The Playstation 3 has been de-mystified. The final pieces of information everyone has been waiting for regarding the upcoming console have been revealed. Sony has concluded its E3 2006 Press Briefing tonight and both journalist and gamers alike have seen something from them that's never been seen before: weakness. We're keeping it simple tonight. We're going to go over the main points about what was revealed tonight including price, date and some of the software. We're also going to speak about what tonight means as far as Sony living up to the 'Promise of PS3' and our impressions upon leaving tonight.

Sony has unveilled that the US will see the Playstation 3 release on November 17th. The number of units sent into the retail channel for the 'launch window' (later clarified for us from a Sony PR rep as the month of Novevmber) will be two million worldwide with an additional two million released before the end of the year. The Playstation 3 will be released to market in two different configurations. The base model will contain a 20GB hard drive while the full version will contain a 60GB hard drive. In the US, the 20GB model will retail for $499 while the 60GB model will retail for $599. At the Sony Press Briefing, the difference in hard drive size was the only factor noted discerning the two. However, upon viewing the press kit Sony has provided us, we've seen there are more differences in the systems.

The first thing the PS3 (20GB) is missing compared to it's big brother, PS3 (60GB) is the I/O port for various memory cards announced by Sony last year. The reader that allows the system to communicate with Memory Stick/SD/Compact Flash cards is not present in the smaller unit. The second difference is the HDMI port. Referred to by Sony as the HDMI NextGen (being able to accomodate 1080p, which current HDMI does not), the PS3 (20GB) is curiously missing this port. The interesting thing of note here, has been that in the past, Phil Harrison has stated that Next Generation consoles that aren't capable of displaying Full HDTV (1920 x 1080p) aren't really HD. Well, it seems that even after shelling out $500, a lot of gamers out there aren't going to have HD PS3's according to his standards. The last difference we've noticed from Sony's document is the IEEE 802.11 b/g wi-fi connectivity. If you have the PS3 (60GB), you'll have it. If you have the PS3 (20GB), you won't.

Another secret Sony has been keeping is in relation to their Playstation 3 controller. The final design of the Playstation 3 controller has been revealed and it looks a lot like the PS2 DualShock 2. Aside from being platinum, wireless and a few ergonomic differences, the controller also sports a button very similar to the Xbox Guide button found on the Xbox 360 controller. The biggest surprise about the controller was the fact that it will include motion sensitivity. The Playstation 3 controller contains a six-axis system that senses roll, pitch, yaw, X, Y and Z movements. This sensitivity is achieved through the controller itself and requires no other hardware or external sensors for functionality.

Phil Harrison mentioned that the controller is lighter than the PS2 DualShock 2 unit, and upon inspection of the Sony press release for the controller, now we know why. The PS3 controller does not support the rumble feature that Playstation fans have been enjoying since PS1's DualShock design. The document reveals that this is due to the motion sensing capabilities of the controller. It mentions that the vibration interferes with the information detected by the sensor.

We were also treated to seeing how the games on the Playstation 3 were shaping up. After much controversy over whether last year's Sony Press Brief demos were real-time or not, a big push tonight was showing that they were. Many demos showed a picture in picture box displaying the presenter controlling the action on screen. There were certainly some nice titles shown, although a good deal of them were still CG. Some titles that stood out for me were Tekken 6, Insomniac's Resistance: Fall of Man, the unnamed Naughty Dog title, Heavenly Sword, Final Fantasy XIII and Metal Gear Solid 4.

The problem for Sony is that although Kaz Hirai spoke of the Next Generation only arriving when Playstation 3 arrives, the games didn't show that. Even though they looked good, they didn't look like anything the Xbox 360 can't do. That alone, is a huge blow. It stands as a testament of two things. First is that although Sony would hate to admit it, what gamers have already seen and experienced on Xbox 360 is the Next Generation since the Playstation 3 isn't currently going beyond that. The second is that people really shouldn't have gotten their hopes up so high, but even that is attributed to how well Sony is able to work the smoke and mirrors. The bar was set so high at Sony's 2005 E3 Press Event that when this year came around and they had to show real footage of how games played, even they couldn't keep up. It will be interesting to see how much slack developers are able to pick up between now and the November launch date. It must be noted that the final development kits have just recently begun shipping and we should be able to see some gains from the tools running at their full capacity.

All in all, the feeling walking away from this year's Sony E3 Press Brief is much different than last year. Last year Sony seemed invincible, this year much less so. The excitement level at this year's brief is probably about 50% of what it was at last year's. Perhaps the most telling sign was at the end of the conference itself. The entire sound stage was outfitted with playable Playstation 3 units for those in attendance to play. After about five or ten minutes, the room was almost empty with there being no lines at most of the setups or at most a small handful of people waiting. It will be interesting to see if the consumer reaction with this price point and performance turns out to be similar this November.

With Sony's cards out on the table, Nintendo and Microsoft are both scheduled to show their hands for the year tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how the wildcard (Nintendo) comes out swinging as well as Microsoft's outline for Xbox 360 year two. There are still a large number of games Sony didn't show at the press briefing that will be at E3 later this week that could paint a prettier picture. We'll keep you in the loop right here as the stories unfold.