The PlayStation 3 (officially marketed PLAYSTATION 3, commonly abbreviated PS3) is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles.

The system was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November 17, 2006 in North America and Asia, and March 23, 2007 in Europe and Oceania. It is the first console with next-gen primary storage media, Blu-ray Disc, though it also supports DVDs, CDs, and with some models SACDs. It is capable of playing back content from Blu-ray Disc (BD) at a bit rate of multiplex 48Mbps, the maximum bit rate defined in BD standards.

Sony officially unveiled the PlayStation 3 to the public on May 16, 2005, during the E3 2005 conference. A functional version of the system was not present there, as a working system was not readily available due to power failures and hardware problems, nor at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2005, although demonstrations (such as Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots) were held at both events on devkits and comparable PC hardware. Video footage based on the predicted PlayStation 3 specifications was also shown (e.g. Mobile Suit Gundam).
The system was initially planned to have two HDMI ports, three Ethernet ports and six USB ports, though, as shown at E3 2006, this was later reduced to one HDMI port, one ethernet port and four USB ports, presumably to cut costs. Also announced were two configurations of the console, a "60 GB" and "20 GB", for $599/€599 and $499/€499 respectively. The 60 GB would be the only configuration to feature a HDMI port, Wi-Fi internet, and a chrome trim with the logo in silver. It was announced for a global release date, November 11th for Japan and November 17th for North America and Europe.

On September 6, 2006, Sony announced that the PAL region (Europe and Oceania) PlayStation 3 launch had been delayed until March 2007, due to a shortage of diodes used in the Blu-ray Disc drive.
On September 22, 2006, at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show, Sony announced that it would be including HDMI on the 20 GB system with a silver logo, but not the chrome trim or Wi-Fi. Also, the launch price of the Japanese 20 GB models would be reduced by over 20%; the 60 GB version of the system was announced for an open pricing scheme in Japan. During the show, Sony demonstrated 27 playable PS3 titles running on final hardware.

Launch
The PlayStation 3 was first released in Japan on November 11, 2006, at 07:00. There were reports that many of the systems were obtained by businessmen who paid mainly Chinese nationals to buy the systems without any problems to resell on eBay. According to Media Create, 81,639 PS3 systems were sold within 24 hours of its introduction in Japan.
Soon after its release in Japan, the PS3 was released in North America on November 17, 2006. Reports of violence surrounding the release of the PS3 include a customer shot, campers robbed at gunpoint, customers shot in a drive-by shooting with BB guns, and 60 campers fighting over 10 systems.
On January 24, 2007, Sony announced that the PlayStation 3 would go on sale on March 23, 2007 in Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Africa and New Zealand. On March 7, 2007, the 60 GB PlayStation 3 launched in Singapore with a price of S$799.
The PS3 was launched in Europe, Australia and New Zealand on March 23, 2007. The system sold approximately 600,000 units in its first two days.
The console was launched in South Korea on 16 June 2007 in a single version equipped with an 80 GB hard drive and IPTV.

Retail configurations
There are four PlayStation 3 hardware models that are commonly referred to by the size of their included hard disk drive: "20", "40", "60", and "80" GB models.
All retail packages include one or two Sixaxis controllers, one USB cable, one composite video/stereo audio output cable, one ethernet cable (20, 60, and 80 GB only) and one power cable.

Differences
In addition to all of the features of the 20 GB model, the 60 GB model has internal IEEE 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, multiple flash card readers (SD/ MultiMedia Card, CompactFlash Type I/Type II, Microdrive, Memory Stick/PRO/Duo ) and a chrome coloured trim. In terms of hardware, the 80 GB model released in South Korea is identical to the 60 GB model released in Europe and Australia (European territories), except for the difference in hard drive size. Like the South Korean and Europe models, the North American 80 GB model also excludes the PlayStation 2 " Emotion Engine" CPU chip. However, it still keeps the "Graphics Synthesizer" GPU. Due to emulating of the "Emotion Engine", the level of compatibility was reduced (see Removal of hardware support for more details). The 40 GB model has two USB ports instead of the four USB ports on other models, and does not include a multi memory card port, SACD support, or any backwards compatibility with PlayStation 2 titles. This was due to the removal of "Graphics Synthesizer" GPU, which stripped the unit of all PlayStation 2 based hardware.

