Possible PS2 Price Portent Pondered

Londovir writes "Could Nintendo soon be sharing shelf space at the $99 rack? According to an article on IGN.com, an internal source at Target claims to have received printed fliers with the Playstation 2 listed at $99. If you remember from an earlier story from September, it was an advance newspaper ad from Target (again), as well as a leaked scan of a Wal-Mart ad, that told the world about the GameCube's price before it happened. Given how the GameCube is outselling the PS2 & XBox - would a price drop so low be so unexpected? One last tidbit to contemplate: Sony is ready to roll the manufacturing plants for their smaller 90 nanometer PS2 CPU. Maybe that price drop isn't so unbelievable after all..."

90nm != cheap

[Anonymous Coward]

Sony is ready to roll the manufacturing plants for their smaller 90 nanometer PS2 CPU. Maybe that price drop isn't so unbelievable after all..."

Not sure that makes a whole lot of sense, considering that the cost to run a 90nm process is quite expensive. The smaller processes like that get much more expensive, and I can see little reason (other than experience, maybe) for Sony to change the process on a chip whose specs are not going to be changed, either. Unless, of course, they plan on using it in another product.

Re:2 thoughts

[EastCoastSurfer]

1. Even if they give them away for free, I don't think I'll play on a console : I'm used to playing with a mouse + used to switch between work & play for 5 minutes of fun between hours of stress. So I'll play on my PC for quite some time to come.

Each type of system(console/PC) is strong at different types of games. RPGs and FPSs are usually best in the realm of the PC. Sports games on the other hand, I always find to be much more playable on a console. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

2. Folks who bought a PS2 at $499 must really feel screwed now. And they say Apple has large profit margins !

Not really. I got my PS2 the day they dropped to $199. I think I have had it for nearly 1.5 - 2 years now and have definitely gotten my $100 price premium out of it. On a side note, any techie who feels screwed b/c of technology price drops must never sleep a wink. Prices continually drop on computer equipment, so as long as you feel that you/b> got a good deal that is all that matters.

Re:2 thoughts

[Ark42]

Somebody invited me to this 8player XBOX Halo party. It was horrible. Besides the fact I had never seen an XBOX before, my assumptions were all proved right. I played for about 30 minutes trying very hard to get used to those silly thumb pad things for rotation, but it just doesn't work. Even though I use a mouse for all PC games, I would even prefer a trackball over these weird thumb pad things on the XBOX. I seriously bet I could learn to use a trackball a lot better then the thing they come with.
That isn't even mentioning the fact that the graphics sucked compared to games I'm used to (like RTCW:ET), the 4player split screen thing was like using a 9" monitor. 8players is a LOT? I seriously dont understand what these people (friends of friends) were thinking. 64 players is a lot. 24-32 is decent. 8? what ever, 8 means 4v4 which is below the minimum for a fun game really. Don't forget the lack of buttons for binding more actions then there are buttons. When playing RTCW:ET Every single one of my keyboard buttons does something. Granted most of them are quickchat binds, still a lot of other keys are actions, guns, movement, etc.
To sum it all up, I would never even bother to get an XBOX, even if somebody gave it to me for free. The gaming experience for me just plain sucks compared to PCs. I doubt PS2 or GameCube are any different.

thirty-two players?

[yerricde]

64 players is a lot. 24-32 is decent.

How do you expect to fit 32 players into a room in a single-family residence? How do you expect to have players' parents approve of disconnecting their consoles and TVs and LANning up? Oh, you mean Internet play? Many areas are still not wired for residential high-speed Internet access, and satellite still has too much latency for real-time gaming. (Civ and Tetrinet are turn based so they don't count.) Even in areas wired for broadband, most minor children's allowances are not large enough to afford upwards of $400 per year for broadband.

Re:Will this kill the XBox?

[drinkypoo]

Aside from processing power and graphics capability which are if not equivalent (though not identical) the PS2 is only half the machine the Xbox is. Remember that the Xbox has a hard drive and ethernet as it ships, it has better video output capabilities, it has four controller ports. To get all this on your PS2, even priced at $99, will put it well above the Xbox's price. Add to this the underground credibility of the Xbox due to its hacking potential - It might say Microsoft on it, but tons of people who would never run Windows own an Xbox and are not only using it to run Linux - I'd say that they'll have to do a whole lot more than this to beat up the Xbox.

If Sony wants to kill the Xbox they will have to bring out a version of the PS2 which comes with the hard drive and ethernet interface, which can both run linux and play games on the internet, and which costs no more than the Xbox. Obviously their PSX system (It is terribly ignorant of Sony to name their new system the PSX, given that their old system is commonly known as PSX, but that's a subject for another rant I guess) is not going to be any kind of competitor, as it will price itself right out of existence for almost everyone.