Sony Scuppers PS3 Downgrade Talk

And if the company isn't giving out a no-comment, you know it must be annoyed.

The PlayStation 3 is a magnificent animal on paper, but there's no denying that some on Sony's enthusiasm has been tempered by the constraints of reality. This is probably why when stories circulated earlier this month that the company could be chopping the legs off the beast to fit it into its box, people didn't immediately dismiss it.

The trouble began when UK site Games Radar got wind from an insider that heating issues meant Sony would need to downgrade some of the PlayStation 3's components. "Ridiculous," Sony shot back this week.

"Developers have been working with PS3 [development] kits for anywhere between eight and 12 months, and to suggest that we'd now take the decision to downgrade the hardware at such a late stage, is, well, ridiculous," Sony's Jonathan Fargher told Eurogamer.

He also took exception to the suggestion that Sony was finding it hard to cram the innards of the PlayStation 3 into the belly of the beast.

"Whilst all products are not perfect," Fargher said, "we do have over 40 years of experience making consumer electronics equipment, and therefore, extensive experience in making things fit - PSone and Slimline PS2 being just two examples of that."

But heating is an issue that appears to have dogged Sony, as demonstrated by the PlayStation 3's casing growing several vents between its debut at E3 in 2005 and its showing at this year's event.

PlayStation boss Ken Kutaragi admitted recently in an interview with Japanese site PC Watch that keeping the PlayStation 3's Cell processor cool was a challenge, but it's one that Sony will tackle without resorting to fanciful measures.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games