Absolutely! These leaks are happening too often for it to just be some random occurences. This is part of the whole marketing package now. Someone's definitely getting paid for this stuff. Besides, there aren't that many modded consoles out there and players willing or able to mod them. So a "leaked" console game (if it needs a modded console) isn't going to cost too many sales in territories where there isn't already rampant piracy.
Now all of that being said, I wonder if it's cooler to play a pirated copy of a game about murder and mayhem? Do the chicks dig it?
With JTL coming out, I'm tempted to take a look at SWG again, especially since I now have the hardware to run it better. Still, I'm going to wait and see. It'll be interesting to see if the JTL action cannibalizes "ground" activities. I know it's all the same game, but I have a hunch that we're about to see something of a split.
It could be that in a relatively weak economy with relatively high unemployment, that price matters more. This would difinitely give the ESPN line of games an edge. And, as some have already mentioned, $19.99 is at the sweet spot of the typical impulse buy. Now that we're entering the holiday shopping season, sales should go up for both EA and ESPN lines, but I'm guessing that grandparents will be preferentially buying the ESPN line of games for their spoiled grandkids!
The built in wireless is definitely a plus for me. Then I could code in the living room while watching Adult Swim! Alas, the budget just won't allow it right now... Eventually I'll probably pick one of these up simply because I'm sick of Windows but I don't really want to wrestle with Linux on a laptop. If Apple could get the prices down to be a bit more competitive with Windows laptop pricing they might be able to pick up even more disaffected Windows users like myself. This isn't a complaint, just speculation. Hey! How about a laptop trade in program? Bring in your old laptop and get $100 off a new iBook. Hmmm....
I too am waiting for the Microsoft Linux Distribution!;-)
Seriously, with some planning, they could make a real go of it in much the same way that IBM has embraced Linux without really cannibalizing their existing businesses. Afterall, even if MS Linux did cause a massive dumping of Windows, whose Linux would the dumpers be flocking to? Why MS Linux of course. Since it's from Microsoft it's got to be good, right? Besides, a smart MS would simultaneously release MS Office for Linux too which may or may not work best on MS Linux. In any case, a Linux version of Office would sell like crazy.
Given this scenario, the worst thing that could happen for OSS would be for Microsoft to embrace Linux, worse in the sense that if they are smart, they could quickly dominate the platform. I don't know if we'll ever see the Microsoft Linux Lovechild, but I bet it'd be darn purty!
I've been reading Paul Graham's book, "Hackers and Painters", so let's take a different take on this. Here's an unthinkable thought, if indeed Neopets is introducing kids to gambling at an early age, then maybe they'll be better gamblers when they grow up! Afterall, the practical problem with gambling is being bad at it! My daughter loves Neopets, but since her computer is in my office, it's pretty easy to keep things under control. That's what parents are supposed to do, right? Still, if Neopets is making her a gambling genius, that could be pretty useful...;-)
Of more concern for our Aussie friends are the extremely paternalistic proposals and legislation coming from down under lately. It seems that every other story here on/. lately is about something being banned in Australia. What's going on down there?
Ahh, to see any mention of OS/2 in print these days brings back mostly fond memories. I dabbled a bit in REXX in those days on OS/2 to get various little tasks done, it was a pretty good tool. Perhaps open sourcing it will be of benefit if it makes its way onto Linux or other platforms. Heck, I wonder if it could run on cell phones or pdas? A good scripting language on those could be very useful and cool.
Now if only IBM would open source the fabulous Workplace Shell!
Heh Heh! That gives me an idea! Wouldn't it be cool if an MMORPG had a roleplaying speech filter that would take whatever speech the player entered and convert it into game world appropriate speech! That way phAt 100t might become "much coveted gil" or some such. Of course the real fun would be watching what comes out when players inevitably try to subvert the thing. Yeah, that's the immersion shattering you're hearing!
