Sony's Future Analyzed - PSX, PSP, PS3?

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to Gamesindustry.biz's analysis of Sony's game console brands, called 'Playstation: Evolve, Multiply, Conquer'. The article starts with the statement that "Sony clearly sees the games market as a stepping stone to dominance of the home entertainment sector", and goes on to look at the 'Playstation 2 Plus' PSX device unveiled this week, as well as the newly announced PSP portable. The piece concludes by looking at what the Playstation 3 might be, suggesting a family of complementary games consoles may be Sony's eventual goal - "..in an ideal world for Sony executives, the question asked when you go to buy a new piece of consumer electronics will not be whether you want a PlayStation, but which PlayStation you want."

Comments

finally some competition for the portable monopoly

[yo5oy]

i would love to be able to play psx, ps2 games on a portable. ahh, i can feel my thumbs hurting now from playing mr. driller everywhere.

PS*

[Anonymous Coward]

I, for one, welcome our new Playstation overlords.

erm...

[Hadlock]

erm.... does nobody else view the "PS2+" or whatever they call it simply a way to stay "current" with the Xbox in terms of press coverage, and online capability, and for the larger part, trying to hide the fact that the PS3 is a long ways off? methinks they hit a serious hiccup in PS3 technology development and this is to keep the executives happy....Just trying to keep things exciting for the consumer by wrapping the same old hardware in different clothing, while at the same time profiting off of more hardware sales, and lengthening the product cycle?

+1 Troll

PSX - the Mass-Market PS2?

[Mad_Fred]

Anyone else who finds this angle in the article a little funny? I mean, just how much more mass-market acceptance is there to get for the PS range?

Maybe I'm ignorant, but it feels like any move in relation to the mass-market living room is going to bring the PS farther away from it ... The PSX looks more like something to get into the few living rooms outside the mass market that think of themselves as too stylish to house a black (and games only) unit.

Re:PSX - the Mass-Market PS2?

[Dot.Com.CEO]

The psx is not a games machine. It is, actually, as much a games machine as the ps2 is a dvd player. Its main function is not to play games but to be a multimedia box.

The ability to play ps2 games is just an added-value component of the psx. It is not its main function, although it will do it exceptionally well. Don't discount the time frame, as well. Traditionally, technology for the mainstream living room tends to be introduced during the Olympics - remember the VCR, at least in Europe it was sold so that you can remember the unforgetable sporting moments. 2004 is going to be the year of dvd recorders in the living room - now, if people have a choice between a generic dvd recorder and one that acts as a multimedia hub and can play the biggest library of games there is, do you think people will mind spending a couple of hundred euros / dollars more to get the psx? I think not.

It is also an excellent way for a ps2 to pass the all-seeing wife. Don't underestimate the power of nagging!

Walkman

[Picass0]

Sony should be careful not to dilute the brand name Playstation by putting it on every peice of crap with blinky lights.

Sony took the Walkman name (which was the portable stereo brand that stomped on all others in the 80s) and started putting it on ultra-low end equipment - in the end the name means nothing. Consumer trust gone. You can spend $25 on a walkman AM-FM tumer and find out it's no better than the $10 Radio Shack piece of crap. But the sony radio is good looking.

Keep dreaming...

[Guppy06]

"..in an ideal world for Sony executives, the question asked when you go to buy a new piece of consumer electronics will not be whether you want a PlayStation, but which PlayStation you want."

That one over there that has the word "Nintendo" written on it. But that's just me, the die-hard fan. (I swear, after figuring out that it's my middle fingers that belong on the L & R triggers, the GameCube controller is even more comfortable than the N64 one!)

In any event, it would seem that Sony is dangerously close to seriously confusing the customer. "This PlayStation plays games and DVD movies. And this PlayStation plays DVD movies and doubles as a satellite TV tuner. And this $1500 model over here does all three. But this $2000 package over here does all three but includes expansion bays for future capabilities." They're aiming for market dominance, sure, but neither they nor their potential customers seem to know which market they're aiming for.

And even then I'm not sure how well all these boxen will sell as real audiophiles seem to rather have different components made by different companies than to rely on a one-size-fits-all solution. And I don't think the general market is interested in paying hundreds of dollars for features they don't intend to use (ignoring its first month or so in Japan for the moment, how many people bought a PlayStation 2 just as a DVD player?).

The article starts with mention of the death of the SNES CD concept without quite understanding why it died.

