Slashdot Mirror
PlayStation 2 Launched In Europe
Hougaard writes: "The PS2 release for Europe is today ... I went down to my local store to buy one. This is a store a lot like a CompUSA (sizewise). They will only get six from Sony???. The rumour has it, that Sony is only releasing 8000 PS2 for Denmark thruout 2000 :-(
But I was guy number five -- So hopefully ..." Can any European readers comment on the launch? Were lines stretched around the block like they were at some U.S. stores? Who's got one already?
This part of the faq explains how moderating came to be, and who gets it now. The part that prevents me from getting moderator access is "no obsessive compulsive reloaders." I've got loads of karma (call it whoring if you will) but I'm so bored at work that I can't wait for the next article to come up, and I'm always looking to see if anyone replied to my posts. Anyway, check out the guidelines, and see if you come up short anywhere.
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
--Scott Adams
The only reason PSX1 was successful was cuz gamez were copyable. Look at DC to see the FAILURE of a system due 2 copy protection shitz.
I don't know if they've hyped up the PS2 launch as much in Europe, it's definitely been a big deal in the US, to the point where newspapers bother to report on the coverage due to the immense value of the console itself. I am not surprised by the fact that there aren't corner-turning lines in European countries though, that's where the factor of national population (and number of PS2s) plus the amount of knowledge people have about the quantity of the PS2s come in. I am not aware of the gamer ratio over there, but the PS2 seems to be able to cause anticipation and funny little nerd riots where ever it goes.
Jawa
Jawa
http://gryps.paravolve.com/jawa/
Unfortunately, the doors opened into a huge gas chamber. Nazi fag.
Your marvellous and generous reply has relieved approximately one minute of boredom, given that I am now replying. Unfortunately, I do not understand your reference to cigarettes at the end of your post.
Have you ever thought about how funny it would be if you heard someone say "can I bum a fag off of you?"
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
--Scott Adams
Most PS2 were pre-sold, none in shops (I Think). :-)
No, I didn't buy one
The BBC coverage includes the price in various countries in USD - not surprisingly the US price is the lowest.
They had to delay the launch because of production problems in Japan.
----
I hereby inform you that I have NOT been required to provide any decryption keys.
I refuse to try to judge the performance of a piece of hardware from details of how its clever. How good is the RAMMemory bandwidth in practice anyway? Does it use texture compression? Does the DC? What sort of memory bandwidth are we using and what can we manage?
I'll make a decision when I see Quake run on both of them. Actually I'll just see whats got the best games after Easter.
don't know if she is officially a pornstar, but joanne guest is pretty damn hot.
I've heard too that only 8000 PS2's was going to be released in Denmark through out 2000, but with the price of allmost 4000 kr. I don't think that you should fear the term "Sold out"... But the PS2 is an Awesome system though... (hehe, rart at se danskere på nettet)
http://geekgossip.net/forums - enlarges your penis.
Dreamcast using Bleemcast plays PS1 games better than a PS2. :-)
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Well all big empires are evil I guess. And I don't really care. All I care about is what they can offer me as a user and developer and the XBox looks better in that regard. What's wrong with a harddisk? I don't see the problem - on the contrary. And what's wrong with a x86 CPU? It's cheap and even fast nowadays. And the NVidia chipset is going to kick some major gfx ass anyway, so...
...I dunno why I'm posting on a two-day-old thread nobody's reading any more,...
I'do. I'll check it out.
peterrenshaw ~ Another Scrappy Startup
...or would do if Bleemcast had seen the light of day. And given Bleem's reputation surrounding the PC version of their software I wouldn't be holding out for too much in the way of compatibility and stability. Of course, the best way to play PSOne games is on... a PSOne. Duh.
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
Sure, give money to sony. Their games aren't that impressive and will take a while to come out with decent games. DreamCast uses version of DirectX interface and Playstation uses their own patented, sign non disclosure or you don't get it type of interface. Fuck them. The will be like Apple bigots, yes they have the best hardware but corporate greed for money and control is what ultimately might destroy them. Look back PC vs Mac war. Two games one guy brought to our place are not as impressive as they sold them to be. Like XXs for one? Similar one for the Dreamcast Tony Hawkings Skate board game kicks its ass.