No official Wi-Fi or flash memory card readers have yet been released by Sony for the 20 GB system, although plans for such add-ons are in place. Nevertheless, as the model features four USB 2.0 ports, wireless networking and flash memory card support can already be obtained through the use of widely available external USB adapters.

It was rumored that third-generation PS3s (40 GB) would be using Cell CPUs of 65nm, Sony has revealed that this is indeed correct after an initial denial.

Sales and production costs
The PlayStation 3's initial production cost is estimated to have been US$805.85 for the 20 GB model and US$840.35 for the 60 GB model; however, they were priced at US$499 and US$599, respectively. The high manufacturing costs meant that every unit was sold at a loss of approximately $250, contributing to Sony's games division posting an operating loss of ¥232.3 billion (US$1.97 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 2007. In April 2007, soon after these results were published, Ken Kutaragi, the head of gaming at Sony, announced plans to retire. Various news agencies, including The Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that this was due to poor sales, whilst SCEI maintains that Kutaragi had been planning his retirement for six months prior to the announcement.
Since the system's launch, production costs have been reduced significantly as a result of phasing out the EE chip and falling hardware costs. The cost of manufacturing Cell microprocessors has fallen dramatically as a result of moving to the 65 nm production process and Blu-ray diodes being around $100 cheaper to manufacture.

The cumulative reduction in production costs is as follows:
* Blu-ray (cost reduction: US$100)
* Cell B.E. (cost reduction: US$29 – US$40)
* EE removal (cost reduction: US$27)
* Chipset Modifications: Sony has removed a CXD9208GP, 2 RDRAM chips (US$5), and some passives and are planning on moving the RSX graphics chip from 90 nm to 65 nm production process and "the unification of separate smaller ICs — such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi — into single chip solutions and a change to a more specialized Southbridge." (cost reduction: unknown)

This brings the total cost reduction to at least $156 excluding the chipset modifications. Excluding the 65nm Cell B.E. change, the minimum cost reduction based on this approximation becomes $127.

On January 7, 2007, Sony met its goal of shipping 1 million units to North America. Just over a week later, on January 16, 2007, Sony confirmed they had shipped 1 million units in Japan, bringing the worldwide total to over 2 million shipped. [56] As of April 1, 2007, approximately 5.5 million units had been shipped worldwide.

In the worldwide marketplace, the PlayStation 3 is currently behind its competitor systems, the Xbox 360 and the Wii, both overall and in monthly sales. In Japan, the Wii outsold the PS3 by 3 to 1 in August, 4 to 1 in July, 6.5 to 1 in June, 5.6 to 1 in May and 4 to 1 in April; likewise the PS3 sold 2.5 times more units in June than the Xbox 360. In Japan, 2,800,576 Wiis have been sold in total, compared to 1,143,798 PS3s; however the Xbox 360, which was released almost a year earlier than its competitors has sold only 380,131 units.

In North America, the PS3 was outsold 4.4 to 1 by the Wii and 2.2 to 1 by the Xbox 360 in June 2007, and sold the least units of any seventh generation console in the period January through April. Additionally, the PS3 saw the largest drop in sales of the three systems, selling 37% less in April than the previous month; Sony has attributed the poor sales in April to a lack of new software for the console. In many cases, the system has been outsold by its predecessor, the PlayStation 2.

Sony has stated that the PS3 has been consistently outselling its competitors in Australia, although it still lags behind both in total units sold.

From October 2007 to November 2007, sales of the PlayStation 3 went up by 285% in the United States. Sony CEO Howard Stringer contributes the growth to a price cut and Nintendo's inability to manufacture the Wii system at a rate high enough to meet public demand.

Games
The PlayStation 3 launched in North America on November 17, 2006 with a total of twelve titles and another three were released before the end of the year. After five days of sales it was confirmed that first person shooter Resistance: Fall of Man from Insomniac Games was the top-selling game, and was heavily praised by numerous video game websites, including GameSpot and IGN, both of whom awarded it with their PlayStation 3 Game of the Year award for 2006. Some titles missed the launch window and were delayed until early 2007, such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion , F.E.A.R. and Sonic the Hedgehog . During the Japanese launch, Ridge Racer 7 was the top-selling launch title, while Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire also fared well in sales; both of which were offerings from Namco Bandai. The PlayStation 3 launched in Europe with twenty-four titles, including games that were not offered in the North American and Japanese launched, such as Formula One Championship Edition, MotorStorm and Virtua Fighter 5. Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm have been the most successful titles so far; each has sold over one million copies worldwide. Subsequently both games are to receive sequels.

