Sony: Lots of free stuff with PlayStation3

PlayStation 3 will cost gamers a hefty 600 U.S. dollars when it goes on sale Nov. 17, but Sony executives at Thursday afternoon Gamers' Day were quick to point out that almost everything else associated with the game is free.

Free online gameplay, free sharing of downloaded games and a free Blu-Ray edition of the movie Talladega nights. What more can a gamer ask for?

Jack Tretton, executive vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said there's lots more. He said 22 games will be available when the system launches and 19 of them will feature online gameplay.

The lack of online service fees is "our biggest strategic advantage," said Tretton

He did leave open the possibility that software makers could, in the future, charge for online play, noting that "publishers have total freedom."

But for now, there's no up-front cost to networked gaming on PS3. Microsoft charges a 50 dollar yearly fee to play games over its online service, called Xbox Live.

"We offer everything that Xbox Live does," said Tretton. "The big differentiating factor is that we're not charging you to sign up for the network service."

Sony also plans to offer a wide variety of small downloadable games through a digital delivery service called PlayStation Store. At the Gamers' Day event, there were long lines in front of the playable version of flOw, a slow-paced action title with mellow music and surreal graphics, based on a popular free web game.

Sony announced that players who download games from PlayStation's online shop can share them on up to five other PS3 machines.

If a player logs into his PlayStation 3 account on a friend's system, he can download any game he has already purchased. "You can send that content to four other friends for that initial investment," said Tretton. "We want to get the game in as many hands as possible."

"It's not about generating profits at each and every interaction with the consumer," he said. "I think that really offsets the argument that says, 'Wow, that's a really pricey system.'"

It was cost considerations, said Tretton, that caused Sony to leave high-definition video cables out of the package, which it officially announced today. PlayStation 3 will ship only with standard-definition composite AV cables, but will also include Ethernet and USB cables in the package.

To emphasize the fact that PlayStation 3 contains the new high-definition movie format -- widely considered to be the main reason for the machine's high price -- the first 500,000 consoles will be packed with a copy of the Will Ferrell comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, a Sony Pictures film, on Blu-Ray disc.

One wireless game controller, which Sony has dubbed the "Sixaxis" after its six degrees of motion sensitivity, will be included in the box. Extra controllers will cost 50 dollars, identical to Microsoft's control pad pricing.

A remote control for easier navigation of Blu-Ray movies will be released in December at a price of 25 dollars.

Source:Xinhua/Agencies