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Sony SmartPhone To Work With PS2
thryllkill writes "Yahoo is reporting a new Sony plan to implement a telephone that can talk to a Play Station 2. Of course it pushing the idea of training characters for games on the run, but wasn't this already tried with the VMU? ."
For instance. Surfing the web, reading/writing your emails, and checking the news is simply annoying to do from a cell phone. Sure, its handy when you dont otherwise have access to computers and such, but the interface just sucks. Reading 5 words per page of a news article is simply not practical.
Now they will add a whole bunch of new features and that will mean the user will have to traverse a bigger more complicated menu system. What percentage of the users will actually USE those new fancy features? This just looks like feature bloat to me. Sort of how Microsoft does it.
"How do we get them to drop their old cellphones/software and upgrade to new cellphones/software in order to generate new revenue?" Answer: "Put in a whole new set of features that and hype them up the best you can!"
- Tempestdata
People are going to buy a phone for a particular purpose, whether it's to take pictures, or listen to music, or whatever. That's a fact that you have to remember.
Or maybe they're buying the phones to, oh I don't know, call people?! Perish the thought.
I give up. The way this content synergy thing is going, my kitchen blender's probably gonna have a Sony-branded web browser and pop-up ads in another 10 years. Hope they've got open source margaritas by then... *sigh*
...provided true game-enhancing functionality is included. Of course to get this, games would have to be initially designed with such products in mind to truely reach their potential. An example might be "universal characters" in a distributed MUD or MMORPG, where instead of the monolithic games we see today, users can move their character(s) between nodes (cities? nations?) of vast, distributed games, nodes built by individuals or small groups of individuals.
Where do the phones come in? Easy to move your character(s) at a moments notice, do some skill/spell botting whilst on the bus/toilet/meeting table, etc. Could also make it easy to take your character to your friends house/PS2 for a session. With net connected systems, the phones could allow for certain gaming aspects to be done remotely, in game chatting for example (MUDs beat the hell outta IRC for in-context chatting environments.)
Just some thoughts.
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
You make it sound like the VMU was a failure, but it was really too soon to tell whether the VMU would succeed or fail if it wasn't for the Dreamcast's failure in general.
So what? It's a phone with a built-in Pocketstation/VMU-type device, with the additional bonus that you can use it talk to your games. It's just a jumble of traditional accessories (VMU & microphone) integrated into a phone that will likely be prohibitively expensive for gamers who don't need new phones. They also mention customizing phones with Jennifer Lopez digital goodies like ringtones, photos, and website bookmarks (or something like that), which tells me that they're just hyping this thing up to anybody who's interested in any of Sony's other products (PS2, J.Lo, they're all just Sony products to tie-in). Some of the latter paragraphs in the article add up to almost exactly that, quite blatantly.
I don't foresee many game developers chasing this idea down to include in their games, at least, not in ways that can't also be played by using a standard Pocketstation and mic (read: using a physical interface like USB). I doubt remote PS2 access is even being considered for these things; what game developer would ever want to tackle the issue of allowing your PS2 to act as a dial-up or web server for your low-res, low-bandwidth phone any way? Rather, I see some Sony Ericsson execs trying to tie the popularity of the Sony PS2 with their new phone line (bad pun not intended), and that's it.
< tofuhead >
It is still the dark of night.
The comparison between VMU and this thing is totally absurd. the VMU was made mainly so you could have a separate screen while playing the game (i.e., picking plays in NFL2K series, stats for NBA2K series). when you unplugged the VMU, it couldn't "talk" to the DC. in addition, you couldn't play the game just on the VMU (there were separate, simple games on it).
if the smartphone works as advertised, you could essentially play parts of the game with the phone. i can make trades in Madden while i'm in class! it's would be like a PDA for the PS2 and sync whenever you connect. awesome idea.
To all of you complaining about having to carry *another* item, or saying that "it's been done before"... Are you telling me that your VMU or PocketStation could make phone calls, store phone numbers, and have semi-PDA functionality?
The whole point of this product is that you *won't* be carrying anything extra, as the gaming feature will be enabled on your mobile phone. Additionally, because they claim that you'll most likely use the USB cable to synchronize your data, you won't have to have your phone plugged into your PS2 when playing with the PS2.
