A special version of Sony PlayStation 3 game console aimed at multimedia enthusiasts may emerge a little later than one would expect, in late 2008, or about eighteen months from now, according to a comment made by an anonymous source from Sony in an interview with an Australian web-site.

“We have even looked at a Sony home server based on PlayStation technology. This would allow consumers to connect home automation devices to the Sony server while also delivering online gaming and access to an extensive movie and music library,” an anonymous source from Sony is reported to have said in an interview with Smarthouse Magazine Online, which claims that the new PlayStation for audio/video enthusiasts is about eighteen months away.

The “media-centric” PlayStation 3 is not a news and is not something totally new for the market. Sony already sold its PSX game console in Japan, which is based on the PlayStation 2 technology, but which also has some Hi-Fi capabilities built in, making it a fully-featured gaming and media center.

According to earlier information, “media-centric” PlayStation 3 will feature capabilities of consumer electronics devices and will be more focused on digital media content playback, rather than on gaming. Based on claims reportedly made by executives of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., it was reported that the PlayStation 3 “media-centric”-edition will feature anti-vibration mechanism on the Blu-ray disc drive, 512MB XDR memory, more advanced power supply unit and two HDMI connectors to divide audio and video data.

The new version of the PlayStation 3 will also have a new design that matches other consumer electronics products and is unlikely to be totally similar to the currently sold PlayStation 3 gaming machines. Still, all the games for the PlayStation 3 should play absolutely well on the device.

Given that in the consumer electronics industry manufacturers do not subsidize hardware in hope to compensate their losses by selling many games, it is highly likely that the console, which currently costs $840 to manufacture, will be sold at a premium price. An executive at Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. was quoted as saying that the price range could be from ¥200 to ¥300 thousand ($1680 to $2520).

The aforementioned web-site loves X-bit labs so much that it quoted a huge part of our news-story about next-generation PlayStation game consoles without any change or request in its "media-centric" PlayStation news-story. This must definitely be a really mad, uncontrollable, love!