Re:finally some competition for the portable monop

[Mandoric]

The Wonderswan Color has had a Mr. Driller cart out for quite a while. Good luck finding it, though. =P

Ah, good old synergy

[Snowspinner]

I suspect this will be the move with which Sony self-destructs at least it's Playstation division, if not the entirety of the company. I have never seen a company that is not Disney really successfully synergize among its different branches, and even Disney has been having some trouble of late, in that its last few animated features have bombed.

Here, I think the problem is that parents look for game systems for their kids, and they look at DVD players/recorders and TiVos for the family. Therefore, when a parent is shopping for a game system, the fact that it has a DVD player/recorder and is a TiVo will not matter to them (And the fact that the box is more expensive will). Likewise, when they're looking for a DVD Player/Recorder or a TiVo, the game system will not be seen as an important bonus to them. Especially because I can't imagine that anyone who would be tempted at this point to buy a DVD recorder wouldn't already have a PS2.

Long term, I think this strategy is suicide as well. The gamers are already buying Sony, and the non-gamers will look at the product and go "But the Playstation is for teenagers and video game players. I want a Toshiba."

Which is fine by me. I like the Gamecube. =)

This report is pathetic.

[Inoshiro]

Not only does it gloss over how Sony is pulling a Sega (price cut PS2; put out PS2+ with progressive DVD, built in network adaptor, and built in IrDA; put out PSX soonish; put out PS3 -- can you say Sega CD, Sega 32X, Sega Saturn?), it doesn't even have basic facts correct:

"A lithium-ion battery rather than awkward AA batteries (like the GBA SP) " .. all GBA SPs use LiIon, rather than AAs.

They don't have a picture of the N-Gage next to the paragraph talking about the N-Gage, even though all previous paragraphs had the apropos Sony technology displayed...

Then they gloss over all the "detailS" about how multi-CPU consoles (Jaguar, Saturn) are hard to program in favour of saying, "MORE POWER!" and throwing in a quote about how Nintendo quakes in its boots when Sony clears its throat.

Read the last sentence where the first-mover advantage is lauded as being the reason Sony's "winning" the console war, yet in the same sentence the author says that probably would be a stumbling block for Xbox 2. Well, is first-mover advantage real or not? He can't decide.

The only people that win from console competition is the consumer. When Sony was enjoying its 2000 and 2001 years, there were no price cuts, and the games sucked (first-gen and second-gen were also on CDs, for crying out loud!). When GCN and Xbox came along, Sony started to have to actually do things. Like lower the price on their console, and put out more good exclusives.

Microsoft has the only good online strategy and with standard system-link support, Nintendo is the first company to push a peripheral that'll be supported (because it's the GBA) by a lot of developers. Sony's ditching the Firewire port on the PS2+, much to the chagrin of the 3 or so systim link games out there. Except for Half-Life, I can't find games that support USB keyboard and mouse on the PS2.

Who's innovating again? Not Sony.

Re:This report is pathetic.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll tell you who can't innovate :- Microsoft. I would much rather go with Sony than Microsoft, anyday.

Re:This report is pathetic.

[sdhankin]

"A lithium-ion battery rather than awkward AA batteries (like the GBA SP) " .. all GBA SPs use LiIon, rather than AAs.

Funny, I read that differently. I read it as "They use LiIon batteries, rather than AA's - just like the GBA does (uses LiIon batteries, that is.) But it was awkwardly phrased, to be sure.

Re:This report is pathetic.

[Rob_GIBiz]

""A lithium-ion battery rather than awkward AA batteries (like the GBA SP) " .. all GBA SPs use LiIon, rather than AAs."

Yes, which is what that sentence says, albeit with rather clunky phrasing. Sorry about that, got chewed up by a subeditor.

I'm also terribly sorry that you were upset by the lack of a picture of an N-Gage. Had you forgotten what they look like? :)

Regarding your ACTUAL criticisms of the article as opposed to your attempts to score schoolboy debating points...

I don't think I glossed over details of how difficult the PS3 will be to code. However, comparing it with the Jaguar and Saturn is unfair; they both came from an era where games were generally never written multi-threaded and where middleware was extremely rarely used. As it stands, writing a multiprocessor game for PS3 will probably be easier than performing the delicate balancing act between the EE, VU0, VU1, the GS and the IOP in the PS2. The Xbox2 will inevitably still be a far easier platform to develop for though.

