TODAY'S press conference on the future of the PS3 was overshadowed by the news that the console would not hit the shops until November. INQ readers will already know a bit of news as we have been saying this for at least a month and more, but the press conference gave more information that gamers need to know which has not been reported. Firstly the machine will be backwards compatible and will play all Sony’s legacy titles at high-definition resolutions. This seems to be a copy of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 strategy. It will have full Blu-ray support and a HDMI connection. It is for this reason that the PS3 has been delayed, as Sony can’t get it to work properly. Assuming that they get it to go, all PS3 games will ship only on Blu-ray, apparently this will help prevent piracy The PS3 will have a separate hard-drive. The HDD will be 60GB, be completely upgradeable, and support Linux OS. This is so that it can act as a home server and store entertainment files. It will also have community tools including lobby matching and voice chat, as well as home shopping features that includes bootable software via the hard drive. Final PS3 dev kits "will be shipping out to production houses in June. There will be 15 different companies will be making SDK tools and middleware. Although a price for the beast was not made, Gamers Reports claims that the minimum price will be $425 which means that the Xbox will be cheaper. µ The Inq Easy to install Linux? Very nice, something that MS can't say they openly support.