OO is not Word, but if my daughter needs something to write school reports on that doesn't cost me more money, it fits the bill perfectly. Plus it does a decent job of making PDFs to boot, which again means I save money! I use Word for work, but where there's no need for Word specifically OO is a very good value. Not only that, OO has pushed down the price of Word, which means I save money at work too! And beyond money, I can load it or reload it on as many machines as I need to. OO has come a long way since the StarOffice days! Happy Birthday OO!
All of this talk about an iPod killer seemingly every week now is just wishful thinking. The insiders must know that the true iPod killer will be the device that does the following.
1.) Looks really good, like the iPod
2.) Plays _all_ of the major formats including OGG
3.) Works with whatever music store you like
4.) Is competitively priced and reliable
Technically this is all possible. Having a good looking player that plays all of the major music formats is well within reach. The other stuff is where it gets tricky primarily due to copyright issues. If encumbering DRM would just go away the market would explode. It is the need for DRM that leads to the current incompatibilities. Yeah, if there were a single standard it would be better (maybe) but that's not going to happen because there is basic disagreement on just what the end user should be able to do with music and how much and how often they should pay. Right now, the iPod plus iTunes offer what IMHO is the most end user friendly set of circumstances. Yeah, the iPod doesn't play OGG, but nothing keeps me from converting OGG to mp3 and loading it that way. I can even get unprotected WMA on my pod. Unfortunately a lot of the Japanese music I listen to is on copy protected CDs which are a bear to deal with, but after some work (no cracking involved) I can get these on my pod too. No extra fees or subscriptions! I can pretty much deal with music the way I did in the days of making compilation cassettes for my car or walkman. Heck, this is even easier than that was! Right or wrong, I feel more like Apple wants to help me DO things, rather than STOP me from doing things.
Bottom line, no iPod killer is likely to appear anytime soon because the fundamental problems are nowhere near resolution. Microsoft could do a lot to unify things on the Windows side, but ultimately competition among record companies isn't going to allow the kind of unification that could pose a real challenge for Apple's iPod+iTunes dominance. And of course, Apple isn't likely to be standing still either.
One thing that I don't really understand is why Sony seems to think it is okay to release in Japan before they can possibly have much of a line up of games ready. If there is even a smidgen of truth to the rumors going about, then the line up will not be great and battery life will be between 1.5 and 2 hours. Yet they insist on launching! This is starting to sound like the first iteration of Nokia's N-Gage handheld console, and we know how successful that was!
If Sony goes through with it, expect to see some movies. I can imagine a portable movie player being popular riding the trains in Japan. So expect to see some titles from Sony's library in the new format at launch. Movies couldn't take nearly as long as games to write to the new format assuming there aren't any major disk production problems. On the games front, expect to see mahjong variants, puzzles, and of course, the ancient game of go! Why? Because these are easy to produce titles that almost always accompany the launch of a console in Japan. And these games should be pretty easy on the batteries. There may be a port or two of older, but popular, dating sims too if Sony really wants some more filler.
While I have little hope that GT for PSP will make the Japanese launch date, I'll bet there's a serious death march going on at Polyphony right now to get it out!
Is Sega Coming Back to the Hardware Business?
on
Dreamcast On a Chip
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Hmmm, I gotten used to stories here on/. about people doing all sorts of technically interesting things, like Unix on a GBA, for example. But this story isn't about some hobbyist with too much time on their hands. Presumably, Renesas would like to make some money on their work. So what is going on here? Who would be interested in a souped up DC on a chip? Who would know what to do with it? Hmmm, could it be....Sega (now Sega-Sammy I believe)!?
Why not? This chip could be the basis for cheap arcade boards, or maybe a handheld. The arcade angle is a bit more believable as the handheld battle heating up between Nintendo and Sony makes the field too crowded (and don't forget Nokia). A new console though would not be out of the question. The small chip might even make it possible to sell the console hardware (DCtwo anyone?) at a profit. And backwards compatibility to the DC library is very easy, rereleases of popular titles could be profitable too. Just some things that make you go, hmmmm.
