To compete with Microsoft's XBox 360, Sony released its third version of the PlayStation. This is obviously called the PlayStation 3 and was released in November of 2006, just over a year after the release of the XBox 360.
The PlayStation 3, or PS3 as many people call it, had its own unified online gaming service. This of course was called "The PlayStation Network". The PS3 has several multimedia capabilities. It can connect with the PlayStation Portable or PSP to play games. It also uses high definition optical disc format (Blu-Ray Disc) for is primary storage. This was the first Blu-Ray system on the market. The PS3 can play DVDs, CDs, and old games from the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2.
Production costs for the PlayStation 3 was over $800 for both the 20 GB and the 60 GB versions of the PS3. This is why they cost so much. The 60 GB originally cost $599 and the 20 GB originally cost $499. Even with the high cost of the PS3, there were over 5 million sold in the U.S. as of July 2008 and 16.84 million sold world wide as of November 2008. Although this is slightly less than the Microsoft's numbers, the PS3 was very successful. Microsoft's XBox 360 was released a year before Sony's PlayStation 3, thus giving it the edge on sales. But the popularity of both the systems grew to be about the same. Like the XBox 360, the PS3 had special versions of its on that went on sale.
The battle between Microsoft and Sony continues to grow. At first people said the PS2 was just a little better than the XBox. Now some say that the XBox 360 is just a little better than the PS3. You decide. We are all excited to see what they will come up with next. Although, there is one thing we are forgetting.. oh yeah... Nintendo's release of its gaming system....
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