Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has expressed his opinion that the PS3 will be a surefire hit. His comments were made to the San Jose Mercury News and revealed Huang,s very positive outlook for Sony,s next gen game console. In May of 2005, Nvidia entered into a joint effort with Sony to develop the graphics processor for the PS3. Previously, Nvidia produced the GPU for the original Xbox, but was not tapped to develop the graphic chipset for Microsoft,s 360.
While there has been an inordinate amount of criticism surrounding the PS3, Huang remarked that teaming up with Sony was the proper decision. “Sony picked us and Microsoft didn’t. I don’t think that working with Sony is wrong. There is no way that is going to be wrong. There are many wonderful things that Sony did. I’m excited that they made Blu-ray high-definition storage as a standard part of the PlayStation 3 platform.”
Huang was asked about his thoughts concerning the number one hot topic on the PS3-its price point. “If you use inflation, it’s the same price, approximately, [as previous launch prices]. The important thing is you cannot announce a game console for the next ten years and not have Blu-Ray. It’s an impossible scenario. I think they got that perspective right. The moment we put those consoles together it’s going to be very clear.”
However, calculations done by GamerNode contradict Huang’s assessment that inflation accounts for the price increase in the next-generation PlayStation. The $300 USD MSRP of the PlayStation 2 in 2000 correlates to a pricetag of approximately $350 USD, far short of the $499 USD pricetag for the basic PS3.
Huang then went on to predict the longevity of the PS3 by saying, “If I’m going to buy a next-generation game console, I’m going to buy a console with next-generation media. It’s going to last 10 years.”
Many industry watchers have predicted a gloomy future for the PS3, with some even going as far as to say that it will come in at last place, behind Nintendo,s Wii and Microsoft,s Xbox 360, in the console races.