You're obviously confused about the point I'm making in the final paragraph. I'm not TRYING to decide whether first mover advantage is real or not - I'm pointing out that this is a decision which needs to be made by Microsoft, and that it's a difficult one, and presenting some of the arguments on both sides. I'm trying to present analysis here, not act like the Oracle at Delphi with answers for all the questions. And no, I don't know next week's lottery numbers either!

I agree completely with you on the other issue by the way - competition is great for consumers, and it's good to see some genuinely serious competition to Sony. However, the fact is that in business terms, it's what Sony does next that we're all waiting to see - because they control the market right now, plain and simple. I get the impression that most of your criticisms are based on the fact that you believe I'm excessively "pro-Sony" - but I'm not trying to write a fanboy console war piece here, I'm trying to analyse Sony's business strategy. A task which, oddly enough, involves a lot of focus on Sony's products :)

wonderful

[PaddyM]

Yeah, just what I want. Instead of 1 hardware device to play ALL forms of digital media, I have to buy 20.

I wish the console wars were finished forever. Just let me add devices to my computer. Please.

Re:wonderful

[youknowit]

as far as playing all forms of digital media. do you know if these systems would be able to play disposbale dvds.

The SNES CD

[The Briguy]

Nintendo started developing the SNES CD to compete with the rival Sega CD for the Genesis. However, once Nintendo realized that the Sega CD was a flop, they cancelled the project, dumping Sony. Sony decided to continue on thier own and release it as a stand-alone console.

Didn't MS try this?

[drewmca]

Funny how Microsoft said something similar but they had to scrap their plans because everyone (the gaming press) was up in arms over the fact that they weren't focusing on games first. Then sony does the same thing. Personally I don't mind these convergence devices but I don't think that I'd be eager to buy one just because it had a console. I'd rather keep the console a separate unit. VCRs, Tivos, DVRs, etc. can all sit comfortably in my audio rack. I prefer to have a console slide out on the floor so that I can sit back on my couch with the controller. I think Microsoft understands this because they have great, long cords on the controllers with breakaways. Nintendo does too b/c of their support for wireless with the wavebird. But I personally wouldn't feel comfortable with controller cords hanging out of the front of my A/V rack, with the potential for someone to trip over them and wreak havoc.

I'm still not sold on the programibility.

[Inoshiro]

While the Dreamcast, GCN, and Xbox seem to have been fairly easy to get up to speed on for developers (Xbox being DirectX, GCN having an easy Nintendo setup, and Dreamcast offering both SegaOS and WinCE DirectX), the PS2 was something oft-lamented. It wasn't until most development houses developed good middle-ware that the games started to not look like ass, or simple PS1 games with more polygons and no annoying perspective-correction bubbling.

Sony should've had a useable SDK for the game programmers from day one, not their "ship and forget" method. If it wasn't for Gran Tursimo 3 pulling people in, and then GTA 3 and Vice City holding them there, I don't think the PS2 would have quite the grip on the market they did. This would've been helped if Sega was more in a position to market the Dreamcast, but such is life.

While I agree that Sony is somewhat dominant, I still have yet to see anything that resembles a true competitor to Microsoft's Xbox Live!. Microsoft has everything in place so that once you buy your console, your games, and your Live! service, you get all the updates. There's no need to release Mech Assault 2 for the Xbox, because they'll just incrementally add that to the Live! servers. Microsoft wants your money, every month, and they'd rather just suplement what you have in your collection than have you buy a bunch of new games. How can Sony react to that? I don't think they've shown any true iniative in stopping Microsoft.

The final paragraph seemed totally confused about wether first mover advantage was one or not, and ignored the entire Live! aspect of Microsoft's console. The Live! part, if enough people pick it up (which seems to be happening) totally changes the online playing field, and adds the icremental updates to consoles that people haven't ever had before. Kinda like how the GBA, aka the only peripheral Nintendo has launched which will receive 3rd party support, is changing (a lot slower than Live! right now) how people interact with games on the GCN.

Sony's trying to push in the Tivo direction with the PSX, but the up front cost is so much higher. And how will consumers feel about the PS2+, PSX, and PS3 all coming out in 3 years? I think Sony is dangerously close to pulling a Sega in 200X after pulling a Nintendo in 199X.

USB keyboard games

[Anonymous Coward]

Star Trek: Elite Force, and Unreal Tournament both support keyboard/mouse combinations.

I haven't played a bunch of online games, but it seems that most of the ones i played did support the keyboard. Twisted Metal Black:Online and Frequency come to mind... I think THP4 does too...