Well, if the $5 downloads become popular enough, perhaps some publishers will lower the off the shelf cost. If they go from the typical $40 or $50 to say $29.95, that'd be cool. I don't mind being milked (mooooo!) too much as long as it's just a little at a time! It's kind of like buying volumes of a manga series.
A widely available spectator mode on Xbox Live has some interesting possibilities. There have already been articles about how TV is starting to lose viewers to video games and the internet. Being able to tune in, so to speak, to live gaming on Xbox Live could help accelerate the trend. And where there are viewers, there's money, then ads... Of course ads are already starting the show up in games. Imagine my surprise that Red Bull was a real product after playing Wipeout the first time so many years ago!
Hmmm, you know there's a reality TV show in there somewhere! Maybe the best FPS players can land a starring spot on a Sims 2 based reality program with sims modelled on their game personas...hmmmm....
Hmm it seems to me that there are two big reasons for pushing the PSP back into 2006. The first is battery life as many here have already noted. Given recent news about Sony's instructions to developers with respect to battery life and now this possible delay, I'd say this is serious. A wild guess would be that so far they haven't been able to get at least 3 hours out of the thing.
The second thing is the whole Gran Turismo mess. Most recently, it was announced that GT 4 for the PS2 would be released without online multiplayer. Problems with the online component are widely believed to be the cause of the delay of GT 4. Well, if one assumes significant overlap in the GT 4 and GT for PSP teams and perhaps a shared codebase, then problems for one means problems for the other. I think GT was to be a launch title for the PSP. More wild speculation might suggest that there was supposed to be some connectivity between the formerly online enabled GT 4 and the PSP version. Again this is complete speculation!
Finally, GT for PSP was supposed to be a port of GT for PS2. Well given the high level of detail in GT graphics, physics modelling and AI, you can bet GT on PSP really sucked the batteries dry in short order. These are all guesses of course, but if any of this is true, they'll need some time to sort it all out.
I'll bet Microsoft will be watching the success or failure of THQ's approach very closely. Why? Because downloadable content is something that is done best with the availability of local mass storage, like a hard drive. Even with a broadband connection, you usually don't want to be pushing a lot of data back and forth if it can be stored locally.
If a lot of people are willing to pay $5 for additional content, then including a hard drive in the next Xbox makes better business sense because it enhances the revenue stream. I'd like to see something like the 20 - 40GB minidrives that are showing up in iPods and laptops in Xbox 2. Though I suppose a 512MB memory card would do the trick in many cases too.
It's certainly true that these private spaceflight efforts owe a great debt to the pioneering work done by NASA, and I'm sure they realize that too.
While I'm not so wild about seeing yet more goodies going to the ultra rich in the way of joyrides into space, on the whole I think that this trickle down of decades of NASA work into the birth of commercial spaceflight is a good return on our investment. Besides, we poor folks will eventually get our shot at space. Afterall, who's going to serve the drinks and clean the toilets in those orbital hotels?:-)
Way to go Steve! Nothing makes me want to buy more Microsoft products than being called a thief. What a wonderful new way to get customers. You know what, I feel like going out and buying a Mac right now...
Hmm at this rate we'll soon have to put murderers, drug dealers, rapists, and terrorists out on the street to make room for all of the file swappers we're putting in jail! I know I'll feel a lot safer that way, and Britney will be able to sleep at night safe and secure in the knowledge that record company profits are secure!
The Russians aren't stupid! Some OEMs may put this crippled XP on new boxes, but as soon as they get home, a fully enabled pirated version is going to go on in its place. Crippleware will not sell, and surely MS must know this. So one can only wonder if this is a gesture by MS to get at least a few bucks from OEMs and a few people who just don't know any better. Not only that, you can bet that this budget XP will be cracked within a week of hitting the streets.
