Gaming Battle gets Fierce as Sony unveils PS3

So its Microsoft Xbox 360 vs Sony PS3 vs Nintendo "Wii" and Xbox has a clear edge till now because of an early start, and already having sold 3.2 million units since its launch in November.

Sony is trying its best to maintain leadership in the gaming arena, but the delay in lauch may cost it dearly. The company showcased the latest in PlayStation series, yesterday at a news conference. The console will be introduced in two versions, costing $ 499 and $ 599, with the higher priced one boasting of a hard disk capacity of 60GB as compared to 20GB of the standard ones.

The company also showed off the PS3’s new controller, which looks similar to the one for the older PlayStation 2 but adds motion sensors to detect six degrees of movement. In a demonstration, the controller was used to pilot a jet fighter.

The console comes equipped with Blu-ray, a disk which can store high definition movies and video. Blu-ray players are expensive as compared to other players, and the cheapest priced player comes with a price tag of $ 1000.

The price differential between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, and the delay in launch of the console due to technical hindrances with Blu-ray has been taken with sceptism by the industry experts, who say PS3’s marriage to Blu-ray will be an advantage to Microsoft, who is using HD-DVD in its consoles.

In a separate advancement, Microsoft has fulfilled its promise of giving a DVD drive in its player. The company announced on its site, that the HD-DVD drive will be available as an accessory and will connect to the player via USB cable.

"There aren’t any Blu-ray players available to test, but if you compare the requirements on paper it’s going to be a wash in terms of video quality," Xbox global marketing director Albert Penello said on the Web site. "At Microsoft, we’ve known that for some time. But the major difference is going to be price, and all the leading indicators point to HD DVD winning."

Nintendo is expected to hold a similar conference on Tuesday and might come up with the most competitive pricing for its console, Wii.