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Games Entertainment

Sony SmartPhone To Work With PS2 105

Posted by Hemos from the integration-to-a-new-level dept.
thryllkill writes "Yahoo is reporting a new Sony plan to implement a telephone that can talk to a Play Station 2. Of course it pushing the idea of training characters for games on the run, but wasn't this already tried with the VMU? ."
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Sony SmartPhone To Work With PS2 More

Sony SmartPhone To Work With PS2

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  • Could you jiggle this to make VoIP work?
  • Nintendo did something like this, there was a game a few years ago called "Hey You, Pikachu!" that came with a microphone you plugged into your N64. It didn't matter WHAT you said into the thing, pikachu would just do the exact same thing... namely, walk into stuff. This was the least fun game I've ever rented. I knew it would be dumb when I got it, but I was hoping for a fun kind of dumb, you know...


    I'm sure that Sony's PS2 version is much better, but I'll pass.

    • Re:ugh (Score:1)

      by Jayr ( 319806 )
      You should read the article...it doesn't mention anything about speech recognition. It's more of a way of continuing gameplay.

  • Whoa there... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by magicslax ( 532351 ) <frank_salim.yahoo@com> on Thursday April 25, 2002 @11:30PM (#3413903)

    That's bloody scary. I'm sure this is exactly the thing my gamer addict friends need to help them kick the habit. um..no.

    What with mobile gaming, instant messaging, and various other communication devices a veritable electronic culture is right on the horizon - it seems a bit like the navi-obsessed youth in Lain. The question is if it's better, worse, or somewhere to the side.

    • Re:Whoa there... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Hyperfrog ( 575345 )
      Scary? I wonder if they could get access to your PS2 across the network and find out what games you've been playing recently (ie: since you purchased the PS2), what saves are currently in your system etc.

      Is this like now.. you wake up at 1am to take a slash and see your hard drive going off it's nut (spewing it's contents up the line to some nice hacker)..

      So soon we will walk into our loungeroom and finding some hacker playing GTA3 and demonstrating his expert knowledge concerning the trick with the hooker?

  • Sony PocketStation (Score:5, Interesting)

    by zsazsa ( 141679 ) on Thursday April 25, 2002 @11:31PM (#3413907) Homepage
    but wasn't this already tried with the VMU?

    Don't forget the Sony PocketStation [atip.or.jp] which came out at about the same time as the Dreamcast with its VMU. It plugged into the memory port of the PS1. It was never sold in the US, but the US version of Final Fantasy VIII had support for it (documented in the manual, even.)

    Ian
    • Actually, doing a little more scouring, it looks like the PocketStation may have actually sold in the US [slashdot.org] at some point.

      Show
      • From reading the article it seems Sony want you to be able to play games with your mobile phone. Perhaps this is partly because of the portability of the PocketStation.

    • The new domestically-released Arc the Lad Collection likewise includes the Arc III Pocketstation game, translated into English by the Working Designs crew, _just_ for those people who own imported Pocketstations. BTW, I have two of these (white and clear)...now I'm trying to hunt down a clear Sony-brand PSOne dual shock, so both controller ports on my PSOne are color-coded.

      < tofuhead >

      • Re:Sony PocketStation (Score:1, Flamebait)

        by mgblst ( 80109 )
        now I'm trying to hunt down a clear Sony-brand PSOne dual shock, so both controller ports on my PSOne are color-coded.

        Good luck with that. I'm sure all of us here at slashdot and in the real world wish you the best in your struggle to find color coded shit for your ps! And i really mean it!
        • Good luck with that. I'm sure all of us here at slashdot and in the real world wish you the best in your struggle to find color coded shit for your ps! And i really mean it!

          Just as all of us here at slashdot wish you the best in your struggle to learn html.

    • Re:Sony PocketStation/FFVIII (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The PC version of FFVIII had the "missing" pocketstation feature of the Chocobo game. It was a seperate app that you could open up, aside from the actual game.
    • And also (the UK version at least) of Ridge Racer Type 4 had compatibility with PocketStation. There was all this hype, models posing with it etc. etc. etc., was going to be sold for £20... and nothing happened. Annoying, that. The chocobo GF is a great big pile of turd without the PocketStation.
  • Yes, it is that ridiculous.

