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And now the PS3…

Sony has now announced the PS3, and as expected, it’s processing power dwarfs the new XBox. These two consoles are touting technical specs that you simply cannot get in a desktop PC for anything near the expected street prices.

The original XBox is younger then the PS2, so it’s had the upper hand in graphics capabilities. But the third generation consoles will flip the status quo with the PS3 holding the lead position in raw power. That’s certainly a good thing for Sony, being the leader in the console industry. But is it enough? Obviously both consoles have the potential for some amazing game play, but Microsoft is positioning their device as more then a game console and building value with their XBox Live network.

I read a few scarce bits about a “PlayStation World” network that will offer an online retreat for PS3 owners, but nothing about improving their online game play business model. As I mentioned in my last post, Microsoft has a serious advantage with it’s unified online service and a media strategy built around their console. They are taking advantage of the position the console fills — being online and connected to consumers’ televisions. They are turning it into a media device to be used for games, music, and movies.

The irony is that Sony *is* a media company but they seem to be forgetting it. The PS3 has the power to be the center of my home media system if it can just get music and video from my file server (running OS X) and the internet without proprietary DRM. The XBox claims to pull media from Windows machines on the network, which doesn’t help me out, but at least they’re trying and hackers will get it working from other OS’s soon enough. I’m afraid the PS3 is going to be an ultra powerful video, sound, and graphics machine siting idle while some other device handles my movies and tunes (and it sounds like a Mac Mini is still the most capable option for the money.) It’s unfortunate, but there’s still hope. The PS3 isn’t shipping anytime soon and Sony still has time to announce and evolve it’s online and media strategy for the next gen console. Hopefully they’re thinking big.