Apple And Sony’s PS3 – What Might Have Been

Sony nearly crashed the internet the morning of Friday the 7th of July, all thanks to a teeny little, nearly invisible image roughly 5 pixels wide that showed itself, only for an instant on their Official US website. Since attributed to simple jackassery, for a few brief hours the image had the net raging with speculation, and as journalists scrambled to get to the bottom of the situation, many began to imagine what kind of PS3 an Apple/Sony co-operative venture would birth. Here’s the answer: Quite simply the greatest videogame console we’ve ever seen.

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Sony nearly crashed the internet the morning of Friday the 7th of July, all thanks to a teeny little, nearly invisible image roughly 5 pixels wide that showed itself, only for an instant on their Official US website. Since attributed to simple jackassery, for a few brief hours the image had the net raging with speculation, and as journalists scrambled to get to the bottom of the situation, many began to imagine what kind of PS3 an Apple/Sony co-operative venture would birth. Here’s the answer: Quite simply the greatest videogame console we’ve ever seen.

Sony make some wonderful machines and gadgets, say what you will, but when it comes down to it their build quality is generally regarded as being some of the finest you can get. One area where Sony has often drawn criticism is in its software department, their stubbornness and insistence on sticking to proprietary formats has been pointed to as possibly hampering widespread adoption of its hardware. Many people point out that Sony’s hardware and Software divisions rarely seem to be in synch with each other. Now let’s look at Apple for a second, they make great hardware, and wonderful software, but Lord knows they could use a hand in the gaming department… see where I’m getting at?

iTunes Integration: We know the PS3 is intended to give buyers the ability to purchase music, movies and other forms of digital content, so wouldn’t it be great if we were all able to do that using a console specific version of iTunes, a proven user interface that works and works well? Apple has had significant experience with the whole idea of digital content delivery, and bringing this experience to bear with the PS3 would only assure gamers their going to get quality service.

It would also be interesting to see whether this integration was extended to the PSP, it only makes sense that it would, since Sony is championing PS3/PSP-inter connectivity. iTunes on the PSP, with the ability to download new music music, watch movies and TV shows, is something many PSP owners have been waiting for since shortly after the systems launch. It is however, unlikely that we’ll ever see iTunes on the PSP as this would doubtless intrude on Apple’s iPod market share. In the end it looks like we’ll just have to wait and see what Sony’s revamped Connect service will have to offer… if it ever gets here.

Mac OS X: Sony has always tried to push their gaming machines as computing devices in the past, mainly because doing so means they get some pretty nifty tax breaks, but also because it’s an attractive proposition to buyers. The idea of being able to get the all around functionality of a computer and a gaming machine for under $700 is pretty enticing. We know from statements made by Ken Kutaragi that the PS3 will be capable of running some flavor of Linux in addition to also being able to run other OS’s such as Windows and Mac OS X, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility. The PS3 is already being touted as a multimedia beast, but giving it the productivity afforded by Mac OS X would make it all the more attractive, and go a long way to adding weight to those claims, suddenly $500/$600 looks like an absolute steal.

Unfortunately we most likely won’t be getting an Apple/Sony powered PS3, especially if Sony’s irritatingly vague explanation for Friday’s incident is to believed:

“In a recent update to the PlayStation 3 section of the playstation.com website, an external error was made during the upload process and the Apple icon was mistakenly placed on the site. We immediately fixed the problem and apologize for any confusion this may have caused.“

So we’ll have to look for value in what we know we’re getting, the games. We’ll also have to wait and see just how far Sony plans on taking their Linux integration, as we’ve heard very little on the subject except confirmation of its presence.

Here’s a question for the comments though, would the inclusion of Mac OS X have made the PS3’s high price any more justifiable in your eyes?