Games production cost

Well made next Gen console with pretty graphics does not come cheap.

GTA IV released in late last month reportedly costs US$100 million to produce. Halo 3 cost about US$65 million in production cost. The risk associated with such project is high. Games takes time to develop. During the development stage, the studio must have deep enough pocket to sustain the project. It must have enough money to cater for overrun in project costs.

Another aspect of the risk is associated with the customer. Will the game get sufficient support from customers? Will the game sales generate enough revenue to cover its production costs? For a game costing US$100 million, it must be able to sell more than 2.5 million copies to break even. Furthermore pirates have found a way to allow one of the high end next gen console to play backup games. It can result in further revenue losses.

To minimise risk and ensure a decent on their investments, more and more console games that used to be exclusive to certain console are going multi-platform. E.g. GTA IV and Devil May Cry 4. When Ubisoft's Assassin Creed was first announced, it was meant to be a PS3 exclusive . However, the game was subsequently launched as a multi-platform game.

Activision's Guitar Heroes series started off on the PS2. Subsequently it also appears on XBox360. Konami's Metal Gear series used to be Playstation exclusive. However MGS2 was also published for XBox. If MGS4 does not do well on the PS3 platform, Konami might launched it on XBox360 too.

PS3 Power consumption

According to Sony, their launch model i.e. PS3 60 GB which is based on a 90 nm Cell processor and 90 nm RSX graphics chip consumes 380 Watts.

The PS3 40 GB model which was launched in late 2007 uses a 65 nm Cell processor.

It is reported that 90 nm Cell consumes 200W. On the other hand, the 65 nm Cell consumes 135 watts. It is also reported that 40 GB motherboard is only 2/3 the size of the a 60 GB model motherboard. This is probably attributable to a lack of backward compatibility with PS2 in the 40 GB motherboard, the adoption of 65 nm Cell and the redesign on the circuit board within.

In early February 2008, IBM announced that it will be producing a 45 nm Cell. It is definitely a much more environmentally and electricity bill friendly chip as it only consumes 80 W.

IT enthusiaist knows that a very powerful GPU is power hungry and can draw as much as 80% of the energy from the power supply unit. Therefore PS3 powerful RSX chip which is based on the 90 nm technology is likely to consume lots of power. It can also generate lots of heat which causes the PS3 to get heated internally rapidly. Prolonged exposure to such hot temperature is certainly not good for a PS3.

I'm sure lots of us would love to see the RSX being produced on a sub 90 nm technology. We should not have to wait long as Nvidia is already using the 65 nm technology to produce the current 9xxx series GPUs. With that we are likely to see another corresponding decrease in the power consumption of the PS3.

A 40-inch full HD LCD TV draws about 240 Watts of power. And the PS3 draws another 380 watts. So it can caused a significant dent on your utility bill if your PS3 game over a pronlonged period of time.

However, PS3 uses a 45 nm Cell processor and a 65 nm RSX chip, the PS3 that once used to consume 380W is likely to consume less than 220W. With rising energy costs, we certainly look forward to Sony leading the way with a more energy efficient PS3.

Why Sony PS3 80 GB does not do well in Singapore

Sony PS3 80 GB model was probably launched in Singapore Nov 2007 at $799. It replaces the 60 GBb model. However almost of the shops in Singapore don't carry the 80 GB model anymore. What happened? Why does it fade to oblivion within such a short period of time?

Let's venture a guess.

Sony Ps3 comes in 2 flavours: 40 GB and 80 GB. Apart from the obvious difference in storage space, the main difference lies in their ability to play PS2 games. A 80 GB model which costs $240 more allows the owner to play PS2 games. However the catch is you can only play PS2 games that are coded for your region. So a PS3 80 GB owner in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand can only play NTSC-Japan PS2 games. Most of the games under this region coding are in Japanese. So they can play popular games like Devil May Cry 3, Oninmusha 3, Final Fantasy XII and Metal Gear Solid 3 in Japanese. Sadly almost all the people in these 3 countries are not literate in Japanese.

So it does not make sense for one to pay a princely sum for function that they rarely use.

Apart from the PS2 backward compatibility, the differences between these 2 models are subtle. E.g. there are 4 USB ports on 80 GB model but only 2 USB ports on 40 GB model, only the 80 GB has a built-in card reader. No worries, just connect an external card reader (cheap, cheap) to one of the USB port.

What? 40 GB model cannot play SACD. Sorry I don't know what this is. Since I don't it, I probably won't use it. Great! Ignorance is bliss.

So if one is given the choice, he is likely to go for the 40 GB model. Save the $240 for something else. E.g. buy new PS3 games like GTA4, MGS4, COD4.

Wait.... somebody just reminded me .. How can I missed that out. The 80 GB model has double the storage space of the 40 GB model. Hmm.. .. ..

Let me see. Buy the 40 GB model, pay S$240 less. Use S$15 to buy a card reader. Spend another S$200 for a 320 GB harddisk and you get a PS3 320 GB model !!

And we shall call it.. ..

PS3 Elite Edition !!