Interesting. I can certainly buy the argument that physics engines are difficult to build. But the timing of this announcement makes me wonder if they were a little jealous of all the attention that other still not shipped game, HL2, has been getting. In any case, with the spectar of Daikatana still in everyone's memory, getting a good physics engine is a good thing.
As always, the decision to drop support for the HD bay and by extension the HD itself, in the PStwo is just about money. No, it's not really about stopping people from using HD Loader. Most console users are not interested in or technically capable of using the various tools that, among other things, make playing pirated games possible. If that were the case, Sony would have done something a lot sooner.
The likely fact is just as it was said earlier, the consumers with interest in the HD already have it. They've milked it for all they can get, so continued support at this stage would cost more than what it is worth. Why? Because they had plans for the PStwo all along as a stop gap between now and the PS3 release. The PStwo gets the platform back in the news in time for XMas. They'll pick up some new sales and some repeat sales as either gifts, spares, or replacements. And best of all, for Sony, the PStwo hardware is probably going to sell at a profit for them. To make this possible they had to drop everything that would increase the cost of making the console, so bye bye HD.
This probably also means that those HD using goodies that were promised will not be coming, at least not to North America or Europe.
Online play does affect gameplay because data has to be transmitted back and forth. The world that player 1 sees has to be in synch with player 2 and so on. For a highly detailed racer like GT, that could be a whole lot of data. If you've played online games like Unreal Tournament, Quake, or Final Fantasy XI, then you know that things can get pretty choppy when there are a lot of players interacting and any lag in data transmission just makes things worse. Lag is caused by the time it takes for signals to travel, plus whatever time is spent by the console to process those signals before sending a response.
In simulations you can cheat a bit using physics, but still, high detail modelling mean you're pumping more data through the pipe in order to keep things in synch. If the PS2 is already close to its maximum load just doing the one player version due to the level of detail in modelling the physical behavior of the vehicles plus the AI, then adding the burden of online multiplayer means either crappy performance, or you have to turn the detail way way down.
Slashdot Mirror
Absolutely! These leaks are happening too often for it to just be some random occurences. This is part of the whole marketing package now. Someone's definitely getting paid for this stuff. Besides, there aren't that many modded consoles out there and players willing or able to mod them. So a "leaked" console game (if it needs a modded console) isn't going to cost too many sales in territories where there isn't already rampant piracy.
Now all of that being said, I wonder if it's cooler to play a pirated copy of a game about murder and mayhem? Do the chicks dig it?
With JTL coming out, I'm tempted to take a look at SWG again, especially since I now have the hardware to run it better. Still, I'm going to wait and see. It'll be interesting to see if the JTL action cannibalizes "ground" activities. I know it's all the same game, but I have a hunch that we're about to see something of a split.
It could be that in a relatively weak economy with relatively high unemployment, that price matters more. This would difinitely give the ESPN line of games an edge. And, as some have already mentioned, $19.99 is at the sweet spot of the typical impulse buy. Now that we're entering the holiday shopping season, sales should go up for both EA and ESPN lines, but I'm guessing that grandparents will be preferentially buying the ESPN line of games for their spoiled grandkids!
The built in wireless is definitely a plus for me. Then I could code in the living room while watching Adult Swim! Alas, the budget just won't allow it right now... Eventually I'll probably pick one of these up simply because I'm sick of Windows but I don't really want to wrestle with Linux on a laptop. If Apple could get the prices down to be a bit more competitive with Windows laptop pricing they might be able to pick up even more disaffected Windows users like myself. This isn't a complaint, just speculation. Hey! How about a laptop trade in program? Bring in your old laptop and get $100 off a new iBook. Hmmm....
I too am waiting for the Microsoft Linux Distribution! ;-)
Seriously, with some planning, they could make a real go of it in much the same way that IBM has embraced Linux without really cannibalizing their existing businesses. Afterall, even if MS Linux did cause a massive dumping of Windows, whose Linux would the dumpers be flocking to? Why MS Linux of course. Since it's from Microsoft it's got to be good, right? Besides, a smart MS would simultaneously release MS Office for Linux too which may or may not work best on MS Linux. In any case, a Linux version of Office would sell like crazy.
