More PS3 'secrets' revealed

Future Publishing U.S. magazine, PSM has revealed a number of anonymously sourced details about Sony's PlayStation 3 in its September issue, including information about its specifications and storage capabilities.

The magazine reports that the PS3 will not be able to use old memory cards or provide the relevant slots currently compatible for PlayStation 2 or PS One, as Sony has decided to use only its Memory Stick Duo cards -the same format used for PlayStation Portable- to save PS3 data.

This will mean save games on the older formats will not be useable on the next generation format, unless they are saved directly on the PS3's Memory Stick. It is suggested that this standardisation of the format will aid in downloading information for the multimedia machine, as well as avoiding current problem of PS2 and PS One memory cards not being interchangeable.

PSM goes on to state PS3 will also not support older peripherals that use the PS2/One controller port. While the new PS3 gamepad will work when playing the older games, it appears third party extras and dance mats will not be compatible - as we originally suggested at E3, when we noted that the system has no visible ports for connecting such devices.

However, the PSP will be optional as a Wi-Fi remote, allowing the handheld to manage media stored on the PS3, switch it on from sleep mode, control movie playback and more. This is in addition to a planned USB TiVo style peripheral, permitting the PS3 to record television programming to the optional micro hard-drive, with the stored information interchangeable between the next gen machine and the PSP.

Regarding full hard-disc drive for the machine, PSM says Sony aims to keep initial HDD storage to the previously mentioned micro-drive, pitched at 80 gigabytes for the first batch. The intention is not to use this for games, but media storage such as movies, MP3s and digital photos, transferable across a PC, PSP or another PS3. However, the magazine is keen to stress the final specs for the machine are not yet set and there may be improvements to the basic system memory and other parts of PS3 architecture.

With gaming being an obvious part of Sony's format, PSM states most titles will run at a standard 720p visual resolution for High Definition TVs (HDTV). Although it still supports 1080i and 1080p high-definition modes, it's known that a majority of HDTVs do not yet support such a scale yet. Further to this, Sony wishes to allow players to drop the resolution to 480p (progressive scan) or 480i (the standard regular TVs currently use), if they so wish, leaving an option for users who do not have HDTVs.

Sony's PlayStation 3 will be released in Japan next spring, with a launch in the West following later in 2006. More information on the machine will be revealed by Sony at next month's Tokyo Game Show.