue to recently hit the European/Australian, was the removal of the hardware Emotion chip from the PS3, this chip provided the means to gain 98% backwards compatibility to PS2 game titles.

Ephraim goes on to mention that since the original launch of PS3, Sony has been able recreate the backwards compatibility using software emulation. A saving of $27 (the cost of the Emotion chip) per PS3 when you are planning on producing 10 to 15 million units was too good to pass up

Up to about 1000 titles out of the catalogue of 2200 PS2 games have been software emulated, Ephraim estimates that on the date of launch the total games backwardly compatible will be about 1200; “For PR purposes, it was not the best thing for us, but in the real light of day, when we launch, I don’t think it will affect consumers that much, especially if we have 70 to 75 percent of titles compatible”

Ephraim went on to explain more about PlayStation Home, which will be available for download soon after the launch. The lush 3D environment will provide a Sony version of Second Life, enabling online discussion, game match making, Avatar and apartment customisation and general showing off of awards and style.

Playstation Home users will be able to create content for others to view within their own apartments. As Ephraim says, this is a quantum leap forward for this attempt at a virtual world environment on a games console.

Ehpraim was less forthcoming about the amount of stock available for the launch on Friday – One could be cynical and say that the best thing that can happen during a launch of a games console, is the hype build up of an “out-of-stock” situation. Look at the Wii, selling as many as Nintendo can create. Sounds great, and gives the manufacturer the ability to adjust stock flows to keep the popularity hype high. "There might be pockets of out-of-stock… I am confident we will have a fairly smooth launch” Ephraim concludes.
If you are keen to join the lines for launch night, here is a list of Australian stockests that will open on midnight Friday 23rd March, good luck.

Dick Smith PowerHouse: all stores except Springwood - 19 stores
Domayne: all stores except WA - 149 stores
EB Games: all stores except WA - 150 stores
Games Wizards: all stores except WA - 21 stores
Harvey Norman: all stores except WA - 149 stores
JB Hi Fi: Westfield stores across Australia - 10 stores
Myer: Sydney city and Melbourne city stores - 2 stores
TRU: assorted stores - 23 Stores

Source:iTWire - Countdown to PS3 – Aussie Sony entertainment chief is upbeat