However, it's not without major snags. If it's going to sell, then Sony has to make it a "must-buy" product for everyone. So... while a mobile phone with gaming functions may work for adults and teenagers, what about kids? I'm guessing not too many parents want their 6-year-old to have a mobile phone just so s/he can play games, then turn around and overuse the mobile phone and run up the bill...
So... then what? Sony would have to make a non-mobile phone version of this portable gaming unit for young kids. Unfortunately, though, once Sony starts selling *just* the gaming unit for $100 or so, then all the people who already have phones won't have incentive to spend $300 on a gaming-phone when $100 will buy them the game, and they can keep their current mobile phone.
So... make the gaming/training ability not too complicated or meaningful, in efforts to lower the cost? Then people won't carry it around...
I've seen consumer spending habits for mobile phones in the last 10 years, and while I'm no expert, I think it's safe to say that very few people are willing to dish out $200-$300 on a new phone when they have a perfectly working one...
We shall see...
This sounds like a plan to keep up with Nintendo's GameCube to Game Boy Advance adaptor. Same idea, just different device.
That's right, this is bound to fail, but not for the reasons you're guessing. Let me start at the beginning:
In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud discusses the various levels of abstraction in comic art. How abstract a character is has a great deal of influence on how the character is perceived. Charlie Brown is Charlie Brown because of how he is drawn as much as because of his personality. If Charlie Brown were drawn by Gary Larson, of The Far Side, or acted by Mike Meyers, it just won't feel like Charlie Brown.
If you're with me so far, then it's not too terribly large a step to say that video game characters don't translate well across levels of abstraction either. The semi-realistic Lara-croft would not feel like the same character if presented as a pudgy Mario-esque character. Of course, over franchises, characters do evolve, this is a tricky process, often involving the redefinition of a character. Donkey Kong, for example, is an entirely different character in Donkey Kong Country than in the original Donkey Kong.
There is yet another aspect of abstraction with games. That is, the gameplay itself can be more or less abstract. Ultimately, players have no problem with a 8-bit Mario who can jump 8 times his own height, and doubles in size when touching a mushroom, but in a 3d third-person shooter, this would seem quite out of place.
So, ultimately, my point is that games that go back and forth from 128-bit near-photo-realistic graphics and advanced simulation to 128x128 pixel monochrome display with menu-based simple game mechanics will ultimately not be terribly compelling. This is more true for games whose characters, settings, and mechanics are more technologically advanced and more realistic. It would be like watching a movie with your favorite actors, and then when you're out of the house, getting to see a cartoon version with simplified plot and dialog. Not that there's anything wrong with either form, it's just that they do not mesh well together.
There are games for which this system would work perfectly well (Pokemon coming to mind), but as the industry will not rally around the niche created by this phone, the number of games who will take good advantage of this technology will be severly limited, for good or ill.
ben.c
This will have little to no impact on the gaing industry. There is one simple reason. For game add-ons, they MUST be standard equipment that everyone who purchases the system will have. Otherwise game companies won't invest the money to support it. Here is an example using made up numbers for illustrative purposes:
Microsoft's (boo, hiss, etc - moving on) xbox features a built in hard drive. All developers can use its capabilities. Mainly this means drive caching and too a lesser degree wma audio. Sony is going to release a hard drive add on soon. I expect very little to come of it. Game companies will be forced to support the PS2 hard drive and user with no hard drive OR just pretend that nobody has the hard drive. Which path do you think is cheaper? In addition, how will game makers know if their game's target market are purchasers of the hard drive? Most likely Sony will only have sales data. ie Sony knows they have sold 1 million PS2s and 250,000 hard drive units. They do not know if it is teen FPS gamers buying the hard drives or the RPG players. Meanwhile Microsoft has sold 500,000 xboxes and therfore 500,000 hard drives. Bassed on this, I expect xbox developers to unanimously support the hard drive and hardly any PS2 developers to support it.
How's this for a comparison:
Sega's dreamcast had a built in 56k modem. Towards the end of it life, sega realeased a broadband adapter. Hardly any games supported it. Yes I do recognize that the system was on its last leg but I don't think that changes anything.
Anyway, Sony is adding a feature to its phone that they can tout and have press releases about. Will developers support it? A resounding no.
IANAGP -I am not a game programmer - just a player.