At E3 2007, Sony was able to show off a number of their upcoming video games for the PlayStation 3, including Heavenly Sword, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, all of which have been released in the 4th quarter of 2007. They also showed off a number of titles set for a 2008 release; most notably Killzone 2, the highly-anticipated sequel to the 2004 first person shooter. LittleBigPlanet was also demonstrated during the event and subsequently won the award for 'Most Original' game of the show.

Software
Operating system
Sony has added the ability for the operating system, referred to as System Software, to be updated. The update process is similar to the firmware updates for the PlayStation Portable (PSP). The updates can be downloaded from the PlayStation Network directly to the PS3 and subsequently installed. Sony has also provided users with the ability to download system software updates from the Official PlayStation website to a computer and then storage media, from which the update can be installed to the system. Updates can also be installed from game discs that require the updates to be able to play the game.

The latest version of the software, 2.10, was released on December 18, 2007. This update made the PS3 compatible with Blu-ray profile 1.1 , added a new music visualization, added the ability to change voice pitch in the console's chat function, and added support for DivX, XviD, and VC-1 ( WMV) codecs.
Version 2.01 was released on November 19, 2007. That update fixed some of the stability issues with the PS3's network connection and repaired some problems with Remote Start.

Version 2.00, released on November 8, 2007, added the ability to customize the XMB using themes; support for the DualShock 3 controller; the ability to create custom playlists for music and photos; more options for grouping content under XMB tabs, and the ability to remotely turn the PS3 on and off from a PSP using Remote Play.
Graphical user interface

The PlayStation 3 version of the XrossMediaBar (pronounced Cross Media Bar, or abbreviated XMB) includes 9 categories of options. These include: Users, Settings, Photo, Music, Video, Game, Network, PlayStation Network, and Friends (similar to the PlayStation Portable media bar). The PS3 includes the ability to store various master and secondary user profiles, manage and explore photos with or without a musical slideshow, play music and copy audio CD tracks to an attached storage device, play movies and video files from the hard disk drive, an optional USB mass storage or Flash card, or an optical disc (Blu-ray Disc or DVD-Video), compatibility for a USB keyboard and mouse, and a full web browser supporting in/compatible file download function. The Friends menu allows mail with emoticon and attached picture features and video chat which requires an optional PlayStation Eye or Eyetoy webcam. The Network menu allows online shopping through the PlayStation Store.

Media playback
Linux
Sony has included an option in the XMB menu to install other operating systems. Among other Linux distributions, Ubuntu, Fedora 8, Gentoo, Debian, and Yellow Dog have been run on the PS3.
PlayStation Network
In response to Microsoft's success on their Xbox Live network, Sony announced a unified online service for the PlayStation 3 system at the 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing meeting in Tokyo. Sony has confirmed that the service will be always connected, free and include multiplayer support; however, developers are permitted to charge a subscription fee, as is common with MMO games. Also, the registration interface can only be accessed through the PS3 system interface.

At the Tokyo Game Show on September 21, 2006, it was revealed that users will be able to download some of the thousands of PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 titles from the PlayStation Network for about US$5–$15, starting with those with the smallest game data. The reason to allow this kind of functionality is that Sony will allow the users to choose the games of their preference. Ken Kutaragi also announced functionality with other systems, similar to Nintendo 's Virtual Console, including confirmed Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx 16 functionality; however, Sega replied that Sony had been too hasty with calling it a fact, and that it was still "under examination".
Credit cards and electronic money (via the Edy system) are two ways PlayStation 3 owners in Japan can purchase content through the Japanese PlayStation Store. On May 8 , 2007 Sony Computer Entertainment announced PlayStation Network Cards , a form of electronic money that can be used with the Store. PlayStation Network Tickets, available in units of 1,000, 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000 yen, can be purchased at convenience stores throughout Japan. Each ticket contains a 12 alphanumeric code which can be inputted to the PlayStation Network to place credits in the virtual wallet.
The tickets are available through electronic kiosks at 26,000 convenience stores, including Lawsons, Family Mart, Daily Yamazaki, Ministop and Sunkus. There is also 26,000 post office ATM machines for use to pay for the tickets, although registration is required first via a special mobile website.

