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Smaller Networked Sony "PStwo" Officially Announced
Asriel86 writes "Tokyo Game Show has
just kicked off, and with quite a bang. Sony just
officially
announced the PStwociting a stateside release date of November 1st, 2004. The
system will be 25% smaller than the current model, will feature a sleeker
design, and a built-in Ethernet port (no adapter required). Sony also says that
there will be 120 new Playstation 2 games with online compatibility by the end
of the year. That equates to thirty games per month or about one game per day
for the rest of 2004."
"Sony also says that there will be 120 new Playstation 2 games with online compatibility by the end of the year." Developers are getting to the point on the PS2 where they've got to decide between creating a game that might be for a redundant system, or creating a game that might be ready for the new system's release. The change in status of the PS2 to the PStwo is symbolic, as it was for the PSone. It means that it's getting close to the end of it's lifecycle, which can only be downhill for developers.
The PS3 will be like another year at least, maybe another two years. We won't even see first *signs* of the PS3 until March of next year. There has been zero indication whatsoever, even in the deepest depths of the rumor mill, that any developers even have the option of developing for the PS3 available to them yet.
Meanwhile unlike, say, XBox developers (and it does look possible the XBox2 may even be out before the PS3), PS2 developers have the comfort that their games will be compatible with the PS3 once it's released. For some time after the PS2 was released before the best-selling PS2 games were all PS1 games-- that's encouraging for developers of PS2 games.
I've got to say I'm suspicious of the number of games promised; the figure sounds incredibly high. However, there's no denying that Sony's greatest strength in the console market has always been their ability to get a vast number of third party titles on the shelves. The quality isn't uniformly high by any means and the PS2 probably has a higher ratio of turkeys to stars than any other platform. Nevertheless, the "shotgun" approach ensures that most gamers can find a good number of titles they like in their genre(s) of choice. I've owned all three consoles for over a year now and my PS2 is over two years old. However, I still find myself buying more games for the PS2 than for any other platform, because the sheer volume or releases means there are more titles that I want.
The alternative approach is best embodied by Nintendo (I'd say Microsoft fall somewhere in between the two). These days, Nintendo have a pretty sparse line-up of third party games. Their strategy seems to be to put out "big name" first party games on a fairly slow rotation. I won't get drawn into the argument over how good these games are; to some people they're the greatest and most innovative things ever, to other people they're insipid remakes of fifteen year old concepts. The point is that no game is going to appeal to all gamers. With a larger spread of games, the odds of you reaching the critical point at which your console becomes a "must buy" for an individual are inevitably going to be better in all sections of the market. This is why Sony have won the last two rounds of the console wars so comprehensively and why they will continue to do so (leaving aside the question of handhelds).
Indeed. From the MegaCD, to the 32x, large updates to older gaming systems have ultimately been a failure.
When it comes down to it, the one thing that console lovers always have over people who compare them to computers is the lack of requirement for the developer to account for every hardware configuration under the sun. Adding simple components and accessories is fine; an extra controller here, an add-on for a specific game (Such as the dance pad for DDR or various light guns for shotting games), but when you come out with extra components whose sole use is to enable the play of a few new games, this detracts from both the user and the developer. No longer can you run down to the videoshop and rent a game because it has PS2 written on it, the playerbase is split into who owns one and who doesn't, and then the gamebase is split into which games require the addon and which don't.
That's not why people buy consoles. The current console doesn't have enough memory to play properly, such as with the memory expansion for the N64? There's a great new format to play games on, such as with the MegaCD? That's great, these are some pretty grounds for creating a new console. People buy new accessories for new features, such as the ability of large online multiplayer with the recent online additions to all consoles. Buying new parts for a console that does nothing new on it's own other than enable the gamer to play games they feel they're already entitled to since they purchased the system to begin with is boring, and ultimately feels like a ripoff.
Sony needs to release a more advanced sdk for game developers. The PS2 isn't even near reaching it's potential and xbox games look SOOO much better simply because the authors can code in c++ and directx, which is what pc programmers have been programming in forever.
People say "graphics don't make the game" and are correct to a certain degree, but when aliased edges suspend your disbelief, it significantly reduces the amount of fun to be had in a sitting.
When you can get into the game and totally forget you're playing a game and just have fun in the "virtual world", that is when you know the developer has made a truly awesome game.
Chris