DOA2 load time are horrendous, and there's no depth to the game whatsoever, unlike soulcalibur.
So I'd say shove your PS2 and second rate DVD up your own ass, you might enjoy it better that way.
Since European consumers expect prices to be high they don't complain, and companies like Sony realize that they can get away with higher prices in Europe without loosing too many customers.
But when It comes to the Playstation 2 the price is just rediculous! Here in Sweden it sells for SEK 4500 (about $450) which is almost twice what the Dreamcast costs.
I don't know the exact number on how many machines will reach Sweden before christmas but if the supplies are so low as Sony say they'll probably be able to sell the few consoles they have at this price since they will be so rare -- but I'll doubt that a lot of people will pay that kind of money for the PS2 in January or whenever supplies increase..
Somewhere in the heavens... they are waiting.
But the PS2 is already twice as expensive as the DC here. $300 vs. $150 here in US
You guys are paying sucker money man.
CY
"Let me open these blinds so the snipers can see in." - Kevin Giffhorn
...from all hiper-markets in portugal too. Kids gonna have a great christmas.
It was no problem preordering one of these, as the demand surprisingly hadn't been that big, at least not in those stores, which admittedly is not placed in the most populated area of Denmark (no 5 mile queues or any riot-like happenings
And, the fact that Denmark only got 8000 PS2s for the rest of the year just plain sucks.
United Kingdom : One PS2 for every 363 citizens
Denmark : One PS2 for every 662 citizens
Thats unfair, I should think :-(
There is a small community in northern Sweden called Danmark (Denmark's sp. Danmark in Swedish). I think it's somewhere in Värmland.
Here in belgium the price was 21.500BEF, which is around $450. That's with one gamepad, no games, no memory cards. The price is expected to go down next week. But you won't find me looking around for a PS2. I'll get my neighbour to buy one, I'll buy a serious DVD player and I'll just wait 6 months and get a PS2 at a much better price. ;P
No, they cant. They use the fact that they control the hardware to also control the software. Otherwise people would make playstations that could play games from anywhere in the world which would mean games released in the US would work on European machines. Sony currently cant stand the idea of that and doesnt allow it on its machines (hence the infamous modchip, which not all owners opt for).
Also allowing for other people to create clones means variations in specifications. Sony currently takes great care over quality control of games, I mean, how often has a PS game crashed on you? Nowhere near as frequently as the average PC game. This would be much harder with clone hardware on the market and would cause then a drop in software sales and therefore hurt their core bussiness.
Just because something doesnt make you money doesnt mean its not essential for your profit.
Nick
Nick
Here are a couple of articles from The Irish Times about the demand for the PS2 in Ireland:
Some buyers consoled as Sony game arrives
PlayStation2 demand wipes out national supply
It's interesting to note that for some reason Ireland has the most Playstation One consoles per capita than any country other than Japan. For this reason the Irish allocation was relatively generous, but still totally inadequate.
But there is no knowledge people in Europe - only when you come visit us with nice caps and sneakers. We people of Europe not so smart as you clevar people of America. WE LOVE YOU - you are SO clevar people.
burger-snaskere
There are quite a few PS2's left in Germany. They are at the Toys R Us stores and seem to be being bought up quite quickly. I was in a Koln store on Friday, and they were packed, but stocked. Mostly the guy counterpart of couples were buying them.. seems like the men have found their escape from the women.
When I came at the shop (Toys-R-Us in Wallau, near Frankfurt), there were +/- 10 people waiting, and it was an hour before opening time. So I waited an hour, by that time there were about 40 or 50 people waiting. The rumour among the crowd was that the shop only had 30 units, so when they opened the door, I *ran* in... only to find that only the 10 people that were there first actually came for a ps2, the others just wanted other stuff... So there were plenty of playstations. The bad parts was that they only had 4 games :-(
You Americans very beautifull (as we can see in your clevar films) so you have lots of sex and then have many babies and then you become biiig country. We Europeans not so beautifull as Barbara Streisann or Clint Eastwood so we have little sex and not many babies and then become little country.
