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

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.

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.