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Sony's PSX A Hit In Japan, PS2 Launches In China
Thanks to Reuters for their story revealing Sony's PSX 'media center' has been a major hit in Japan, after the PlayStation 2, DVD recorder and DVR combo "went on sale on December 13 in Japan amid a flurry of media attention." According to Sony boss Ken Kutaragi: "We sold 100,000 PSXs in the first week. It sells for almost 100,000 yen ($941) and it still sold out. There are no products out there that can say that." CNET News are also reporting that the PlayStation 2 has finally launched in China, after "the company... shelved plans for its December launch but failed to provide a full explanation for the change." The PS2 roll-out seems very low-key indeed, though, as "the electronics giant cut down its distribution to two cities from the original five."
The thought of shelling out ~$1000 for a box that does so much fills me with slight dread, especially since (IME) Sony kit has of late not been totally reliable.
:D
When it breaks at best you lose a lot of stuff while it is repaired under warranty - which still costs you mony (time, shipping) - at least if it was just your PS2 or your DVR that broke you could entertain yourself in the meantime. Not to mention the fact that as seperate parts it would probably be cheaper...
Of course this principle is why I went one step further and use PCs for my DVR and games machine as those I can always move onto another box if something breaks, and as far as repairs go it's usually a component that can be switched out cheaply
(It would be a lot easier to pick seperated over an integrated unit if there was a decent interface (like scart, but more so) for a/v units that you could gaurentee always worked and could switch multiple components seamlessly without blocking.)
Beep beep.
In the US such a roll-out might be marked by long queues and frantic buyers worried about the store running out of stock. Not so here in Japan.
When I was in Akihabara last week they had huge banners in front of AsoBitCity (and other stores) under which there were several salesmen holding PSX units, running raffles, and demoing systems to crowds of people. However, there were plenty of units in stock and everyone around me was pretty calm.
I think the media center concept is a great one for Japan because space is at such a premium here. So having one unit that combines console gaming with DVD is huge since it reduces the number of items clogging up your precious shelf space.
Also note that most unmarried adults in their late 20's live at home with their parents, and like to have their own TVs and whatnot in their small bedrooms, so again, this device saves a lot of space... that's why it's so attractive to buyers here, whereas in the USA, where your living room is huge by comparison, there is no need to worry about space as much, so you have have multiple components sitting around being redundant.
------- "One of the joys of travel is visiting new towns and meeting new people." -- G. KHAN
Isn't that what the original Playstation was called? Rather odd choice of name.
Will PlayStation Linux run on it? I heard Sony released a distro of linux for their playstation, will thay also release one OR update it for the PSX?
I do hope so!
cies.
An overpriced consolidation of products the company is not good at creating. Reminds me of an all-in-one office device, except that those are normally more approriately priced.
vampirical
It's interesting that Sony is working on a series of "convergence" devices like the "multipurpose" PSX. That would be the caused by the many sales of xboxes related to people wanting to use it as a multifunction entertainment device.
Of course, people who use the xbox as a multifunction device tend to hack it and use linux or whatever to drive it. Not Microsoft's intention I'm sure!
The consumer electronics industry has pushed "convergence" for a long time, and the market has continued to support the modularity of separate devices over all-in-one machines.
Of course, that doesn't mean that some multifunctionality isn't desired. Personally, I love the fact that my game consoles (minus the Cube) play DVD movies. That sort of convergence wasn't forced, but was just a natural choice, given the fact that Sony and Microsoft opted to use the DVD format for their game discs. Now, adding DVD to a console that doesn't use DVD for the game functionality would be a different story.
At this point, though, I don't see shoving TiVO-like capabilities into game machines. In the future, when the standard hard drives are much larger, maybe it will be just a natural feature to add in. But I think it is ill-advised to add features that require equipment above and beyond what you're using for the device's primary functionality.
Umm...I can pick up a DVD recorder for less than $100. How is this a good value? The PS2 can be had for $179 and a PVR for around $200-300. This hardly adds up to a good value and I could buy a fairly nice computer for what this thing will cost that would do so much more. It just doesn't seem likea good enough value to warrant dropping $1000 on it, regardless of it being all-in-one. Remember, if one part goes out, you lose it all.
Sounds like an interesting product, however, not to rain on anyones parade but the media is still too expensive and worse still, there is yet to be a format set down which all market people can conform to. Imagine recording something then taking it to a friends house only to find that he has one from Fujisu and that it is incompatible.
What I would find interesting, however, is if they allowed users to hook up external hard drives and the media is saved in regular MPEG4 format thus allowing to watch it on the computer, possibly edit out the ads at a later date or, if the price continues to drop, have a dedicated hard drive for certain programmes you may want to archive
I live in Denmark. We have yet to see the first Tivo like appliance in the stores for average consumers (the closest we come is a Kiss Tech DVD player with HDD, but no TV tuner.. stupid). I wonder why? If there's a good market where people are willing to pay the price, why not sell to that market?
What about the other countries in Europe? Any of you get these sexy TV appliances?
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Geocrawler error message.
Well the PSX is shaping up to be a much less powerful/feature packed machine than was originally promised. Honestly, (I am officially waving bye-bye to Karma), for all the things that the PSX is trying to be, the XBOX did at launch or shortly thereafter, so Sony is late to a game they will have a hard time winning. If anyone can pull it off, it is Sony. The first thing they need to do (and will not do) is standardize the online portion of their service a la XBOX live. For instance, you go on XBOX live playing Crimson Skies, and someone can send you a message to play Rainbow Six. If you are on your PS2 playing Tony Hawk 4, no one can message you to say "Hey, come play SOCOM with us". That is a huge difference. Yes I am praising a Microsoft product. While the XBOX may be the size of a house, and the controller almost comically-sized for our American gorilla hands, they did get the online portion of their console spot on. My current favorite Japanese export? Ichi The Killer.
I hate sigs.
Yeah, you've go this nice all in one unit and one third of it becomes obsolete. A all in one pvr DvdR device makes sence, but why put in a gamesystem that will be obsolete in a few years?
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Many gaming companies use their figures in terms of how many they have shipped. If they've shipped all of their games/consoles/whatever, they've "sold out". The sell-through rate is a less-used figure in gaming.
I find it funny that a country, so set against japan ignores its own atrocities, the only thing that killed more civilians then Mao was all of World War 2, and not even by that much.