Okay, lets do this backwards. Start with £299.99. Divide by 1.175 (to remove VAT):
299.99 / 1.175 = £255.31 before VAT
Multiply by 1.6 to convert to US $:
255.31 * 1.6 = 408.50
Leaving a difference of $108.50. Given that if you multiply £299.99 you get $480, this is almost $70 in VAT.
But yeah, point taken, $108.50 is a lot of extra.
Btw. Bergen rox ! :0
was there on holliday
- --[... The secret of the hanged man, the smile on his lips... ]-- -
I work at an EB in Oz... We were taking preorders until the company said enough ...
Our store alone clocked up 150 and customers are still asking, with launch just 4 days away we've told the preorderers that we'll be open midnight...
That's pretty fked in my book because it'll be the midnight till 2-3am ...then we'll be open 9 to 9 for late night shopping...
Luckily I'll be avoiding the chaos.. I have IT exams ;)
--Agnostics are those that don't have the guts to admit there are no higher powers.
The PSX2 has *many* great games for it already available - PS1 games. I know that isn't what you meant, but I think Sony did The Right Thing when they added backwards-compatibility with their last console. I hope they keep it up, and others emulate them(keeping backwards compatibility with the *last* console the company made - no need to make another x86).
Dave
'Round the firewall,
Out the modem,
Through the router,
Down the wire,
Barclay family motto:
Aut agere aut mori.
(Either action or death.)
Immoral because they want to make profits? Welcome to capitalism
No, but because they use underhand tactics to do so. Threatening legal action against competitors is not nice. They may be within their rights to do this, but it becomes a totalitarian regime ruled by large corporations. Letters from lawyers look scary even if they have no legal basis to complain.
Unless they control the distribution and sale of software (=games), there is no money
If they couldn't, they would just have to find a new way to make money. And they would. Sony make quite a nice profit on CD players without control of the entire market. Companies have made a profit on hardware before. Cheaper games could be a selling point.
These guys make Microsoft look innocent!
I disagree: I have yet to see Sony to abuse a monopoly to embrace another market.
An exageration. Although they do use their monopoly to prevent non-sanctioned games from being developed.
Everyone can easily decide whether a game is good. Bot not everyone has the knowledge to decide whether an Operating system is good or not.
Well, that doesn't really matter. If I sell any useless product that you find adequate for your needs, then it doesn't matter whether its any good by an experts judgement. Its up to competitors to make a better product and convince you that its better.
No need for such a creature. Most TVs in Europe will happily display NTSC signals. I'm running Japanese and US import consoles on my bog-standard el-cheapo ex-rental TV with no additional hardware other than the voltage converter (this one's mandatory if you don't want your expensive new console to go fzzt...)
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
I was thinking if this could be some sort of (bad) advertising for the ps2 so that everybody who wants one tries to get it as soon as possible and that they are mentioned in the press... I'm really frustrated. This should not happen. Sony should put every ps2 they have in stock onto the market and not delever one or two a day that people keep coming back to the shops and leave frustrated. Im deliberating if I really need one of those bloody things...
------------------------------
The answer is yes, me.
Actually, last time I checked it was imported as a games console. Sony were threatening to take various countries to court over their refusal to accept it as a PC (with the correspondingly lower import duty), but nothing had happened yet. So the first batch does have that import duty.
Even with that thrown in, of course, it's cheaper in the US. And the reason is, as you say, that they know they can get away with it. 300 pounds doesn't sound like a reasonable price to this consumer, though. And what with the delays in releases of games, or no releases at all in Europe (from Square alone, Europe missed out on Xenogears, Final Fantasy Tactics, Parasite Eve, Saga Frontier, Chrono Cross and many more...) if I ever decide I want a Western PS2, I'll be importing from the US.
