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It's only in paper form right now. Hopefully NextGen will have an online version of the article, though...

> outside of the Linux community, no-one has even heard of the lousy thing.

Perhaps laypeople haven't, but my site cites over 6 dozen articles on the Indrema and I'm finding more every time I look.

Also, the current issue of NextGen magazine touts that their next will have an article on it ("Developer'sDream?").

Ditto for the latest (rather, last, unfortunately) issue of MaximumLinux.

They're getting there... albeit quite slowly.

They have sued sportscards manufactures, as well as Wizards of the Coast before for this same thing. Actually, nine such lawsuits so far. They have yet to when a case based on these grounds (oddly, I suspect they get paid by their clients everytime anyways, so winning or losing probably doesn't matter. It's a niche market.)

You can find more here.

Anybody else remember the lady who sued McDonald's over their coffee? Condensed version: lady orders coffee in the drive-thru, puts it in her lap, opens the lid, and drives away... and sues McD's because it burned her.

That woman didn't sue simply because she was burned by hot coffee. That particular McDonalds had a history of overheating their coffee, and refused to act on complaints. This particular woman had her genitals scalded shut and required surgery if I remember correctly. It was a lot more serious than simply spilling coffee in her lap.

That said, this is still extremely idiotic. The laywers involved are infamous for bringing these types of lawsuits against sports cards manufacturers, and they haven't won yet. As someone in NGO's letters section said, "it's lawyers like those that give the legal profession a bad name."

Nathan

I've made a small list of what seems to be a pretty complete list of the new PS2 info. If I've missed any, feel free to add-on.

Sony of America

Sony of Europe

Sony of Japan

PSX Nation

IGNPSX

Gaming Age

Next-Generation

Gamespot

The Magic Box

And then I'd also recomend you check out the MB's connected with some of those sites because there are some very interesting discussions in there. Also expect the major news organizations (MSNBC, ZDNET, CNN) to pick it up sometime tonight too.

32Mb RAM for the latest-and-greatest?

On a related note, Nintendo recently annonced their manufacturor of their RAM. I don't know much about it, except it's supposed to be incredibly fast. The story is here.

I submitted this last week (on the 2nd iirc) and it didn't get posted. I found this story at Next Generation Online. oh well...

I submitted this last week (on the 2nd iirc) and it didn't get posted. I found this story at Next Generation Online. oh well...

As some others have already commented, the numbers are just there so clueless reporters can gush about them. And they have, in Wired, New York Times, The Economist... "The future of entertainment is here. It will be 100 000 times faster than a PC, come with a DVD player, a ADSL line, a HDTV and a built in washing machine! And it will only cost $100! The PC will be dead come winter."

I am sure the demos such as the famous dancing couple, or the dinosaur, or this new bathtub demo are gorgeous, but again...a demo is not a real game. A current PC can do some pretty impressive demos too if you dedicate it only to do graphics without bothering about stuff like AI. We have not seen what the NV10 and Voodoo 4 can do yet together with an Athlon. And they will be out THIS year.

This is the first time that you will be able to add stuff like (possibly) harddrives, modems, different gaming units to a Playstation via USB, Firewire and what have you. This time they will have to do a complete OS for their gaming console, and "Will this game work on my Playstation 2 if I have X connected through USB, Y through Firewire but no Z connected?" is a question Sony have never had to answer before. Perhaps they underestimate the difficulties involved. As for their claim of the .18 micron 128 bit processor...is it finished yet? I would be really impressed if they managed, but considering all the other chip manufacturers having great difficulties getting .18 micron technology to work I am sceptical. Also, the Playstation 2 is going to load all these wonderful textures from a CD each time the scenery changes if I have understood correctly? Wow. It will be like the opening doors sequences in Resident Evil...times 10!

Here is an interesting article from Next-Generation Online. They have been covering the Playstation 2 from the start.