Given this scenario, the worst thing that could happen for OSS would be for Microsoft to embrace Linux, worse in the sense that if they are smart, they could quickly dominate the platform. I don't know if we'll ever see the Microsoft Linux Lovechild, but I bet it'd be darn purty!
I've been reading Paul Graham's book, "Hackers and Painters", so let's take a different take on this. Here's an unthinkable thought, if indeed Neopets is introducing kids to gambling at an early age, then maybe they'll be better gamblers when they grow up! Afterall, the practical problem with gambling is being bad at it! My daughter loves Neopets, but since her computer is in my office, it's pretty easy to keep things under control. That's what parents are supposed to do, right? Still, if Neopets is making her a gambling genius, that could be pretty useful... ;-)
Of more concern for our Aussie friends are the extremely paternalistic proposals and legislation coming from down under lately. It seems that every other story here on /. lately is about something being banned in Australia. What's going on down there?
Ahh, to see any mention of OS/2 in print these days brings back mostly fond memories. I dabbled a bit in REXX in those days on OS/2 to get various little tasks done, it was a pretty good tool. Perhaps open sourcing it will be of benefit if it makes its way onto Linux or other platforms. Heck, I wonder if it could run on cell phones or pdas? A good scripting language on those could be very useful and cool.
Now if only IBM would open source the fabulous Workplace Shell!
Heh Heh! That gives me an idea! Wouldn't it be cool if an MMORPG had a roleplaying speech filter that would take whatever speech the player entered and convert it into game world appropriate speech! That way phAt 100t might become "much coveted gil" or some such. Of course the real fun would be watching what comes out when players inevitably try to subvert the thing. Yeah, that's the immersion shattering you're hearing!
OO is not Word, but if my daughter needs something to write school reports on that doesn't cost me more money, it fits the bill perfectly. Plus it does a decent job of making PDFs to boot, which again means I save money! I use Word for work, but where there's no need for Word specifically OO is a very good value. Not only that, OO has pushed down the price of Word, which means I save money at work too! And beyond money, I can load it or reload it on as many machines as I need to. OO has come a long way since the StarOffice days! Happy Birthday OO!
All of this talk about an iPod killer seemingly every week now is just wishful thinking. The insiders must know that the true iPod killer will be the device that does the following.
1.) Looks really good, like the iPod
2.) Plays _all_ of the major formats including OGG
3.) Works with whatever music store you like
4.) Is competitively priced and reliable
Technically this is all possible. Having a good looking player that plays all of the major music formats is well within reach. The other stuff is where it gets tricky primarily due to copyright issues. If encumbering DRM would just go away the market would explode. It is the need for DRM that leads to the current incompatibilities. Yeah, if there were a single standard it would be better (maybe) but that's not going to happen because there is basic disagreement on just what the end user should be able to do with music and how much and how often they should pay. Right now, the iPod plus iTunes offer what IMHO is the most end user friendly set of circumstances. Yeah, the iPod doesn't play OGG, but nothing keeps me from converting OGG to mp3 and loading it that way. I can even get unprotected WMA on my pod. Unfortunately a lot of the Japanese music I listen to is on copy protected CDs which are a bear to deal with, but after some work (no cracking involved) I can get these on my pod too. No extra fees or subscriptions! I can pretty much deal with music the way I did in the days of making compilation cassettes for my car or walkman. Heck, this is even easier than that was! Right or wrong, I feel more like Apple wants to help me DO things, rather than STOP me from doing things.
Bottom line, no iPod killer is likely to appear anytime soon because the fundamental problems are nowhere near resolution. Microsoft could do a lot to unify things on the Windows side, but ultimately competition among record companies isn't going to allow the kind of unification that could pose a real challenge for Apple's iPod+iTunes dominance. And of course, Apple isn't likely to be standing still either.