    Websurfing: The Next Generation - StumbleUpon [stumbleupon.com]
    • True, but such a ridiculous idea could make sony lots of money. I see this as simply one more scheme in an attempt to make the PS2 the low-budget network/gaming/communications applicance in the home.

      Heck, who needs a PC or imac when a PS2 with net access will do what 90% of people want anyways!

      The real question is... can they pull it off?

  • oh really? (Score:1, Funny)

    by neo8750 ( 566137 )
    Sony plan to implement a telephone that can talk to a Play Station 2.

    Will it help me beat parts of level where i'm stuck or tell me where that power up is?

  • The negative side - Bloatware (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tempestdata ( 457317 ) on Thursday April 25, 2002 @11:37PM (#3413931)
    The problem with all this WAPI stuff is that by trying to fit more and more functions into small devices like pagers and phones, they are comprimising usability. Unless they come up with voice activation, this problem will continue to increase.


    For instance. Surfing the web, reading/writing your emails, and checking the news is simply annoying to do from a cell phone. Sure, its handy when you dont otherwise have access to computers and such, but the interface just sucks. Reading 5 words per page of a news article is simply not practical.


    Now they will add a whole bunch of new features and that will mean the user will have to traverse a bigger more complicated menu system. What percentage of the users will actually USE those new fancy features? This just looks like feature bloat to me. Sort of how Microsoft does it.


    "How do we get them to drop their old cellphones/software and upgrade to new cellphones/software in order to generate new revenue?" Answer: "Put in a whole new set of features that and hype them up the best you can!"

    • "The problem with all this WAPI stuff is that by trying to fit more and more functions into small devices like pagers and phones, they are compromising usability"

      Not just usability though, bandwidth becomes an issue when a whole mess of people decide to surf the web, read their email, etc. at once. The system can barely handle the phone calls alone without stuffing a whole bunch of data down the pipe as well. Once customers get too fed up with the service, they start to migrate; which prods the companies into trying to get more spectrum. And if attained they try to get the userbase back with more "features" which strain bandwidth, and on and on and on...

      • Re:The negative side - Bloatware (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Eh? If everyone switched from voice to email the bandwidth requirements would drop to fraction of what they are now. A typical email might be 5000 bytes, which translates to less than 4 seconds of gsm-compressed audio. Now I'm not saying people will altogether stop making phonecalls if they get email on their phone, but they would very likely make less calls in favor of email (assuming of course that the usability issues mentioned earlier were fixed first, if not nobody will use email and nothing changes). Websurfing with a phone isn't the same thing as websurfing with a PC: The display mandates the pages are small and extremely conservative with images. You wont be visiting any 500KB sites with a phone.

        Remember all of these services are already available in Japan and it seems to be working just fine.

  • Ahh (Score:5, Funny)

    by NiftyNews ( 537829 ) on Thursday April 25, 2002 @11:42PM (#3413953) Homepage
    Dude, your phone just killed my Level 26 Dwarf Assassin. AGAIN.
  • Sounds kinda.. eh.

    This sounds like the dreamcast's VMU more than sony's. That was the best way to get your VMU stolen... have a game on it and play it in class (You can't take it! It contains roughly 64 hours of my life!) Now a phone? I'm gonna guess that the sony phone plan won't be as kind as others. What happens if you get a phone call while running the vmu mini-prog? Does Snake curse out your caller?

  • Why, God, why? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by realgone ( 147744 ) on Thursday April 25, 2002 @11:50PM (#3413980)
    Quote from Sony Ericsson president Katsumi Ihara (showing just how misguided this whole effort is):

    People are going to buy a phone for a particular purpose, whether it's to take pictures, or listen to music, or whatever. That's a fact that you have to remember.

    Or maybe they're buying the phones to, oh I don't know, call people?! Perish the thought.

    I give up. The way this content synergy thing is going, my kitchen blender's probably gonna have a Sony-branded web browser and pop-up ads in another 10 years. Hope they've got open source margaritas by then... *sigh*

    • That's my first thought too - but you also have to remember that American/Western culture doesn't always go for the same things that others do.

      I think there's a strong undercurrent of "that's just too geeky/uncool to use my *telephone* with a game system!" in America. In Japan, however, I'm not so sure. These are the same folks that really got into that whole idea of wearing pagers that are set off when you come into close proximity with someone else who is highly "compatible" with you. They also like animated porn.

