Starting this week, the PlayStation 3 will be touring around various places in the UK – visiting major venues such as the O2 Arena in London, as well as shopping centres, train stations and universities. Here’s what SCE UK Trade Marketing Manager Rosemary Buahin had to say.
“The main aim of the PS3 UK Tour is to showcase those capabilities which stretch beyond the realms of gaming to include HD pictures, music, photography, PlayStation Network and PSP compatibility”
“PlayStation 3 is a super-computer that fits naturally in the living room environment. With this in mind, we have created demonstration units which will allow consumers to freely experience the PS3 throughout the tour.”
[MCV]
The freeview box sounds great - if sony keep this free to use over remote play, it’ll help the ps3 - I hope they do for all our sakes
Comment by MrJimmy — Oct 2, 2007 @ 10:40 am
the freeview thing is good but i cant help thinking that ps3 owners are people with at least an amount of disposable income.
people with a bit of disposable income tend to have either sky or a tv cable service dont they?
do deals with them Sony and you’ll be the set-top box king
Comment by d33p — Oct 2, 2007 @ 10:59 am
the freeview thingy is going to be a great addon/in for the ps3. along with its backward compatability HD visuals(im a photographer and my pics look better on the ps3 than my pc screen!), im looking 4wd to the ps3ye and the future rumble controller,the voice video chat is fantastic even with the eyetoy cam, only thing i would like is a firmware update to enable you to play ps1/ps2 games from other regions(unlikely i know). i love my ps3 and i hope to enjoy its future possibilities for its scheduled 10year lifespan.
BRING IT SONY!
Comment by linton — Oct 2, 2007 @ 11:05 am
Well they be showing the EU PSN store
Comment by AliC — Oct 2, 2007 @ 11:06 am
“The main aim of the PS3 UK Tour is to showcase those capabilities which stretch beyond the realms of gaming”
… because we have a limited games catalogue at the moment! I don’t have or want a PSP, I’m sick of watching slideshows of my latest photos and can listen to my music through my hi-fi. I just want to buy and play some games….
Comment by slinky — Oct 2, 2007 @ 11:08 am
Are you guys going to be traveling North? Approaching customers outside the M25 would be a big bonus.
MS loves America and occasionally trips to the UK. If sony can manage to include the North of the UK in promos and such they’d make the friends that MS are quickly loosing. Everyone loves a competition but when theyre only for people in the US or London its an embarassement.
Comment by Daveatfernie — Oct 2, 2007 @ 11:12 am
Have just been reading the article on MCV and moreso the comments at the bottom. i’m glad theres none of that fanboy crap on here thats all I can say.
SCEE has been focussing way too much on London thats for sure, how comes only the O2 arena is mentioned as a confirmed location. We don’t all live down there, and for good reason!
Comment by Terry — Oct 2, 2007 @ 11:57 am
I’m constantly surprised about the lack of public knowledge about PS3’s capabilities as a Blu-ray player. Hopefully this issue will be aggressively addressed during the “PS3 tour of ‘07″ I’m probably one of the few people that bought the unit primarily to play BD movies rather than play games.
Comment by Lee Richards — Oct 2, 2007 @ 12:02 pm
I forgot to mention the DNLA functionality of the PS3, another big selling point in my opinion. I use TVersity almost every day to watch TV shows via my PS3 that errrm, my friend records in the US and shares with me
Also, as others have mentioned, I’m able to stream music from the PC in my bedroom and view photo slideshows which do look amazing on a large HD display.
Comment by Lee Richards — Oct 2, 2007 @ 12:10 pm
The free view box is a silly idea, because you cant record when you are playing your games therefore if you have to stop your game to record the program. You might as well watch the good dam thing!
Comment by carl(not cut and paste carl) crawford — Oct 2, 2007 @ 12:35 pm
I’m looking forward to the DVB functions, I’m sure my PS3 will perform way better than my crummy Thompson TUTV box. I’ve even upgraded to a 250gb HDD for when it becomes available.
I use my PS3 as my primary music source (With a 400gb external drive), it’s also my main DVD/BD player, photo viewer, and yes even web browser, it might not be as functional as Firefox, but for checking e-mail and ‘light’ surfing it’s useful.
As a Linux user on my PS3, it would be nice if when you first booted the PS3, it would ask you which OS you wanted, rather than having to dig into the setting menu to boot YDL. Any chance of that enhancement in a future firmware? It could be an option so that those that don’t have linux installed don’t have to choose.
