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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.
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.