>Perhaps it was the comparison PlayStation 2's
>demos drew to other games on the show floor --
>whereas all prior public appearances had been
>the demos by themselves. Perhaps it was the
>quality of the demos. Perhaps it was the dying
>down of the initial post-announcement hype of
>Sony's new machine.
>
>Whatever it was, PlayStation 2 was not the end
>all be all at last week's E3. More than one show
>attendee we spoke to mentioned that the demos,
>which looked quite pretty, were not as exciting
>as they had hoped.
[...]
>For a system being touted as superior to the PC,
>or any PCs coming down the line soon, the
>PlayStation 2's demos did not graphically
>lambaste the gorgeous Black & White or
>Freelancer for PC, nor did the demos' graphics
>look significantly superior to those of many
>Dreamcast titles, such as Shenmue and NBA 2000.

Read the article here.
There are some more sceptical voices here. The articles are from March, but I think the criticism is still valid.

As some others have already commented, the numbers are just there so clueless reporters can gush about them. And they have, in Wired, New York Times, The Economist... "The future of entertainment is here. It will be 100 000 times faster than a PC, come with a DVD player, a ADSL line, a HDTV and a built in washing machine! And it will only cost $100! The PC will be dead come winter."

I am sure the demos such as the famous dancing couple, or the dinosaur, or this new bathtub demo are gorgeous, but again...a demo is not a real game. A current PC can do some pretty impressive demos too if you dedicate it only to do graphics without bothering about stuff like AI. We have not seen what the NV10 and Voodoo 4 can do yet together with an Athlon. And they will be out THIS year.

This is the first time that you will be able to add stuff like (possibly) harddrives, modems, different gaming units to a Playstation via USB, Firewire and what have you. This time they will have to do a complete OS for their gaming console, and "Will this game work on my Playstation 2 if I have X connected through USB, Y through Firewire but no Z connected?" is a question Sony have never had to answer before. Perhaps they underestimate the difficulties involved. As for their claim of the .18 micron 128 bit processor...is it finished yet? I would be really impressed if they managed, but considering all the other chip manufacturers having great difficulties getting .18 micron technology to work I am sceptical. Also, the Playstation 2 is going to load all these wonderful textures from a CD each time the scenery changes if I have understood correctly? Wow. It will be like the opening doors sequences in Resident Evil...times 10!

Here is an interesting article from Next-Generation Online. They have been covering the Playstation 2 from the start.

>Perhaps it was the comparison PlayStation 2's
>demos drew to other games on the show floor --
>whereas all prior public appearances had been
>the demos by themselves. Perhaps it was the
>quality of the demos. Perhaps it was the dying
>down of the initial post-announcement hype of
>Sony's new machine.
>
>Whatever it was, PlayStation 2 was not the end
>all be all at last week's E3. More than one show
>attendee we spoke to mentioned that the demos,
>which looked quite pretty, were not as exciting
>as they had hoped.
[...]
>For a system being touted as superior to the PC,
>or any PCs coming down the line soon, the
>PlayStation 2's demos did not graphically
>lambaste the gorgeous Black & White or
>Freelancer for PC, nor did the demos' graphics
>look significantly superior to those of many
>Dreamcast titles, such as Shenmue and NBA 2000.

Read the article here.
There are some more sceptical voices here. The articles are from March, but I think the criticism is still valid.

My Dinner with Origin

Of course, the article is about controlling game software as opposed to business software, but it is a similar idea.

In the long run small companies without much starting capitol will end up to be forced into either a) contracting help from the Imperial companies (like IBM, M$, etc.) or b) go with open source. Until the government decides to shut down open source, this will be a huge boon to the open source movement.

Hell, I'm not going to argue cause neither of us is going to convince the other to switch which they prefer, so it's pretty pointless. But just so you can get some facts right, look right here under Memory configuration. It says 4MB.

PS2 is 100% backward compatible, so you can think of it as an 'upgrade' if you'd like...
Also, the N64 has a RAM expansion pack for enhanced textures.

I'm excited to see Passport... I believe (and obviously sega and sony do too) that there's a strong market for a Box that boots in 15 seconds and is always connected to the net. I tie my computer up with long renders on a regular basis, so having a cheap surfing machine would be great. A net connection also eliminates most of the PCs advantages in gaming - multiplayer, extra levels, updates. Next Generation has great coverage of these machines, such as this article about a Japanese Baseball game with a pay-per-use model. (The articles are usually more in depth than this one.) They could also charge for upgraded rosters, trades, etc. As far as resolution, I remember reading that either the Dreamcast or PS2 would have VGA out, which would be a blessing until I get my wega....

