Washington, D.C. (November 14, 2006)
--
Sony will launch the new Play
Station 3 video game console in the U.S. on Friday, but
the early reviews are decidedly mixed.
Introduced last Saturday in Japan, gamers there have been dazzled by the device's high-def graphics and Blu-ray HDTV DVD movies. PS3 has a Blu-ray drive inside and can display games in High-Definition.
However, Sony acknowledged today that the console will not play about 200 Play Station and Play Station 2 games correctly. In addition, audio features will not work on some titles.
The news will likely Blu-ray supporters who hope PS3 will give it a huge advantage over Toshiba's HD-DVD in the high-def DVD format war. If Sony can not resolve the early software glitches, it could dampen sales and hurt Blu-ray's momentum.
However, Reuters reports that analysts say the software issues do not appear to be serious and are common to early product launches.
"There are always sorts of little problems at launch ... It may take some time to make everything compatible, but I don't think it's a huge problem," KBC Securities analyst Hiroshi Kamide told the news service.
Sony says it will offer online upgrades to fix the problems.
The company sold 88,400 PS3 units in the first two days of the Japanese launch, according to Reuters.
Introduced last Saturday in Japan, gamers there have been dazzled by the device's high-def graphics and Blu-ray HDTV DVD movies. PS3 has a Blu-ray drive inside and can display games in High-Definition.
However, Sony acknowledged today that the console will not play about 200 Play Station and Play Station 2 games correctly. In addition, audio features will not work on some titles.
The news will likely Blu-ray supporters who hope PS3 will give it a huge advantage over Toshiba's HD-DVD in the high-def DVD format war. If Sony can not resolve the early software glitches, it could dampen sales and hurt Blu-ray's momentum.
However, Reuters reports that analysts say the software issues do not appear to be serious and are common to early product launches.
"There are always sorts of little problems at launch ... It may take some time to make everything compatible, but I don't think it's a huge problem," KBC Securities analyst Hiroshi Kamide told the news service.
Sony says it will offer online upgrades to fix the problems.
The company sold 88,400 PS3 units in the first two days of the Japanese launch, according to Reuters.