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
..i just saw playstation 1 with new covers and price had been taken up again.. hmm.. i think they have put too much money on ps2 and now they are trying to take it back with refitted ps1, as people will think it's cheap when confronted with ps2, althought the price would have been about at least 10% lower just couple of weeks ago..
ound the message used repetitively over and over still nothing grows silen
I haven't been there myself but I saw on the news (both TV, online and printed) that the Virgin Megastore here in Paris had 200 PS2 and opened at midnight that day. 2 people got injured in the "fight" and many people had been waiting for hours... They just did something grand like with a giant PS2 dome opening, the boxes being underneath the dome surrounded by spotlights... There were 70 000 PS2 for France, and 50 000 were only available for people who reserved one earlier so 20 000 Playstation 2 have been sold yesterday in stores all over the country. pfew!
Personnaly I wouldn't go through all that troubles for a console that still lacks a lot of great games (something else than arcade) and wait for the system to be a few months older...
reply to this, it's all setup
and so on, and so onhey! what happened to the "post anonymously" option for users,
why not also remove "coward" from "userless" posts, really i'm serious
The PS2 is going to be around for 5 years at least, so there's no point at all in queuing for hours. So you (might) get to buy a PS2 before anyone else - big deal. How about waiting for some games to appear and the price to come down?
it's so much more over there because they tax you out the wazoo for stupid things like game consoles. on the other hand, at least it doesn't cost you $2000 to go to the emergency room.
personally, i'd take the price hike on playstations.
Leading the partnership for a Slashdot-Free Slashdot, Son of Dog
I didnt see any queues here, in fact, I never heard a peep in the computer science common room.
However, the register is reporting about online buying. We've not gone as mad as you yanks though.
The PS2 retails for $300 in the US, its $433 over here. Somethign seems a little amis. If I were interested I'd get a NTSC-->PAL converter at those prices!
honestly, i dont see what the big deal is, ive played one of the damn things and its no better than the original. As for the DVD ability, like someone LONG before me said, you can get a truly GOOD player for the same money, rather than the medicre one that the PS2 is. i will admit the BASIC thing IS cool though.... lets talk more about that... :P
Hash Bang Slash Bin Slash Bash
If anyone out there got one, can you let us know what the implementation of BASIC is like please?
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Let's hear about the programming of it. I can't even imagine what the interface is like. Description, details, and is it worth it for me to get one shipped across the pond?
______
everyone was born right-handed, only the greatest overcome it.
______
everyone was born right-handed, only the greatest overcome it.
http://leftorium.net
In Australia they have just started putting up, big blue ? mark posters where the question mark is shaped like the P from the PS2 logo, they also have a flashing dot at night time. I guess its suposed to build hype for the PS2, but any self respecting video game user knows that it is a PS2 ad, and the things have been out for weeks everywhere else. I think the PS2 will cost about 700 Australian dollars, and thats ridiculous.
in Austria they open the stores at 12:00 PM in order to prevent that so many people have to wait outside in the cold a whole night.
A monkey is doing the real work for me.
I'm a Dane myself... and I din't find it funny at all. But it didn't offend me either, so laugh all you want if that's the kind of humor you like =)
And Stuff Sega too for that matter. Sony have to be the greediest most amoral corporation ever. They refuse to allow anyone to make a PS compatible system. Even if it is legal, they're going to sue you to oblivion. They refuse to allow people to develop for their system without doung it their way. They've even taken legal action against people selling second hand Playstation Software.
These guys make Microsoft look innocent!
I'm having no luck here in Holland finding a PS/2 and am thinking about grabbing a U.S. model on my next trip over. I'm assuming it uses a power adaptor that accepts AC and converts to DC for the unit. What I don't know is whether the U.S. model will accept 120~240V/50~60 hz, or is it locked into US voltage only. Can anyone from the U.S. help me with this. Otherwise, fellow Europeans, can you recommend an online or bricks & mortar store where I can pick up a PS/2 fast? Thanks in advance, hal
As far as I can see, SCEE have pretty much made a disaster of their pre-order system. Supposedly, they are 15% short of meeting their orders, personally I believe the shortfall is greater than that. I still haven't received confirmation to collect my PS2 - Sony are currently telling anyone who phones to hassle their store, take ID, etc, and they'll get their PS2. However, according to Game Ltd Sony are just saying this to get people off the phone (I have spent over an hour on hold trying to get through to Sony in the last two days). All in all, not the start I imagine they wanted to their PS2 launch in the UK...