One thing that I don't really understand is why Sony seems to think it is okay to release in Japan before they can possibly have much of a line up of games ready. If there is even a smidgen of truth to the rumors going about, then the line up will not be great and battery life will be between 1.5 and 2 hours. Yet they insist on launching! This is starting to sound like the first iteration of Nokia's N-Gage handheld console, and we know how successful that was!
If Sony goes through with it, expect to see some movies. I can imagine a portable movie player being popular riding the trains in Japan. So expect to see some titles from Sony's library in the new format at launch. Movies couldn't take nearly as long as games to write to the new format assuming there aren't any major disk production problems. On the games front, expect to see mahjong variants, puzzles, and of course, the ancient game of go! Why? Because these are easy to produce titles that almost always accompany the launch of a console in Japan. And these games should be pretty easy on the batteries. There may be a port or two of older, but popular, dating sims too if Sony really wants some more filler.
While I have little hope that GT for PSP will make the Japanese launch date, I'll bet there's a serious death march going on at Polyphony right now to get it out!
Hmmm, I gotten used to stories here on /. about people doing all sorts of technically interesting things, like Unix on a GBA, for example. But this story isn't about some hobbyist with too much time on their hands. Presumably, Renesas would like to make some money on their work. So what is going on here? Who would be interested in a souped up DC on a chip? Who would know what to do with it? Hmmm, could it be....Sega (now Sega-Sammy I believe)!?
Why not? This chip could be the basis for cheap arcade boards, or maybe a handheld. The arcade angle is a bit more believable as the handheld battle heating up between Nintendo and Sony makes the field too crowded (and don't forget Nokia). A new console though would not be out of the question. The small chip might even make it possible to sell the console hardware (DCtwo anyone?) at a profit. And backwards compatibility to the DC library is very easy, rereleases of popular titles could be profitable too. Just some things that make you go, hmmmm.
Well, if the $5 downloads become popular enough, perhaps some publishers will lower the off the shelf cost. If they go from the typical $40 or $50 to say $29.95, that'd be cool. I don't mind being milked (mooooo!) too much as long as it's just a little at a time! It's kind of like buying volumes of a manga series.
A widely available spectator mode on Xbox Live has some interesting possibilities. There have already been articles about how TV is starting to lose viewers to video games and the internet. Being able to tune in, so to speak, to live gaming on Xbox Live could help accelerate the trend. And where there are viewers, there's money, then ads... Of course ads are already starting the show up in games. Imagine my surprise that Red Bull was a real product after playing Wipeout the first time so many years ago!
Hmmm, you know there's a reality TV show in there somewhere! Maybe the best FPS players can land a starring spot on a Sims 2 based reality program with sims modelled on their game personas...hmmmm....
Hmm it seems to me that there are two big reasons for pushing the PSP back into 2006. The first is battery life as many here have already noted. Given recent news about Sony's instructions to developers with respect to battery life and now this possible delay, I'd say this is serious. A wild guess would be that so far they haven't been able to get at least 3 hours out of the thing.
The second thing is the whole Gran Turismo mess. Most recently, it was announced that GT 4 for the PS2 would be released without online multiplayer. Problems with the online component are widely believed to be the cause of the delay of GT 4. Well, if one assumes significant overlap in the GT 4 and GT for PSP teams and perhaps a shared codebase, then problems for one means problems for the other. I think GT was to be a launch title for the PSP. More wild speculation might suggest that there was supposed to be some connectivity between the formerly online enabled GT 4 and the PSP version. Again this is complete speculation!
Finally, GT for PSP was supposed to be a port of GT for PS2. Well given the high level of detail in GT graphics, physics modelling and AI, you can bet GT on PSP really sucked the batteries dry in short order. These are all guesses of course, but if any of this is true, they'll need some time to sort it all out.
I'll bet Microsoft will be watching the success or failure of THQ's approach very closely. Why? Because downloadable content is something that is done best with the availability of local mass storage, like a hard drive. Even with a broadband connection, you usually don't want to be pushing a lot of data back and forth if it can be stored locally.
