PS3 Design Loses Router Feature

News - Home network role diminishes

Ever vocal Sony chief Ken Kutaragi has revealed to the Nikkei Electronics publication that the home router functionality has been axed from the current design of the Playstation 3, owing to the ever-mounting manufacturing costs of the forthcoming console. The router functionality was originally designed to put the PS3 at the centre of the networked home; multiple Ethernet ports linking in computers, media devices, cameras et al with the PS3 acting as a hub and central control point. Whether the network ports will still be part of the design - for using in attaching devices like IP cameras - remains to be seen, but Microsoft will pleased to note this dent in to machine's 'media centre' capabilities, one of the principle aims of the Xbox 360.

Sony are hoping that the ever growing number of home routers used for functionality like wireless networking and broadband will mean that the PS3 can still link-in to play a key role in the networked home, believing that this change in specification will alter little of the system's desirability. Quite how much strain the PS3 is putting on Sony remains to be seen, but this little change in specification certainly indicates that as analysts have predicted the PS3 is going to be a costly beast to manufacture. More on this soon.