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PS2 Hard Drive Announced
An Anonymous Coward writes: "Sony has announced details on their hard drive for PS2 (in Japan, anyway)." It's listed at $150, which puts the PS/2+Hard Drive at around $400 (after rumored PS2 price cuts). All of this is going to matter big time when Microsoft's X-Box storms onto the scene. The article also has information about the keyboard, mouse, and network adapters that will someday also be tethered to PS2s around the world.
Am I the only person who saw that and thought "PS/2? Why would someone make a new hard drive for a machine that has been out of production for over ten years??"
I don't want no steenking hard drive for a IBM PS/2....
(Taco, take the hint, its PS2, not PS/2, but even then you should probably just stick to Playstation 2...its only a few more letters!)
-Julius X
-Julius X
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This is not a good thing for Sony. While it is neat to have a hard disk, network adapters, etc. for the PS2, chances are it won't go over well.
Developers don't like console add-ons, because they facture the market and can lead to low game sales. Nintendo learned this in the 1980s, when their slew of add-ons for the NES in Japan (Even a knitting machine.), and a smaller number of them in the US, flopped. Sega experienced the same problems with their 32X and Sega CD add ons for the Genesis . Nintendo again had problems trying to add high-density media to the N64 system. When Nintendo created a RAM add-on for the N64, it sold well at first, but was eventually rejected with consumers, and the first game to require it ended up being packaged with one.
Console add-ons are just bad news. Sony will likely end up slashing costs and making crazy deals with developers to get the add-ons support beyond niche games. In the long run, they will fracture their own market and annoy customers. Microsoft will have these features prepackaged without an obvious added cost, and Sony will likely suffer for it.
Nintendo, of course, will get to sit atop the heap of game companies, leveraging their experience into a strategy that allows them to come out best (Albeit maybe not highest selling.) by marketing a simple, cheap gaming system without much hassle by a proven console company.
Basically I guess what I'm saying is that I want consoles to remain as "carefree" as they've always been. Of course the X-Box, I think is going to hurt that alot, especially if they make you upgrade DirectX drivers, download patches and such, but hopefully Sony and Nintendo will continue to cater to the CONSOLE market and not try to compete with MS in the "innovative" [sic] PC in a little black box instead of a big beige one market.