PS2 is 100% backward compatible, so you can think of it as an 'upgrade' if you'd like...
Also, the N64 has a RAM expansion pack for enhanced textures.

I'm excited to see Passport... I believe (and obviously sega and sony do too) that there's a strong market for a Box that boots in 15 seconds and is always connected to the net. I tie my computer up with long renders on a regular basis, so having a cheap surfing machine would be great. A net connection also eliminates most of the PCs advantages in gaming - multiplayer, extra levels, updates. Next Generation has great coverage of these machines, such as this article about a Japanese Baseball game with a pay-per-use model. (The articles are usually more in depth than this one.) They could also charge for upgraded rosters, trades, etc. As far as resolution, I remember reading that either the Dreamcast or PS2 would have VGA out, which would be a blessing until I get my wega....

Nintendo has Dolphin Running at E3
Ten Things You Must Know About Dolphin
Next Generation Nintendo System Announced

Nintendo has Dolphin Running at E3
Ten Things You Must Know About Dolphin
Next Generation Nintendo System Announced

Nintendo has Dolphin Running at E3
Ten Things You Must Know About Dolphin
Next Generation Nintendo System Announced

IF PS2 is a hit, I think it will be the end of the traditional console, not the computer. However, Sony must overcome many problems before they will reach the goal their hype has set for them. There are three major reasons I doubt PS2 will be the PC killing console some people have dubbed it:

1) The techology. Read this from an article in Next Generation:

***********************************************
"Remember the Jaguar?" one developer opened our
interview. "It could reportedly do a billion
pixels. That was possible if there was no
software and all processors were dedicated to
pushing pixels. It's the same thing here."

Sony's Phil Harrison has stated that the Next
Generation PlayStation has a fill rate of 2.6
Gigapixels. (That's 2.6 times the Jaguar, for
those keeping track at home.)

Several other developers had the same doubts
about the machine's spectacularly high polygon
numbers. One PC and Console developer joked "It's
the 3dfx rope-a-dope. They convince you that the
only important benchmark in the universe is
framerate. nVidia has better image quality? So
what! It's all about the framerate. Sony knew
they could destroy Sega on polygon count and
Floating Point and that's what they did. Ease of
development, quality of games...none of those
things are here. It's all about the polygons."

However, some developers we spoke to simply don't
believe Sony's polygon numbers. "They're there to
make you report on them," one developer
admonished. "They're 'best case' scenarios
achieved by adding every processor's raw output
capacity. They don't take into account bus speed,
communication between processors, or any
effects."
***********************************************
http://www.next-generation.com/j smid/news/5998.html

Those who have seen the early demos have reported that it is indeed AWESOME (for instance the famous dancing couple demo, or the dinosaur), but remember that a demo is not a game, and does not show the finished product. The console is not here yet, and while it might easily beat several Xeons with Voodoo3/UltraTNT2 as some have reported, a lot can go wrong in development of this ultra new technology, and in the meantime a lot can happen in the computer world in a year.


2) How to make a profit. When the Playstation emulators came out, I read that even on the Playstation 1, Sony actually LOST money on every console sold. What they made money from was licencing the rights to make games to gaming companies. On Playstation 1 this worked wonderfully as we have seen - the console gave people wonderful prestanda/price which meant they sold LOTS. The big market made gaming companies willing to pay the licencing fees.
But look at PS2. The system will be MUCH more expensive. Sony first claimed $300 or below price, but who thinks this is possible? $500 dollars is a lot....$800? Hardcore Playstation fans will no doubt buy it anyway, but will parents buy it as a Christmas gift for their kids? (Playstation 1 sales soared around Christmas) Lots of developers were also attracted to Playstation 1 because of ease of development. No worry about different hardware configurations, different OS versions and so on. But what of the Playstation 2? Read what Squaresoft has to say in the same article as above....

************************************************ *
The most important issue in development, however,
is who will be able to develop for the machine.
No developer we asked could think of a team in
the United States with the expertise to develop
for the Next Generation PlayStation's high end
abilities.

The demo shown in Japan revealed an ability to
create curved surfaces and pre-rendered quality
gameplay graphics. Whether anyone currently
geared toward developing with polygonal systems
will be able to turn around a game using that
kind of technology is highly questionable --
particularly with the quick development cycle
Sony's 2000 release will require.