World Gazette says Denmark has 5,363,900 people.
Josh Sisk
This post probably won't deserve such high praise...
--
Casey
More scratches on the cave wall, thanks be to anonymity.
I already have a Dreamcast, an extra controller, two games and a memory card. Why on earth would I want another one?
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
I had forgotten about the emulation, to be honest 8-). I'm just a bit sick of all this hype that's going around concerning the PS2. All the games released so far, and those that are being released in the near future, fall far short of this 'revolution' that Sony was proclaiming, which almost all games magazines and mainstream media seem to have bought into. Consequently, the DC has been kicked into the ground, despite the wonderful games that have been released for it recently (Disclaimer: I don't own a DC or PS2, and don't intend to. But I do take an interest in these things 8-)).
BTW, the graphics in DOA2: Hardcore kick ass! Can't wait to get home from work to play!
The news are saying that ques started forming at 5 AM here. This was suppost to be the Don't-buy-anything day :)
Of course, that's if you wanted a Dreamcast instead of a PS2.
Of course, and I highly suspect it, I may be talking out of my ass. -oqti
The game shops' have certainly been a bit more crowded today than they usually are. All the shops have their new PS2 sections, but very few consoles.
-- Hob - Java Spectrum Emulator
7 minutes.. sold out. (from what i heard)
Don't buy these hyped up toasters. Wait for games at the least. Two people in this office got one and why? By their accounts "because of DVD". Well great, a region 2 crappy DVD player with 2 goodish games that Dreamcast still ecplipses. Wait 6 months, pay 99ukp and have good games. In the mean time use DeCSS to watch their output if you must or just stick to learning iptables. "Yeah, like ipchains is soooo yesterday.. What? You use ipfwadm".
If this isn't +5 I'll eat my keyboard.
Phill
Perhaps this is more of a general "get off my duff and research" but are PS2 games region coded like DVD movies? If not it'd be nice if Sony decided to give PS2BASIC to other folks in other countries. Personally I think it'd be a nice thing to play with. Anyone have more info on this?
.--bagel--.---------------.
| aim: | bagel is back |
| icq: | 158450 |
( o ) one could say I'm rather baked
I should sign up for these and resell them. I found an ad in the local paper (NH) that has a PS/2 for $700. Can you say scalping! I could see reselling these thing for a great profit.
Overheard a clerk today in a local store who said they excpected 50 additional units in by wednsday, but their current stock was either reserved or sold.
They no longer take pre-orders.
Well, there are many Dreamcast games that look better than any of the PS2 games, so the crappy graphics comment is unfounded.
And on a second note, what is with you people calling a Playstation 2 a PSX2? Yes, the Playstation was abbreviated PSX, but, the Playstation 2 has PS2 on the box and console itself... ITS NOT PSX2, ITS PS2!!!
So let's see, how many groups of people has Sony managed to piss off with this launch?
1) Customers: First and foremost, people cannot get these things, and they're going through an awful lot of trouble to. People have stood in lines for 8 hours or more and gotten absolutely nothing. Then some people (and dealers!) buy them and resell them after marking them up 200-300%. $800 for a PS2 is just ridiculous.
2) Retailers: Retailers have no idea how many units they're getting from Sony, when they're going to show up, and when they finally do, they tend to get much less than they're hoping for. One retailer I spoke to was supposed to get shipments on 10/26, but got zip. Retailers can't advertise the PS2 console, which makes them look really bad. PS2 is "the thing" to get this Christmas, and people are saving the bucks until one is available, which means retailers aren't making money in the meantime. These guys are trying to bring in 40% of the year's revenues in about 40 days. Sony is really causing problems here. Furthermore, imagine how tired clerks are of say "we don't have them, and we don't know when we will."
3) Developers. There are tons of units of PS2 game discs available for purchase. But how many people are going to buy them before they know they have a system?
