Besides announcing that the PS3 would launch worldwide in Nov, Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutagari also confirmed that the PS3 will ship with a 60GB hard disk drive, and an online service to rival Xbox Live, dubbed the PlayStation Network Platform. Like Live, Sony plans to offered tiered versions of the Playstion Network, with the basic version offered free of charge.

From gamespot:

The SCE president also told the crowd that the PS3 would use a 60GB 2.5″ hard disc drive (HDD). A slide show during the presentation said the HDD would will be loaded with the Linux operating system versus Microsoft’s Windows OS. The show also said it could be used as a “home server” and be directly connected to the Internet, and be full “upgradeable.”
Kutaragi also made it clear that the hard drive will be necessary to play games–Sony is telling developers to make games assuming every PS3 has a hard drive installed. “We view the Hard Drive to be mandatory for the PS3,” he said. “Rather than have developers create games for the PS3 with or without the HDD, we will be asking them to develop games as though all PS3s have the HDD installed.”

However, Kutaragi revealed that Sony had not decided whether or not the PlayStation 3 would come with the hard-drive pre-installed. “We might end up installing it in all PS3s, though that depends on the market,” he said. This raises the possibility that the PS3 could be sold without a piece of hardware needed to play PS3 games–in effect forcing consumers to buy a peripheral for basic functionality.

Source

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