A similar PlayStation Network Card system based on actual cards instead of tickets has been introduced in South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan in summer 2007.

PlayStation Home
During the 2007 Game Developers Conference, Sony announced PlayStation Home, a new free-to-download community based service for the PlayStation Network, which allows users to create an avatar character for their PlayStation 3 system. This avatar will get its own apartment, which can be adorned by items players can receive in several achievements. In the future the service will also expand, allowing players to have more sorts of clothing, as well as hold pets. Home will be a Second Life-like experience and will allow gamers everywhere to interact in a virtual world. Home will also act as a meeting place of sorts for players who want to play multiplayer games on the PlayStation 3. During a video demonstration of Home, Sony said that a Home icon and options will be added to the Xross Media Bar (XMB), so it is expected to be available through a firmware update or separate download from within the PlayStation Store. A closed beta is currently in progress in Europe, while an open beta will be available sometime this fall. At the 2007 Tokyo Game Show , Sony announced that the final worldwide launch of Home, which had originally been scheduled for the fall of 2007, will now take place in the spring of 2008. SCEI President and Group CEO Kaz Hirai later explained that the launch was delayed for further testing and feedback evaluation to provide the best possible experience upon launch.

PlayStation Portable connectivity
The PlayStation Portable can connect with the PlayStation 3 in many ways, including in-game connectivity. For example, Formula One: Championship Edition, a racing game, was shown at E3 2006 using a PSP as a real-time rear-view mirror. Although this feature did not make it in the final release, Sony confirmed that such connectivity between the two systems remains an option for the future. In addition, it is possible to download PlayStation 1 games to the PlayStation 3 from the PlayStation Store. These games were not originally playable on the PS3; however, they could be sent to a PSP, and played using the PSP's PlayStation Emulator. Sony added support for playing downloaded PS titles on PS3 on April 18, 2007, with the update to firmware revision 1.70.

Sony has also demonstrated the PSP playing back video content, including 1080p content from the PlayStation 3 hard disk across an ad-hoc wireless network. This feature is referred to as Remote Play located under the browser icon on both the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable. Remote play has since expanded to allow remote access to the PS3 via PSP from any wireless access point in the world.

PlayStation 3 cluster
Given the computing capabilities of the machine, there is some interest in using PS3 to build supercomputers for high-performance computing , as the NCSA has already built a cluster based on the PlayStation 2. Terra Soft Solutions has a version of Yellow Dog Linux for the PlayStation 3, and sells PS3s with Linux pre-installed, in single units, and 6 and 32 node clusters. In addition, RapidMind is pushing their stream programming package for the PS3.
On January 3, 2007, Dr. Frank Mueller, Associate Professor of Computer Science at NCSU, clustered 8 PS3s. Mueller commented that the 512 MB of system RAM is a limitation for this particular application, and is considering attempting to retrofit more RAM. Software includes: Fedora Core 5 Linux ppc64, MPICH2, OpenMP v2.5, GNU Compiler Collection and CellSDK 1.1.
On March 15, 2007, SCE and Stanford University announced that the Folding@home project would be expanded to the PS3. This program allows PS3 owners to lend the computing power of their consoles to help study the problem of improper protein folding.

Hardware
The original unit is convex on its left side (when vertical; the top side is convex when horizontal) and has a sleek black finish, with the Playstation logo on the left side. Playstation designer Teiyu Goto stated that the Spider-man-font-inspired "logo was one of the first elements [SCEI president Ken Kutaragi] decided on and the logo may have been the motivating force behind the shape of PS3."

The Playstation 3 features a slot-loading 2x speed Blu-ray Disc drive for games, Blu-ray movies, DVDs and many other formats. It was originally available with hard drives of 20 and 60 GB (only the 60 GB model was available in PAL regions). An 80 GB model has since been introduced in NTSC regions ( see above), while a 40 GB model has been introduced in all regions. All PS3 models have user-upgradeable 2.5" SATA hard drives. The PlayStation 3 uses the IBM-designed Cell microprocessor as its CPU, utilizing seven of the eight "synergistic processing elements" (often shortened to SPE). The eighth SPE is disabled to improve chip yields i.e. chips do not have to be discarded if one of the SPEs is defective. Graphics processing is handled by the NVIDIA RSX, which can output resolutions from 480i/576i SD up to 1080i/1080p full HD , the PlayStation 3 has 256 MB of XDR main memory and 256 MB of GDDR3 video memory for the RSX.

