Last Thursday news came through that Sony was selling its PS3 chips to rival Toshiba and is no longer interested in developing the technology further. Yesterday we heard that PlayStation is currently begging games developers not to forget about its console (having previously taken a very arrogant stance towards them), and now it’s being reported that the new 40GB PS3 worldwide launch is aimed more squarely at those seeking to use the console as a digital media center.
This is pretty interesting for this reason: Sony appear to be preparing for the worst case scenario on their games development business and are now completely focusing on the console’s ability to become a digital media center. The last week has seen them making noises about being fully committed to making a successful games console whilst also pointing at the sky and telling you to take a look whilst they do a runner stage left.
Tough decisions have clearly been taken to see what can be salvaged from a product that is losing the company an estimated $200 – $300 dollars every time a unit is sold, and due to the now very well documented problems of programming for the PS3 the company’s aim seems to be to concentrate on the machines abilities as media center and Blu-Ray player. Considering the console is deathly silent (unlike the Xbox) and is one of the cheapest Blu-Ray players on the market it should prove an attractive proposition and therefore could prove a safe bet.
The PS3 is an incredibly powerful machine that’s been given an open platform that can do anything from streaming IPTV to calculating the weight of theoretical gravity waves when a star is being swallowed by a super-massive black hole (click here if you don’t believe me), therefore with a little help from Linux/Ubuntu (can’t see Microsoft somehow) and some imaginative developers it could cause a serious threat to its rivals in both the gaming and media center worlds if targeted to the right market. Namely: twenty somethings who like having their mates round to watch YouTube on living room TV, download a movie and like listening to tunes through their iPod …and who knows, they may eventually end up playing a game or two while they’re at it.
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