| The PlayStation 3's 2.5" portable hard drive supplies the system with much-needed storage space for network downloads, applications, and home-server capabilities. Additionally, games will use the hard drive for game saves, and it will cache game files for decreased load times. During the Gran Turismo HD E3 2006 demonstration, Sony mentioned that load times would be reduced to two to three seconds. The game took around six to seven seconds to load during the E3 demo, but loading times will likely drop once developers have more time to optimize. |  |
Sony will equip each PlayStation 3 system with a Blu-ray optical-disc drive that can play games and movie discs. Each Blu-ray disc can hold up to 54GB worth of data, which should virtually guarantee that games won't be left wanting for extra media space. During his Game Developers Conference 2006 keynote address, Sony's Phil Harrison boasted that the storage capacity of a Blu-ray disc is large enough to hold localized content for all versions of a game, letting publishers ship one global disc instead of stamping out a new version for each language region. Games will be region-free, but movies will still have region locks preventing multiregion playback. However, according to Japanese IT Media, the Blu-ray spec now has North America, South America, and Asia (except for China) in region 1. If the spec doesn't change, that means your U.S. PlayStation 3 should be able to play those Blu-ray Godzilla movies imported from Japan. The PlayStation 3 also comes with support for many of the older disc formats, including CD-ROM, CDR+W, DVD, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, and DVD+R. The system will also be backward compatible with PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games.
Sony's original specifications stated that the PlayStation 3 would come with three Ethernet ports, but the newly revealed specifications from E3 06 show that the system will arrive with only one Ethernet port. The 60GB version of the PlayStation 3 will also come with Wi-Fi built-in, but the 20GB version will only have the Ethernet port. We can't ignore the fact that the PS3 has all the tools to function as a personal video recorder and home-media server. The larger 60GB drive will likely prove much more useful than the 20GB drive if you wish to take advantage of the additional media functionality.
At E3 2005, SCE CTO Masa Chatani talked about the availability of an HD IP camera peripheral, which would presumably be plugged into one of the gigabit Ethernet ports. The camera will let you broadcast an HD-quality video stream for video messaging, conferencing, and more. With only one gigabit Ethernet port, the camera will likely connect via a USB port.
The PS3 also has Wi-Fi connectivity. The connection can and definitely will be used to connect locally with your PSP, which can serve as a controller, a remote control, and a remote screen. Since your PS3 is meant to always stay on and always connected, it follows that any media stored on your PS3, such as music and movies, could be accessed remotely through your PSP. Imagine you're on vacation and have burned through your entire MP3 playlist on your 512MB memory stick. Wouldn't it be nice to walk into a cafe with free Wi-Fi access, dump those songs, and get a fresh playlist or a few videos off your PS3 at home?
— By GameSpot Staff
