Sony Announces PS3 Launch Date and Price

May 8, 2006 — -- Amid the building excitement over the upcoming Electronic Enterainment Expo which begins Wednesday, Sony announced today that the Playstation 3 will be hitting store shelves in the United States on Nov. 17, just in time for the busy holiday shopping season.

The machine will be sold with a built-in hard drive and consumers will be able to choose between a 20-gigabyte version for $499 and a 60-gigabyte version that will cost $599.

At a press conference at Sony Picture Studios, the game and electronics giant showed off their biggest surprise: a controller that will likely compete with Nintendo's Wii.

The new Playstation 3 controller looks virtually identical to the Playstation 2 controller, but gamers can move the controller itself to interact with games.

Move the controler left or right, up or down and the player's character or vehicle moves along with the controller.

Sony also showed off a line up of highly anticipated games, from a new Final Fantasy game and a new installment of the hit series "Metal Gear Solid."