4) Parents/Wives: PS2 are at the top of wishlists everywhere. Too bad most people are going to get one.
5) Media: Newspapers, TV networks and radio stations would love to sell ads to retailers boasting that they have PS2s to sell.
I just don't by the component shortage line that Sony's feeding us. If that were the case, why are there so many PS2s available in Japan? And despite this, Sony still has the balls to run PS2 commercials during prime time. The upside to all of this is that Sega will probably see increased sales, which means more competition in the market next year with a larger Dreamcast installed base. The truth is that Dreamcast games generally look as good as or better than PS2 games, and there are many more titles available. If only Dreamcast had the EA Sports titles...
- Scott
------
Scott Stevenson
Scott Stevenson
Tree House Ideas
higher cost = higher retail sales cost.
The manufacturing cost has little to do with the retail cost. The retail cost is the amount they expect most people to pay. Replacing 60Hz components with 50Hz components costs nothing for Sony.
Just a thought.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
The price difference is about 50% Even if you take into account VAT (17.5%) and import duty (Not that much since it's imported as a PC). The reason it costs more is simply because 300 pounds sounds like a reasonable price to the consumer. They would charge that if they could make them for a few dollars each.
Well I got one.. The Yabasic works .. It can do simple character based programs and simple 2D graphics. It even has PEEK and POKE .. So we just need to find the address for the DVD region code :-)
BTW: The population of Denmark is ~ 5 million so this is one playstation for 625 people, compared to the US when the initial launch was one for each 280 people.
If you have some time on your hands and don't mind hitting refresh a couple million times, you could be the proud owner of a Playstation 2. Amazon has posted to their Playstation page that they expect a shipment today. You will have to check back often, the average sell out time is around two minutes.
y station2/30 171 2/ref%3Dgw%5Fm%5Ftn%5Fsc/103-2574651-1499819 |
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/browse/-/pla
I think there is a more relevant reference.
If I were making marketing decisions for Sony's entertainment branch, I'd want to make sure we didn't see any of these ludicrous shortages... by making sure there were enough machines to meet that demand, even if it means pushing back release dates. Scenes of people camping overnight in front of stores; of actual fights over PS2s (remember the Tickle Me Elmos?); and of online auctions at incredibly inflated prices are sure cues that you're not moving enough product! I mean, if it's as good as you claim it is, customers wouldn't mind a delay if it means guaranteed availability.
- White Knight of the Order of Mihoshi Enthusiasts
I had some luck, but I got mine today.
The shop of the local cable tv had a lot of PSX2, but nobody did think they would have had one, so there were some available until 2pm.
As a geeky anecdote, as me and a friend, both CS graduates, walked in, they guy in the shop asked directly: "One or two?". So, we really can't disguise ourselves.
Sadly they had no games/pads/memory cards to sell. I had to go to another shop located nearby, which had sold out all the PSX2, but had plenty of accessories.
Another friend tried to go to the same shop, about 2 hours later, but they said they had no more PSXs, but when he was leaving, a guy working for the shop approached him, giving him a card with a phone number, saying he could get one PSX2 by calling, but it would be a bit more expensive.
I guess he had bought some to resell them at a higher price.
Since I work at the university, I directly when to a room with a beamer and tried the console with Tekken Tag Tournament and ISS 2000. Tekken is visually stunning, but in the gameplay department still disappointing (like its predecessors). ISS 2000 has simpler graphics, but its the best soccer game on every platform, improving a bit on PSX ISS Pro Evolution.
On the demo disk, there is the Yabasic, I will test it: sadly I don't have an USB keyboard.
The SSX demo is also very impressive, the best game so far.
Still, I am very annoyed by the region lockout, both for DVDs and PSX 1 CDs. I have many region 1 DVDs and a lot of NTSC games I would like to play on my new console. I guess I will wait for a modchip, but I can hardly wait.
ps2 has not been released yet (30NOV), .nz (http://nz.playstation.com/)
:)
however you can (pre)order via http://au.playstation.com/ to be delivered on the 30NOV with free postage.
you can also pre-order in
this is good news if you have to go to work
peterrenshaw ~ Another Scrappy Startup
As with the original Playstation is bad PAL conversions. PAL has higher res and runs at 50hz, and despite the delay in the release all that has been done to most release games is to put borders round the screen and not compensate for the 60hz->50hz switch. As a result games like Tekken Tag are completely ruined - at least to anyone who has played a full speed version. Ridge Racer has been tweaked and is actually *faster* than the Japanese version (not played the US version so I've no idea about that). Unfortunately they seem to have neglected to speed up the computer-controlled cars, which sort of wrecks the game. :)
Can't fault Fantavision though, that game is truly amazing. As to whether or not the console is worth the 300GBP it's being sold for.. well I'll leave that up to others. Personally I'd be going for an import model though, if I had the cash. As it is, it's back to F355 on my Dreamcast..
-- Piracy is a vicitmless crime, like punching someone in the dark.
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
I dunno why I'm posting on a two-day-old thread nobody's reading any more, but I don't see this mentioned so I thought I should record it for posterity :)
/one signal for whole picture/ universally accepted) and RGB video (very high quality / one signal for each of red, green, blue, sync / not all TVs accept it) [as well as S-video, but that's niche stuff in Europe].
It appears that the current batch of European PAL PS2s have a problem with DVD playback over RGB.
The SCART standard used for European video applications carries both composite video (acceptable quality
PS2 owners appear to have discovered that although they can play games using RGB SCART fine, DVD playback is green-tinged and odd-looking. DVD playback over composite SCART is OK.
Some Sony sources are claiming this is to prevent DVD pirates from copying the nice, clean, RGB signal; that argument doesn't wash since there are plenty of cheaper DVD decks with RGB output a pirate could use instead, and anyway, DVD can be pirated much more easily in the digital domain now we have DeCSS. It seems more likely that something was overlooked in the move from US model to European model and that one of the AV pins meant for RGB is putting out US-style Component Video signals.
We'll see what happens.
--
I work for Lefdal, in Norway, it is sort of like Dixons. And we got 3!!!! PS2 to my shop. I tried it yesterday ofcourse and it ROCKS!!!
--
"Trying is the first step towards failure."
--
"Trying is the first step towards failure."
-Homer Simpson
I just don't by the component shortage line that Sony's feeding us. If that were the case, why are there so many PS2s available in Japan?
The Japanese version has a software-based DVD decoder (remember the disc recall when they discovered it wasn't region-locked) whereas the US/European version has hardware DVD playback.
This sig left unintentionally blank.
Mate of mine has bought three ps2 games now, but is getting the machine at christmas....to spread the cost.... twat (Sorry if you're reading Will... ;)
jb
For those who can read french (otherwise try babelfish), a french online game magazine decribes (very critically) riot scenes that happened at the Paris Virgin Megastore on the PS2 launch night, due to Sony's weird marketing. First article is "Sony/Virgin : Shame" and second one is "Sony/Virgin night: How did we get to that point" . Worth reading, I think.
And for the others, daily radar uk does a comparision of PS2 and DC, not by looking at marketing bullshit, but by comparing games; it's Clash Of The Titans: DC vs PS2.
Boy was I pissed off.
Arrived home yesterday with PS2 (I get to keep it until it has to be delivered to my younger brother on the morning of December 25th).Can you believe that there's no coaxial connector included with the unit! There's a SCART connector and the other 3wire connection thingy, but no coax.
C'mon SONY, I've only got my little portable TV.
I thought it was quite funny and I'm from denmark.
.. on the other hand we're the largest
... go figure.
In fact most danes have a very fine sense of humor
and it's known that we're a really small country
(about 5.5 million people).
Offtopic:
exporter of meat from pigs.
Thomas S. Iversen
Since I got the "videogame-journalist" status here, I got my PS2 before everyone else :) Anyway, needless to say that every little black boxes just disappeared in a matter of seconds... Now we'll wait 1 year before the good games arrive :( I think Sony's using some kind of hypnosis to get us so crazy. It's un-na-tu-ral and pretty scary.
Isn't that two per person? That seems like plenty.