Comment by Demibeard — Oct 2, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
Please Please Please come to stafford/stoke - i’m scottish but this is where i live!!!! WANT!!!!!!…and i’m done.
In other news I would love for asony official ps3 vga cable (not a hooky do it yourself adapter set) so that i could actually hook up the ps3 to a monitor - linux usage/games/browsing would be far superior with a proper monitor - especially for those of us without HDTV.
Comment by JohnSketch — Oct 2, 2007 @ 12:50 pm
@9 Where have you read about freeview not being able to record while you are playing games? I have looked for this at the time they announced and saw no mention of this. It would obviously be useless is this was the case?
Comment by Rob — Oct 2, 2007 @ 12:56 pm
http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archives/jake_bungie_leaving_microsoft_you_heard_it_here_first_folks.php
With a LARGE! pinch of salt i post this, truth or not - it would be an interesting “what if?”
Comment by JohnSketch — Oct 2, 2007 @ 1:37 pm
@12
The employees of Bungie could jump ship but the company is owned by Microsft and considering what Halo has done for them they will never let it go for any price. Although I have heard they lost Bizarre, who are the creators of Project Gotham right?
Hmm…
Comment by Terry — Oct 2, 2007 @ 1:45 pm
Very large pinch of salt with that article - but what if it were true?
Granted Halo would be untouchable for any other console than Microsofts own, but think of the possibilities - Marathon for the Wii, Myth HD for PS3
sadly Bungie no longer hold the rights to ONI, and without the Hype of Halo for any other console - would be interesting to see what they might have come up with.
But no doubt a bogus rumour, and so i’ll never see Pirate Adventures HD Cortana remix on the DS in my lifetime
Comment by JohnSketch — Oct 2, 2007 @ 2:17 pm
“The main aim of the PS3 UK Tour is to showcase those capabilities which stretch beyond the realms of gaming to include HD pictures, music, photography, PlayStation Network and PSP compatibility”
The above ^ is bordering INFURIATING! SCEE does not seem to understand that it is marketing by perception a GAMES machine. The device sells in traditional video game outlets, more often than not; and is most widely reported about in specialist publications of our hobby. The Playstation name, is utterly entrenched in the media and popular culture as the one-stop shop for any game you might want to play.
If I were especially pursuing a media device, why would I consider a PS3? Chances are that, unless I specifically sought out every available option to compare, it simply wouldn’t factor into my decision. I appreciate the additional functions my games machine can perform, but it still plays games, and now happily, any PS3 game I might discover, anywhere on the planet (anyone got a local release date for Everybody’s Golf?)
Perhaps the stalls at these showcase events will be set without the black, in a more neutral hue, to further distance the product from its most widely known purpose and audience. That would have higher chance of catching the eye of the new consumers that they’re attempting to entice. I don’t believe that would occur, somehow.
Leaving media behind, there’s Playstation Network. My reaction to which is at this point: They actually want to market that?! It’s flawed and under-developed. The content most often isn’t there in this territory.
Let me just throw this out. If you’ve got both a 360 and PS3, which platform are you most likely to opt to buy your game on? Companies thrive on their software sales. Fact. Nine times out of ten, it’ll be the competitor, because that’s the one the publisher will support with post-release content. You’re simply bound to get more from your game and money spent, with that decision. What are Sony doing to address and combat this disparity - don’t they see that the evident delay between releases of multiplatform titles, is, if nothing else, making that decision all the easier?
I enjoy the time I spend with my PS3 a lot, it’s a very different experience to that my 360 offers. The issues need to be addressed, that are being raised, before the console can move to the fabled “next level”. Eye of Judgment and Singstar, I think are great steps to giving PS3 an attractive outlook with which to move forward. Titles like these will make the platform stand out - to its benefit, another way of justifying the price.
I personally, continue to hope that Home’s rollout signals a complete detonation of region borders on downloadable content. It’s not enough to admit that things aren’t how you’d prefer them to be. You’ve got to actually take steps to swing the scales back in your favour.
Comment by Gleedemon — Oct 2, 2007 @ 2:24 pm
I hope they swing by my town although I’m not sure Basingstoke is at the top of their list!
Comment by reakt — Oct 2, 2007 @ 6:57 pm
@Gleedemon
“If you’ve got both a 360 and PS3″ - I have owned four 360s, and all died horribly. Maybe if it weren’t for the fact that they are even less reliable than a politician’s promise, I would now be on number 5.
