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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."
Does anybody else get a little annoyed by this kind of thing? 25% smaller, half the weight and an included Ethernet port... enough to be jealous when my brother buys one, but not enough to buy one myself.
Will anyone that owns a regular PS2 buy one of these?
I think all of us agree this is a good thing from a gamers perspective. After all, we all agree smaller is generally better and what not, and dialup is evil.
However, on the flip side, how many people will buy them? Most people I know who enjoy using consoles already have a PS2, and are not likely to go buy a new one just because its a bit cooler. Even me being an addict, owning ever semi-modern console, I doubt I'll purchase anything that doesnt allow me to play more games.
And 120 games! By the end of the year? Do they realize what kind of a task that is? I realize its probably been planned for a while, but we all know that game developers have a hard enough time meeting deadlines without attempting to coordinate with a console release. They'll be lucky to clear 50.
Support more choices in goverment-Vote 3rd party.
How much will these improvements increase sales? I would suspect based on the age of the PS2 that most folks who have wanted a PS2 already have one, which would diminish the value of this "new and improved" model
It seems to me that Sony has always favored quantity over quality. If you go to any game store or video rental place there are many more PS and PS2 games than there are for the other consoles. And most of the PS2 games aren't all that good. I'd bet the ratio for good games to total games for PS2 compared to the GameCube and X-box is much lower.
"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
No hard drive bay, which means no Final Fantasy XI.
Sort of similar to how they dumped the parallel port on later models of the original PlayStation, I suppose. It's interesting how support never really matierialised for the hard drive; but then again I can't think of an console expansion that has ever really flown in the marketplace.
Squenix can't be thrilled though.
The critical thing about the slimmed down version is that there doesn't appear to be anywhere to put a hard disk drive - which might well be a thinly veiled attempt by Sony to stop HDLoader or clones from being able to play copied games on newer consoles.
What about games that use or need the HDD? Final Fantasy XI in Europe? Hmm. The BBC and IGN are both running the story.
Meep meep
http://www.engadget.com/entry/8413288107686276/
Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant
As many of us are aware, the youths in Asian countries, specifically Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Malaysia (in that order) are very, very, VERY into online games.
Sure, Americans play Quake and Half-life and has its fair share of NeverEndingKnights (insert MMPORG of your choice), but what many people in US and EU may not realize is the extent and length of most games here in Asia-- all leading titles are Final Fantasy-type soap operas involving complex character building or multiple levels of progress, or are extended Command & Conquer-type 2-hour long epics dramas. There is an entire channel in the basic cable TV package that is essentially GTV (GameTV) and shows nothing but tournaments of overweight acne-ridden basement-dwellers duking out C&C-type games in a studio with cheeleaders, music, commentary, and bright flashing lights (it puts Iron Chef to shame).
Even car racing games have extended season-long stories, and you must match up against your arch rivals from across town. The arcades here have point cards not unlike the comp point cards at the casinos (which came first?).
In short, launching an electronic consumer good (TV, Stereo, Monitor, stand-along HD, Game Console, Guitar Amplifier) without an ethernet port nowadays is unthinkable.
davejenkins.com |
covering ears and chanting, "la la la la I'm not listening!" does not excuse the fact that Sony is turning a bling eye toward game development companies who develop PS2 games. Allowing this many to be released in such a short amount of time almost guarantees that few will ever earn a profit.
:-\
Bad times for the game industry ahead...
Personally, I think that integrated WiFi would be a better addition, either in addition to or in place of wired networking capabilities. This might make it a system-seller, but I doubt the slated feature set will sell many extras. Most likely just to the parents at Xmas time...
The one thing that really bothers me with the original PS2 is its noisy fan. If you play for a few hours or watch a movie on the DVD-player it really is annoying.
Are those new ones just as loud or did they improve the cooling?
Sony + Playstation + Games
Has always been a "quantity rather than quality" formula; the only 2 things the playstation (1 or 2) ever got right were: "have the best controller on the market" (by far), and "have the most games on the market" (by far, and in PS2's case by backwards compatibility; masterstroke!).
The first makes their machine the most comfortable to use.
The second means that any given consumer is more likely to find a game that appeals to them for that machine. (the fact that once they get the machine plus game home, the game may not live up to the appeal does not matter - now they have the machine and wil continue to buy games for it)
This combination is more than enough to tie up the console market for you, MS failed to realise this (they thought having the most impressive machine was the key, probably due to the fact that in the dramcast/n64/playstation generation, sony also just happenend to have the most impressive machine as a side issue)
I suppose, in short, what I'm saying is that more than any of their competitors, sony have understood the marketing of consoles and console games; consoles sell by being OK in and of them selves (the controller being an amazingly important aspect of that), and by having 1+ games that _any_ person in the market is interested in (i.e. not by having 1 to 3 really top flight games; by having lots of good-enough games).
Notice how quality is secondary in that...
Has nothing to do with style, selling more consoles, or getting more people online.
Its because Sony figured out a way they could make more PS2s, cheaper, by changing the design... and probably get more cash per-sale for the units.
This is the same reason for the PS1.
This isnt necessarily a bad thing. I rather like the new PStwo (just as i really like the PSone) but dont go fooling yourself on the reason why. Its a cost-benifit analysis. Thats all.
no
Can anyone tell me if the PStwo can, with additional software/hardware, be used as a streaming media receiver? As small as it is, I would like to be able to use it to stream music and video over my home network, as I've been doing with my modded Xbox. The Xbox worked great, but its cooling fans were kind of noisy, the case is kind of clunky and awkward, and now it also just happens to be broken.
that any developers even have the option of developing for the PS3 available to them yet
I'm sure Sony has at least provided some fairly detailed documentation (wrapped in a nice tight NDA), possibly even code samples. Considering the development cycle of major titles is about 2 years now, and most likely will be even longer with a console as complex as the PS3, any PS3 game that would be available near the launch of the PS3 should already have some of the development foundation laid.
I've just signed legislation that'll outlaw Russia forever. We'll begin bombing in five minutes.
Anyone care to enlighten me?
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I have heard from many sources that Sony released the slimmed down PSone because they had created a new chipset to allow the PS1 hardware to be integrated into the PS2 for backwards compatibility. Thus it made sense to package it as the small, inexpensive, stand-alone PSone to help revive that older market.
I wouldn't be surprised if this new PStwo stems from the exact same type of technology - a redesigned (aka smaller) PS2 chipset designed for integration into the future PS3.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
Guess I'll have to get the chunker PS2 instead to use this unless anyone out there knows a Knoppix equivalent for the PS2/two?
If I'm going to put a network aware console into my TV I'd prefer one that I and fire up a web browser on.
Omnis amans amens
So I got an xbox soon after it came out in Europe. The reason was clearly Halo, but I figured I could put that ethernet jack into good use once they would release some online games for it.
Sure enough they did come out with Xbox Live which was susbscription based in pure MSFT style.
WTF? why do I need to pay for gaming service? $50 a year? Are you kidding?
On my PC the SAME games (ie Medal of Honor, Unreal etc.) can be hosted on dedicated servers or homebased servers (free).
Now I have to pay for 20% more expensive games plus subscription for Xbox Live?
My Ethernet jack on the Xbox is now used to stream content for Xbox Media Center.
Sony make it happen, bring us through online experience.
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
Now seriously. Why not throw in wireless support? Maybe they have and it wasn't mentioned in the /. article (I haven't RTFA yet). But this is really surprising to me.
Maybe because Sony would have to field phone helpline calls about WEP and SSIDs, and need to know the ins and outs of every Access Point that's ever been on the market.
Support is expensive, and to reduce that cost you need to narrow down exactly what you support to as small a set as possible.
Xbox Live! has a similar policy on wireless. "It works, but we don't support it".
The PS2 was maybe oversimplified as it is a complexe thing with a lot of different execution units, call it the main bus being hoged by texture transfers and the GS being stalled because it is waiting for texture upload to finish.
Or are you talking about game designers should just design their games around the limitations of the platform and just use a smaller amount of texture for better fillrate etc.? That would maybe help on the paper but very likely it will look crappier than with better texture and some lost fillrate.
If it was something else: explain! otherwise it is just a worthless flaimbait.
Jan
Uh, no major game company releases their big game _after_ the Christmas rush
I'm pretty sure I remember Mega Man regularly being on the cover of Nintendo Power in January. The post-Christmas seemed to be the niche for that series. After all, kids need something to spend the $50 cheque from their uncle that came a month late on.
I work for a first party developer and no, we haven't gotten any docs or anything. Sorry to burst your bubble. I don't think that sony is at that stage yet.