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The PS2 Five Years Later
1up.com is running a feature on the now on-the-way-out PlayStation 2, exploring the hardware, the regional launches, and the hype. From the article: "Gamers were given a chance to see the machine in action for themselves almost exactly a year after its unveiling. Tens of thousands of Japanese gamers lined up across the country the evening of March 3, 2000, hoping for a chance to get their hands on the system. In just 48 hours, nearly 1 million PS2s were sold to giddy consumers, making it 10 times as successful as its predecessor. Its initial price was ¥39,800, roughly $360-slightly expensive, but actually a little cheaper than the price the original PlayStation launched at."
The original (pre-ordered) PS2s are crippled, somewhat. They don't play DVD movies, and they don't play PSX games. I, thankfully, waited to get one, but a guy on my floor freshman year was one of the lucky ones who had to have one straight away. Boy, did that bite him in the ass.
I hope the same doesn't happen with the PS3, as I've already stashed the dough for that system. Maybe I should wait for Rev2?
Informatus Technologicus
What I remember about the PS2 unveiling is the "insane, better than computer graphics". I also remember watching people being escorted out of some local stores by policemen when they bought PS2's.
Microsoft is like...no, it's much worse.
Goodness, has it been that long? I guess if one pays that much up front, if it can still sustain new titles after five years, then the overall price is fairly negligble. Consider $360 over five years is only 72 dollars, about six dollars a month for entertainment. As much as I like my PC, that's not a bad deal for gaming. I spent around 800 to build my own and that will last me four of five years at best.
in only 5 years time. We were in the midst of a CPU war between AMD and Intel, and we thought the latest 3D cards by Nvidia and ATI would keep the PC competitive with consoles. And to think there were those who doubted when Sony said the Emotion Engine would become the CPU of choice for high-end workstations, PCs, and even super-computers! Take note and learn from history, simple-minded fools: when Sony "hypes" up an upcoming technology, it's only a matter of time before it becomes reality.
Yes, but than come in games: 20-60 dollars a game, with mabye 15-50 hours of fun per game. That is about a dollar an hour, it costs less than many arcades, but still, it adds up.
That's a lot less than any arcade I've ever been to, assuming you actually go there to play and not watch. It's also a lot less than the cinema, or buying dvds. Renting films is close, but then you can rent games, and get even more value.
uhm, but 6 years later...
The price isn't that important thought, the games and add-ons is the expensive stuff.
This whole article seems like a puff piece to me. The author is so busy praising the PS2 (whose shoddy engineering is holding the entire generation back in my opinion) that he can't even get his facts straight. Take his claim that it has a "PC-level graphics chip" for example. That's a load. But even when it launched the PS2 didn't have anything near PC-level graphics capability. There are some pretty games for the PS2, but nothing that looks as good as RtcW- which ran at 1024x768 on a machine I owned before the PS2 came out.
Is called the PSP.