    • Re:Why, God, why? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Frankly, this "Insightful" comment is way overrated. It displays a lack of insight and only demonstrates the cultural blinders of its author.

      The fact of the matter is that 'synergy' or 'convergence' or any of the other buzzwords that have been floated to describe the merging of all mobile devices into a single uber-device have at their core a fundamental paradigmatic misfire. They all attempt to graft phone features onto a PDA or MP3 players into the PDA. However, all of these are too bulky, fragile, and are usually too much hassle to use (Treo, for example) to be of any practical use.

      The Japanese have hit on the obvious solution. Forget the fucking PDA altogether. Phones are the optimal size for personal digital assistants. The trick is to shrink the rest of the crap into the phone's size. NTT has made some progress in this area with i-mode through the use of Java applets that run on the phone. Screen size is not a problem, Asian phones sport much larger color screens within a thinner shell. There really isn't a reason to be stuck with the crappy 1"x1" screens that Nokia's trying to force on Western consumers.

      Gaming as an extension of the PS2 (or really any machine, for that matter) is simply another extension of the phone. If it is insightful to wear blinders or to purposefully ignore the improvements in design that are happening everywhere but in the U.S., then perhaps the OP should be modded up +5.
      • It displays a lack of insight and only demonstrates the cultural blinders of its author.

        And I've also got pretty bad taste in clothing. What's not to love?

      • Okay, now that I've got the sass out of my system and a full cup of coffee in front of me, let me mount a cogent defense on my own behalf.

        What was described in that article amounts to corporate feature bloat: design driven by the content one wants to sell, not the needs of the consumer. Every time a technology was mentioned during that ZDNet interview, the Sony rep immediately explained how they plan to use it as a conduit for some piece of Sony-branded content (Mariah Carey, J-Lo, the PS2, etc.) That's the compelling reason why companies are so hot to roll out rich media wireless appliances right now. As an interactive advertising producer, I can tell you that folks are chomping at the bit waiting for this oft-promised but not-yet-delivered marketing mainline (and revenue generator).

        And that's what bugs me about the situation described in the article: we're locked in a cycle right now where companies are creating artificial demand rather than addressing existing needs. A J-Lo branded phone? That connects to my PS2? At what point did we decide to applaud companies for features that, while not compellingly useful, at least aren't not useful.

        I repeat, this is feature bloat. It tacks on unnecessary technology to base model products, ultimately driving up the price point for entry-level consumers who never asked for those features to start with. Call 'em "cultural blinders" if you will, but at the end of the day I just call it "feeling manipulated by the almighty dollar/yen/euro".

        Two quick notes: (1) I misattributed the original quote. That was said by Sony Ericsson vice president Anil Raj. Sorry 'bout that. (2) I agree, my original post wasn't intended to be insightful. It was intended to be flip, which is about all I could muster up at that late hour. But the mod system has a mind of its own. =)

    • Re:Why, God, why? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by mr_exit ( 216086 )
      calling people is overrated. now I'm a hightech worker and as such am being overpaid and am expected to have the cool toys.

      I mean I was given a new nokia the other day, i currently own an ericsson and the nokia was smaller with a longer battery. but i gave it to a friend because i wanted to keep my ericsson... why??

      because my phone has tetris and pacman....

      YES thats the only reason..... dont say noone will buy one... because at the moment I'm eyeing up the new ericcson with java.. JUST SO I CAN PLAY GAMES!!
      • I'm eyeing up the new ericcson with java

        Exactly. You've got a phone with 'a game' now you want one with GAMES. So you get one with Java - so you can play ANY Java game.

        Now, allow that phone to talk to other devices and you can write a Java partner game to ANY game on ANY device that can talk to th phone! PC, PS2, GameCube, anything that can talk to the phone.

        Useful? I dont know. Could be. Set up a complex SimCity session and take it to work with you on your phone to monitor that all important residential tax rate! Analyse the lap times from last nights session to see where Dan beat you? Some bizarre Yoshi vs Mario thing to let you build up stamina for MarioKart 3000000 while your sitting on the bus?

        The possibilities are endless.

        Ulimately, this leads to the SAME GAME running on different devices allowing 2 player games on the same game on a PS12 and a PC. Thats probably 10 years away, but having your phone become a gameboy that can talk to your gamecube (in real time) would be coolio!
        • Except that what's the game like for the person who DOESN'T own the cellphone / VMU now?? Companies are now forcing people to buy an entirely new device so that they can get the full experience out of a game they purchased. This pissed me off about Sonic Adventure for the GC, which required you to buy a Gameboy Advance to raise you're "Chao" (a Chocobo-raising type of mini-game).