I also think you missed Warhawk on your list of great games… it’s easily one of the most addictive games around currently. At least 2 friends that own both machines have barely looked at halo3, instead prefering to wipe the floor… err… fight me in Warhawk! They are also eagerly awaiting Eye Of Judgement, knowing that I’ll probably get my revenge on them then.
Comment by MuggleMind — Oct 2, 2007 @ 7:32 pm
Will Phil Harrison be on it?
I’d like to have a few words with him by God.
Comment by Ton Capone — Oct 2, 2007 @ 7:52 pm
Can someone actually post the tour dates and locations as I can’t find them anywhere.
Comment by Savage — Oct 2, 2007 @ 9:38 pm
Oh im sure everyone will be mightily impressed by the desperate hawking round of the delaystation3 freeview multimedia supercomputerbox with the crud store with nothing to buy in it, and the delayed home,and the ripped out emotion engine chip and gimped backwards compatibility and all the sub standard portovers that look better on a cheaper(yet shoddy) rival -oh and its such a super computer no developers can get the games to work on it ..we are all loving the cell processer !!.. unreal tournament 3 has just been put back to 2008 as has blacksite area51… and thats just todays delay announcements..but hey who cares because SOON YOU WILL BE ABLE TO WATCH FREEVIEW ON IT!!!!! while you kill time to update thursday when SCEE never fails to let you down and disappoint. and dont even mention LAIR
Comment by let down uk — Oct 2, 2007 @ 11:07 pm
@20..LOL..yeah give him a slap from me as well when you see him
and 21,i cant find ANYTHING on any locations and dates…my guess is,that they will all get on a bus and ride about,get drunk and smoke illegal substancies,and when someone needs a slash,thats where the next stop is
Comment by metallicorphan — Oct 3, 2007 @ 4:27 am
@13
I have a “friend” that had acess to an alpha version of the software. He said that it uses to much memory and it cant run when a game is running.
Unless Sony completely rework the PS3 OS’s memory usage then it will never play when a game is running. If they can get the PVR functions to work then they will be able to get XMB ingame as well.
Sony have to be very carefull about editing the firmware though, because I know of a past firmware update that stoped some PS3 games from working correctly. As more games are released then more testing needs to be done which makes updates longer and in that time other games are being released which also need to be tested.
Comment by carl(not cut and paste carl) crawford — Oct 3, 2007 @ 4:44 am
@22
Haha, I reckon they will drive in circles round the O2. I mean if the tour starts this week, where are the dates and destinations!
Comment by Terry — Oct 3, 2007 @ 11:01 am
@23
Very interesting. Thanks
Comment by Rob — Oct 3, 2007 @ 11:49 am
@12 johnsketch, you can hook your ps3 to a monitor via a hdmi=dvi-d cable but it’s only going to work if your monitor has an HDCP chip. and as for ‘hooky set-ups’ i have my ps3 running into a 22″ compaq p1220 in full 16:9 1080p using my hdfury inline chip. i can highly recomend one for those of use that want hd but are employed by tight arse bosses
the cable, chip and secondhand monitor came to about 120 quid. i’d like to see anyone build a full hd screen that cheap!
nice to see the nearest the ps3 tour comes to me is milton keynes. not worth the travel from norwich i’m afraid sony.
Comment by mobiletone — Oct 3, 2007 @ 10:54 pm
@27 I will have your babies - looking into purchasing HDfury adapter now
Comment by JohnSketch — Oct 4, 2007 @ 10:12 am
[…] Despite Kaz Hirai’s claims that the PlayStation 3 is in unfathomable high demand, Sony still feels that not enough people have opened their minds to the power of Blu-ray. With that in mind, the PS3 is going on a sensational UK tour that will take it to the O2 Arena in London, as well as shopping centers, train stations and universities all across the nation. […]
Pingback by gaming city blog » PlayStation 3 to tour the UK. Kind of like The Beatles, except not — Oct 4, 2007 @ 11:55 am
I really hoped we’d got past seeing the words “PS3″ and “super-computer” in the same sentence. Didn’t SCE UK get the memo where Kaz admitted it was a games console?
Good idea other than that though; whenever there’s a store with a PS3 on, there seems to be a drooling crowd around it, having them in the middle of shopping centres will definately attract a lot of prospective buyers.
Comment by Matthew — Oct 4, 2007 @ 1:26 pm
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment