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Sega and Sony to Link Game Consoles Via Internet
joestump98 writes: "Yahoo! is running a story about Sony and Sega teaming up to allow their consoles to play nicely with each other over the internet. It also mentions plans with Nintendo and Microsoft." Which should mean more cross-platform games, so perhaps consoles can be bought and sold more on their merits than their stable of games. Update: 06/05 08:11 PM by T : And RimmerExperience writes: "A recent story on Gamespot reports an agreement between Sun Microsystems and Sony to release Java support for Sony's PlayStation 2."
Take a look at the JSR 134 for this: http://jcp.org/jsr/detail/134.jsp In combination with this, there is a bunch of work in the JCP wings for dealing with USB devices (based on a pre-existing OSS Java USB API for Linux no less!)
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All of the activity that's been going on in the PS2 camp of late has me sort of wondering... We've seen Linux support released, and read about Real Player, Netscape, Java and AOL coming to PS2.
So the question is this: What market is the PS2 in really? It's expanding well outside of the realm of our classic definition of a game console, deep into the territory of our PC's. But, OTOH, it doesn't suffer the clunky UI problems that our classic PC's face either. Is it a PC without the baggage of backward compatibility? Many people have thought about redesigning the PC's hardware and software from scratch to take full advantage of current technology; is the PS2 the fulfillment of that goal? If... no, when the PS2 is capable of all of the entertainment functions that we currently use our PC's for, what will the average family need a computer for?
Now, consider that this is the reason that MS is throwing in its Xbox...
Hopefully Sega and Sony will spend a hell of a lot of effort debugging this and not rush it out to market.
One of the best things about programming a console game is that you can use neat little hacks to push the hardware to its limit. Anyone who's ever programmed an Amiga or a C-64 (or pretty much any uniform system) knows this. That's also the same reason why console games don't have operating systems. I think the new trend of cross-platform, OS-sporting consoles will kill the industry, because what's the difference between that and a computer?
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There are already issues with people tweaking their computers a bit to gain unfair advantages in games like quake, this could lead to some interesting problems.
Before people think this means Sega is bringing back the Dreamcast, don't.
All this means is that Sega wan't to get as many people playing Phantasy Online 2 as possible, especially since now Sega is running it on a Pay-per-Play basis, not free as it was before.
The Dreamcast is still in its last days, and the although last few games will be good ones, this is indeed the end.
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4.5 years ago I bought a Sony VAIO on the cheap. The damn this came with a TV tuner, video capture, home-movie editing , phone answering machine software, etc. They actually thought their ghetto-ass P200 could replace 4 or 5 different appliances. Considering that the VAIO was slow and crash-prone and that the included software was univerally poor, I was not impressed. Call them visionary for trying, I call them dumb.
Sony's vision of a tightly intergrated digital future doesn't include anyone else's technology. All their devices are in one retarded family, linked by their incomprehensible love for Memory Sticks. Even sadder is the fact that Sony introduced the memory sticks (which still haven't caught on) at the same goddamn time Iomega et al were flodding the market with Zip, Jaz, Clik, Super Disk, and others. But I digress.
Sony's claim that the PS2 will become a whole "home entertainment center" is ludicrous. Yes the thing has pretty graphics and plays DVDs, but it doesn't mean its the greatest thing since DiVX ;-). Its support for DVDs and CDs is inferior to dedicated electronic products. But they're targeting the low end with this crap , you say. Have you looked at the price of VAIOs now? 4 years ago? Sony's attempts to provide an all-in-one deal have historically provided sub-standard equipment at premium prices. Therefore I look upon these claims with skeptism. Messages to Sony: Get A Clue.
Systems are going to be so kool in the future that noone will ever leave their homes. My kids will be obese and always playing video games. They'll have no social lives and never go outside. And you know what, I'll be right next to them, fat and jolly eating hot-pockets. hahah Isn't the USA grand.
Nintendo execs had been in talks with Microsoft's XBox product team to license selections from the back-catalog of Nintendo games for sale as XBox "Arcade Classics" titles, much like Namco, Bally et al. had done for a few Windows entertainment titles.
The first planned release was a Nintendo-branded XBox port of the original NES Super Mario Brothers trilogy.
Apparently, the talks ended when Microsoft insisted on bundling Bowser with the OS.
I saw this article on CNN this morning and was a little confused. Given that Sega had announced Phantasy Star Online for PS2 (and Gamecube) a while back, wasn't it always implied that there would be cross-platform play?
Or was I assuming too much? Was it understood (until today) that each console would have its own servers, with no interaction between the user groups?
Well, great news in any case. My only peeve is that I probably won't be able to transfer my existing PSO chars to the PS2 (Gamecube) version, which will probably probably have nicer graphics. ^_^