No one has commented on this question, whether a
world used to developing for PlayStation can take
advantage of a wholly new architecture with
advanced 3D functions, more publicly than
Tomoyuki Takechi, president of Square Co. The
Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported yesterday that the
Square chief believes, "No more than five
software companies can develop games that take
full advantage of the PlayStation 2's
capabilities." (Though given that outlet's recent
translation troubles, he may have in fact said no
more than fifty.)

Takechi reportedly went on to say that the new
technology will draw the lines between
developers "who have computer graphics prowess
and those who do not."
************************************************

FIVE?? And even if it was fifty, that is pretty god damn low! Are these companies alone expected to support Sony and their subventioned console? They will have to make a really big profit then to make ends meet. Also, fifty companies in the world. How many good and original games can they churn out per year? Look at how long it has taken Id to learn the new technology (curves and so on) and do Quake 3. And look at Squaresoft the flagship of Playstation, they seem to be only making compies of their old hits these days. (Parasite Eve, Final Fantasy 8. I have seen it all before.) As a gamer, I am sceptical. The added price and low number of developers can make the positive spiral of Playstation 1 turn negative. Few games and an expensive unit around release could make many gamers take a wait and see approach. And if profits doesn't come quickly gaming companies will start to pull out and develop for PC and Dreamcast instead. Sega Saturn, Atari Jaguar anyone?

3) "It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's..a pretty hot computer!"
Even if Sony manages to overcome the previous problems (and that is a big IF), what is it that they are creating? According to Verant, Sony is considering making Everquest one of the games available for the PS2 when it comes out. To play Everquest, you need: An Internet connection, a harddrive for the patches, a keyboard, a mouse, a monitor unless you want to view the gorgeous graphics on a cruddy TV screen, speakers for the monitor, an OPERATING SYSTEM to manage all these things. What is this if not a computer? Also, they have said they will have DVD, Firewire, USB, a built in camera and microphone. With internet connection you will want a browser. A mouse for the browser. An email program. A frigging ICQ client, maybe IRC! Are Sony going to develop all this hardware and software by themselves?? If all these promises are kept, how the HELL are they going to keep the price for the "console" below $1500?

Again, if they despite all odds manage to pull this through...more power to us! I presume this will mean that we will finally be free of the crud that has built up over the years around the x86 architechture. We will have computers that are many times more powerful than today. The only losers will be Intel. And hopefully Microsoft. :-)

There, I've spread enough FUD about poor Sony for one day.

/Lars

IF PS2 is a hit, I think it will be the end of the traditional console, not the computer. However, Sony must overcome many problems before they will reach the goal their hype has set for them. There are three major reasons I doubt PS2 will be the PC killing console some people have dubbed it:

1) The techology. Read this from an article in Next Generation:

***********************************************
"Remember the Jaguar?" one developer opened our
interview. "It could reportedly do a billion
pixels. That was possible if there was no
software and all processors were dedicated to
pushing pixels. It's the same thing here."

Sony's Phil Harrison has stated that the Next
Generation PlayStation has a fill rate of 2.6
Gigapixels. (That's 2.6 times the Jaguar, for
those keeping track at home.)

Several other developers had the same doubts
about the machine's spectacularly high polygon
numbers. One PC and Console developer joked "It's
the 3dfx rope-a-dope. They convince you that the
only important benchmark in the universe is
framerate. nVidia has better image quality? So
what! It's all about the framerate. Sony knew
they could destroy Sega on polygon count and
Floating Point and that's what they did. Ease of
development, quality of games...none of those
things are here. It's all about the polygons."

However, some developers we spoke to simply don't
believe Sony's polygon numbers. "They're there to
make you report on them," one developer
admonished. "They're 'best case' scenarios
achieved by adding every processor's raw output
capacity. They don't take into account bus speed,
communication between processors, or any
effects."
***********************************************
http://www.next-generation.com/j smid/news/5998.html

Those who have seen the early demos have reported that it is indeed AWESOME (for instance the famous dancing couple demo, or the dinosaur), but remember that a demo is not a game, and does not show the finished product. The console is not here yet, and while it might easily beat several Xeons with Voodoo3/UltraTNT2 as some have reported, a lot can go wrong in development of this ultra new technology, and in the meantime a lot can happen in the computer world in a year.