If a lot of people are willing to pay $5 for additional content, then including a hard drive in the next Xbox makes better business sense because it enhances the revenue stream. I'd like to see something like the 20 - 40GB minidrives that are showing up in iPods and laptops in Xbox 2. Though I suppose a 512MB memory card would do the trick in many cases too.
It's certainly true that these private spaceflight efforts owe a great debt to the pioneering work done by NASA, and I'm sure they realize that too.
:-)
While I'm not so wild about seeing yet more goodies going to the ultra rich in the way of joyrides into space, on the whole I think that this trickle down of decades of NASA work into the birth of commercial spaceflight is a good return on our investment. Besides, we poor folks will eventually get our shot at space. Afterall, who's going to serve the drinks and clean the toilets in those orbital hotels?
Way to go Steve! Nothing makes me want to buy more Microsoft products than being called a thief. What a wonderful new way to get customers. You know what, I feel like going out and buying a Mac right now...
Oh too easy! Just have someone email him the Longhorn ISOs. That should fill up 100GB real quick, and nobody has to get nekkid!
Hmm at this rate we'll soon have to put murderers, drug dealers, rapists, and terrorists out on the street to make room for all of the file swappers we're putting in jail! I know I'll feel a lot safer that way, and Britney will be able to sleep at night safe and secure in the knowledge that record company profits are secure!
The craft has a Virgin logo on it this time!
Heh heh heh! How very appropriate, now the commercialization of the final frontier has truly begun!:-)
The Russians aren't stupid! Some OEMs may put this crippled XP on new boxes, but as soon as they get home, a fully enabled pirated version is going to go on in its place. Crippleware will not sell, and surely MS must know this. So one can only wonder if this is a gesture by MS to get at least a few bucks from OEMs and a few people who just don't know any better. Not only that, you can bet that this budget XP will be cracked within a week of hitting the streets.
Interesting. I can certainly buy the argument that physics engines are difficult to build. But the timing of this announcement makes me wonder if they were a little jealous of all the attention that other still not shipped game, HL2, has been getting. In any case, with the spectar of Daikatana still in everyone's memory, getting a good physics engine is a good thing.
As always, the decision to drop support for the HD bay and by extension the HD itself, in the PStwo is just about money. No, it's not really about stopping people from using HD Loader. Most console users are not interested in or technically capable of using the various tools that, among other things, make playing pirated games possible. If that were the case, Sony would have done something a lot sooner.
The likely fact is just as it was said earlier, the consumers with interest in the HD already have it. They've milked it for all they can get, so continued support at this stage would cost more than what it is worth. Why? Because they had plans for the PStwo all along as a stop gap between now and the PS3 release. The PStwo gets the platform back in the news in time for XMas. They'll pick up some new sales and some repeat sales as either gifts, spares, or replacements. And best of all, for Sony, the PStwo hardware is probably going to sell at a profit for them. To make this possible they had to drop everything that would increase the cost of making the console, so bye bye HD.
This probably also means that those HD using goodies that were promised will not be coming, at least not to North America or Europe.
Online play does affect gameplay because data has to be transmitted back and forth. The world that player 1 sees has to be in synch with player 2 and so on. For a highly detailed racer like GT, that could be a whole lot of data. If you've played online games like Unreal Tournament, Quake, or Final Fantasy XI, then you know that things can get pretty choppy when there are a lot of players interacting and any lag in data transmission just makes things worse. Lag is caused by the time it takes for signals to travel, plus whatever time is spent by the console to process those signals before sending a response.
In simulations you can cheat a bit using physics, but still, high detail modelling mean you're pumping more data through the pipe in order to keep things in synch. If the PS2 is already close to its maximum load just doing the one player version due to the level of detail in modelling the physical behavior of the vehicles plus the AI, then adding the burden of online multiplayer means either crappy performance, or you have to turn the detail way way down.