Numerous accessories for the console have been developed for the system, including the wireless SIXAXIS controller, the BD Remote controller, the PlayStation Eye camera and the upcoming PlayTV DVB-T tuner/digital video recorder accessory.
The system has Bluetooth 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0 and HDMI 1.3a built in on all models. Wi-Fi networking is also built-in on the 40, 60 and 80 GB models while a flash card reader (which is compatible with MemoryStick, SD/MMC, and CompactFlash/ Microdrive media) is built-in on 60 and 80 GB models.

At its press conference at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, Sony announced the DualShock 3 (trademarked DUALSHOCK 3), a PlayStation 3 controller with the same function and design as the SIXAXIS, but with vibration capability included. Hands-on accounts describe the controller as being noticeably heavier than the standard SIXAXIS controller, and capable of vibration forces comparable to the DualShock 2. [107] It will be released in Japan in November 2007, while a Spring 2008 release date has been scheduled for Europe and North America.
Publicity and reception

The PlayStation 3 was first advertised in the U.S. in September 2006, in which several TV advertisements demonstrated some of the features of the system. In early 2007, Sony Computer Entertainment began to market the system in Europe, with the marketing slogan "This is Living".
Some journalists have judged the relative ease with which it is possible to buy a PlayStation 3 in stores in the U.S. and Japan, compared with the scarcity of the Wii, as evidence of lukewarm consumer demand for the system. There have also been reports that some Japanese retailers were discounting the system as early as January 2007 to stimulate demand.

European Imaging And Sound Association awarded the PS3 top honors for its media center capabilities. Both Home Theater Magazine and Ultimate AV have given the system's Blu-ray playback very favorable reviews, stating that the quality of playback exceeds that of many current standalone Blu-ray players. Audiophile Audition said of the PS3 "The PS3 is an amazing product both in terms of performance as well as flexibility."

The PS3 was given the number-eight spot on PC World magazine's list of "The Top 21 Tech Screwups of 2006," where it was criticized for being "Late, Expensive, and Incompatible." GamesRadar ranked the PS3 as the top item in a feature about game-related PR disasters, asking how Sony managed to "take one of the most anticipated game systems of all time and — within the space of a year — turn it into a hate object reviled by the entire internet", but added that despite its problems the system had "untapped potential." The perceived disappointment of the system's launch among gamers prompted Electronic Gaming Monthly to feature a main story titled "BattleStation!" in its February 2007 issue, in which the magazine voiced much of the gamer, analyst, and developer criticism against the PS3. EGM also interviewed Sony's US Chief of Operations, Jack Tretton. In the interview, Tretton attributed the negative reception to people "waiting for [the PS3] to slip up, and we haven't, so people try to create stories that aren't there." Tretton also scoffed at a comment made by EGM that PS3s were not flying off store shelves, telling the interviewers, "If you can find a PS3 anywhere in North America that's been on shelves for more than five minutes, I'll give you 1,200 bucks for it." In the same article, Tretton was asked about the missing 2nd HDMI port and the missing LAN hub. He claimed that he has no knowledge of Sony ever saying such a thing, even after being shown the E3 handout from 2005. Some have speculated that this, along with many other reasons, helped turn off some of the more intense gamers to not buying the system for the first couple of months (and even help spread the negative press about it), since it lacked in those capabilities.

Many review sites have criticized its pricing of $500/$600 for a mass-consumer gaming device, comparing it to the Wii ($250) and the Xbox 360 (MSRP $349). Others noted the lack of high quality launch titles, with Business Week stating it was "more impressed with what it could do than with what it currently does."
Conversely, CNET United Kingdom praised the PlayStation 3 saying, "the PS3 is a versatile and impressive piece of home-entertainment equipment that lives up to the hype … the PS3 is well worth its hefty price tag." CNET awarded it a high score of 8.8 out of a possible 10 and voted it as its number one "must-have" gadget, praising its robust graphical capabilities and stylish exterior design while criticizing its limited selection of available games. Hexus Gaming reviewed the PAL version and summed the review up by saying, "…as the PlayStation 3 matures and developers start really pushing it, we'll see the PlayStation 3 emerge as the console of choice for gaming." At GDC 2007, Shiny Entertainment founder Dave Perry stated, "I think that Sony has made the best machine. It's the best piece of hardware, without question."