2) How to make a profit. When the Playstation emulators came out, I read that even on the Playstation 1, Sony actually LOST money on every console sold. What they made money from was licencing the rights to make games to gaming companies. On Playstation 1 this worked wonderfully as we have seen - the console gave people wonderful prestanda/price which meant they sold LOTS. The big market made gaming companies willing to pay the licencing fees.
But look at PS2. The system will be MUCH more expensive. Sony first claimed $300 or below price, but who thinks this is possible? $500 dollars is a lot....$800? Hardcore Playstation fans will no doubt buy it anyway, but will parents buy it as a Christmas gift for their kids? (Playstation 1 sales soared around Christmas) Lots of developers were also attracted to Playstation 1 because of ease of development. No worry about different hardware configurations, different OS versions and so on. But what of the Playstation 2? Read what Squaresoft has to say in the same article as above....

************************************************ *
The most important issue in development, however,
is who will be able to develop for the machine.
No developer we asked could think of a team in
the United States with the expertise to develop
for the Next Generation PlayStation's high end
abilities.

The demo shown in Japan revealed an ability to
create curved surfaces and pre-rendered quality
gameplay graphics. Whether anyone currently
geared toward developing with polygonal systems
will be able to turn around a game using that
kind of technology is highly questionable --
particularly with the quick development cycle
Sony's 2000 release will require.

No one has commented on this question, whether a
world used to developing for PlayStation can take
advantage of a wholly new architecture with
advanced 3D functions, more publicly than
Tomoyuki Takechi, president of Square Co. The
Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported yesterday that the
Square chief believes, "No more than five
software companies can develop games that take
full advantage of the PlayStation 2's
capabilities." (Though given that outlet's recent
translation troubles, he may have in fact said no
more than fifty.)

Takechi reportedly went on to say that the new
technology will draw the lines between
developers "who have computer graphics prowess
and those who do not."
************************************************

FIVE?? And even if it was fifty, that is pretty god damn low! Are these companies alone expected to support Sony and their subventioned console? They will have to make a really big profit then to make ends meet. Also, fifty companies in the world. How many good and original games can they churn out per year? Look at how long it has taken Id to learn the new technology (curves and so on) and do Quake 3. And look at Squaresoft the flagship of Playstation, they seem to be only making compies of their old hits these days. (Parasite Eve, Final Fantasy 8. I have seen it all before.) As a gamer, I am sceptical. The added price and low number of developers can make the positive spiral of Playstation 1 turn negative. Few games and an expensive unit around release could make many gamers take a wait and see approach. And if profits doesn't come quickly gaming companies will start to pull out and develop for PC and Dreamcast instead. Sega Saturn, Atari Jaguar anyone?

3) "It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's..a pretty hot computer!"
Even if Sony manages to overcome the previous problems (and that is a big IF), what is it that they are creating? According to Verant, Sony is considering making Everquest one of the games available for the PS2 when it comes out. To play Everquest, you need: An Internet connection, a harddrive for the patches, a keyboard, a mouse, a monitor unless you want to view the gorgeous graphics on a cruddy TV screen, speakers for the monitor, an OPERATING SYSTEM to manage all these things. What is this if not a computer? Also, they have said they will have DVD, Firewire, USB, a built in camera and microphone. With internet connection you will want a browser. A mouse for the browser. An email program. A frigging ICQ client, maybe IRC! Are Sony going to develop all this hardware and software by themselves?? If all these promises are kept, how the HELL are they going to keep the price for the "console" below $1500?

Again, if they despite all odds manage to pull this through...more power to us! I presume this will mean that we will finally be free of the crud that has built up over the years around the x86 architechture. We will have computers that are many times more powerful than today. The only losers will be Intel. And hopefully Microsoft. :-)

There, I've spread enough FUD about poor Sony for one day.

/Lars

...that's an "artist's rendering" from an old next generation magazine. not that i'd complain if the finished product looked like that... :)

Next-Generation Online, has been posting important information about the PSX2, Anyone interested should check it out.

www.next-generation.com

Kriston J. Rehberg
http://kriston.net/