* The next (current?) generation of consoles offer beter play comfort than PC. I'd rather sit in front of my widescreen Wega screen than on my than a tiny 17" VGA monitor.
* Someone mentioned the PS2 not supporting Dolby 5.1 or DTS. It does not have the decoder build-in, but it outputs the signals through the optical port so you can hook it up to an external decoder.
* PS2 movie playback could be better. It's not region-free (probably because Sony is involved in DVD Video publishing as well). It also does NOT support CD+G, DVD Audio, VideoCD, SuperVCD or MP3 playback. In addition the PS2 drive (especially the 2nd generation model) is crap at reading recordable media. Also a remote control is not part of the standard equipment. You have to shell out extra for that.
* The licence requirement is actually a good thing for consumers. With a $25,000 fee developers will make sure they'll produce something that will return their investments.
* US games suck. Electronic Arts, Acclaim, need I say more? The Japanese produce far better games. Microsoft has not been able to get the major Japanese houses to publish for their Xbox system. If you want quality stuff for your system you need to sign up Square, Konami, Enix and Capcom.
* Many people seem to think the Sega Saturn failed. It only failed in the US and European market. In Asia it sold well and had plenty of decent games (Anyone who has played "Yakyuken Special" will agree) which did not get released outside of Asia. The current Japanese userbase is already enough to ensure a steady stream of games for PS2.
* Sony will prolly want to turn PS2 into a hybrid PC, but they can't change the basic configuration. You don't have to get the extra peripherals if you just want to play games.
* Xbox is nothing more than a PC which outputs to TV. As such it can't seriously be called a new system. We will see mostly PC stuff ported to Xbox. Porting will be easy because Xbox IS the same platform. Xbox will buy you a system with no exclusive games, just rehashes of PC games.
Slashdot Mirror
* The next (current?) generation of consoles offer beter play comfort than PC. I'd rather sit in front of my widescreen Wega screen than on my than a tiny 17" VGA monitor.
* Someone mentioned the PS2 not supporting Dolby 5.1 or DTS. It does not have the decoder build-in, but it outputs the signals through the optical port so you can hook it up to an external decoder.
* PS2 movie playback could be better. It's not region-free (probably because Sony is involved in DVD Video publishing as well). It also does NOT support CD+G, DVD Audio, VideoCD, SuperVCD or MP3 playback. In addition the PS2 drive (especially the 2nd generation model) is crap at reading recordable media. Also a remote control is not part of the standard equipment. You have to shell out extra for that.
* The licence requirement is actually a good thing for consumers. With a $25,000 fee developers will make sure they'll produce something that will return their investments.
* US games suck. Electronic Arts, Acclaim, need I say more? The Japanese produce far better games. Microsoft has not been able to get the major Japanese houses to publish for their Xbox system. If you want quality stuff for your system you need to sign up Square, Konami, Enix and Capcom.
* Many people seem to think the Sega Saturn failed. It only failed in the US and European market. In Asia it sold well and had plenty of decent games (Anyone who has played "Yakyuken Special" will agree) which did not get released outside of Asia. The current Japanese userbase is already enough to ensure a steady stream of games for PS2.
* Sony will prolly want to turn PS2 into a hybrid PC, but they can't change the basic configuration. You don't have to get the extra peripherals if you just want to play games.
* Xbox is nothing more than a PC which outputs to TV. As such it can't seriously be called a new system. We will see mostly PC stuff ported to Xbox. Porting will be easy because Xbox IS the same platform. Xbox will buy you a system with no exclusive games, just rehashes of PC games.