Sony India has announced the official launch of the Sony PlayStation 3 console in the Indian market along with PS3 hardware accessories and 12 gaming titles. Jayant Sharma, CEO, Milestone Interactive, India, the authorized distribution partner of EA’s PlayStation 3 titles said, “We are very excited with the support that EA is providing to the PlayStation3 launch in India" cont...

"And we are sure that their titles will accelerate the growth of the PlayStation console format in India. EA’s PlayStation 3 titles will retail at an MRP of Rs. 2799 and will available at all major retail stores across the country,” says.

The Sony PS3 represents the next generation entertainment platform featuring the revolutionary Cell processor running at 3.2GHz with 7 SPEs, a 2x Blu-ray disk Drive, Built-In card reader which supports Memory Stick Duo, SD/MMC and CompactFlash (CF) Cards; for the graphics, PS3 is juiced by nVidia Developed RSX GPU featuring 256MB GDDR3 Video Ram. The PS3 also sports a 60GB SATA Hard drive, and built in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) adapter as well as Gigabit (1000Mbit) Ethernet Port. PS3 also features State-of-The-Art SIXAXIS wireless controller which allows gamers to physically turn, twist, and bank their controllers to command the on-screen action.

Features in guest

The heart of PS3 beats through the Cell Broadband Engine, one of the most-advanced computer processors in the world, that allows massive floating point calculation. It is alomost a Super Computer on your desk. The PS3 is backwards compatible with PS2 and PS1 Games, meaning your old games won’t go to waste.  Furthermore, The PSP can be connected to PS3 via Wi-Fi to Transfer Data files browse the web. It can also bouble up as a Blu-Ray Media Center and allows you to watch BD-DVD Titles at 1080p (1920×1080 Resolution) With Dolby TrueHD/ PCM Uncompressed Audio. You can also view pictures (BMP, TIFF, JPG, PNG) and listen to music on the PS3. The formats supported are Sony’s Own ATRAc, AAC, WAV and the ever popular - MP3. The PS3 comes bundled with an online web browser to surf the internet.

Price

The 60GB PlayStation 3 will carry a hefty price tag of Rs.39,999/- at launch. With Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Core Version Selling for Rs.17,999/- and the premium 20GB version selling for Rs.23,999/- Sony has some stiff competition to face. Sony might have had a better chance going against the Xbox 360 in India if they would have released the 20 GB PS3 console as its price would have been on par with the Xbox 360. But, consider few things before you judge its huge price. You nether get a Super Computer in such a 'low price' nor a Blue-Ray player.

Titles 

At The Launch, PS3 Will have 12 titles available for gamers to buy. These titles will include first party games such as Resistance: Fall of Man, MotorStorm, Genji: Days of the Blade, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom, Formula One Championship Edition to Third party hits like Ridge Racer 7, Def Jam: Icon, Fight Night Round 3, NBA Street: Homecourt , Need for Speed: Carbon, The Godfather: The Don’s Edition, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007. All the titles will be available from Mumbai based Milestone Interactive Ltd at the pricetag of Rs.2,799/-

SIXAXIS wireless controller

The SIXAXIS wireless controller will cost Rs 2,990/-. Blu-ray Remote Control and HDMI Cable (high defintion media interface) will retail at Rs.1,999/- each ! !

Does the PS3 have what it takes to repeat the success of its predecessor PS2 ? Sony might be banking on its huge PS2 user base in India to upgrade to the PS3. PS2 presently costs around Rs.8,000/- in India and the price is expected to go further down with the launch of the PS3. The relatively quick launch, ready availability and presence in the Indian markets is definitely a step in the right direction. What happens next? Your guess is as good as ours. Some price cuts down the line won’t hurt Sony much ! But if Nintendo ever decides to launch it’s Wii console in India it will be a whole new ball game altogether.