          So in order to fully complete some PS2 games now, we're going to have to purchase this phone. Great. Great way for Sony to make money that is.
    • Totally agreed. There are a certain number of non-phone features that are handy, like a clock and alarm, but IMO features like music are overkill. Embedding a digital camera is even more absurd.

      These extra features are what PDAs and other peripherals are for. I just got me a Sharp Zaurus, and for that I say pile on the features (as packages I can choose to add/remove). I'll always have my phone with me, but if I want extra features then I'll take my PDA. If I want a digital image, I have my digicam. If I want to email an image, then I combine all 3.

      Unfortunately, getting wireless internet access from a PDA has always been a pain in the neck. Either you need a cable (going carry one in your pocket all day?) or you have to use infrared (keeping a PDA aimed at a phone is hard enough.. ever tried doing it in a car?). Thus, wireless internet features (WAP, Java) are crammed into phones, since it is the only way a normal person is going to order a pizza wirelessly.

      I hope bluetooth solves all of these problems, then we can easily have separate dedicated components and our phones can return to being simple.
  • Think of the possibilities -- I'm sure that 1-900-lara-croft will be popular!

    Of course, the downside is that now you can be telemarketed from deep within that gaming zone :-(

    Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon [stumbleupon.com]

  • A great quote from Sony's VP... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Chiasmus_ ( 171285 ) on Friday April 26, 2002 @12:00AM (#3414012) Journal
    You've got to forget all the acronyms... GPRS is just an enabler. With WAP, and decent security, and digital rights management, I could, say, have a service to subscribe to get messages for all the goals my football team makes. I could get an MMS with a picture or a video clip sent to me.

    Forget all the acronyms? I can't even extricate the meaning of this paragraph through them.
  • ...provided true game-enhancing functionality is included. Of course to get this, games would have to be initially designed with such products in mind to truely reach their potential. An example might be "universal characters" in a distributed MUD or MMORPG, where instead of the monolithic games we see today, users can move their character(s) between nodes (cities? nations?) of vast, distributed games, nodes built by individuals or small groups of individuals.

    Where do the phones come in? Easy to move your character(s) at a moments notice, do some skill/spell botting whilst on the bus/toilet/meeting table, etc. Could also make it easy to take your character to your friends house/PS2 for a session. With net connected systems, the phones could allow for certain gaming aspects to be done remotely, in game chatting for example (MUDs beat the hell outta IRC for in-context chatting environments.)

    Just some thoughts.

  • ubersnakes! (Score:3, Funny)

    by supabeast! ( 84658 ) on Friday April 26, 2002 @12:11AM (#3414047)
    Rock! Now I can train my Nokia snakes into uber-monsters to summon into FFOnline!

  • VMU? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by hackwrench ( 573697 )
    You make it sound like the VMU was a failure, but it was really too soon to tell whether the VMU would succeed or fail if it wasn't for the Dreamcast's failure in general.
    • It bears noting that the Dreamcast didn't exactly fail. If you beat a kid to death halfway through the SATs, does the kid "fail?"

  • Nothing special, just Sony being Sony (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Tofuhead ( 40727 ) on Friday April 26, 2002 @12:17AM (#3414063)

    So what? It's a phone with a built-in Pocketstation/VMU-type device, with the additional bonus that you can use it talk to your games. It's just a jumble of traditional accessories (VMU & microphone) integrated into a phone that will likely be prohibitively expensive for gamers who don't need new phones. They also mention customizing phones with Jennifer Lopez digital goodies like ringtones, photos, and website bookmarks (or something like that), which tells me that they're just hyping this thing up to anybody who's interested in any of Sony's other products (PS2, J.Lo, they're all just Sony products to tie-in). Some of the latter paragraphs in the article add up to almost exactly that, quite blatantly.

    I don't foresee many game developers chasing this idea down to include in their games, at least, not in ways that can't also be played by using a standard Pocketstation and mic (read: using a physical interface like USB). I doubt remote PS2 access is even being considered for these things; what game developer would ever want to tackle the issue of allowing your PS2 to act as a dial-up or web server for your low-res, low-bandwidth phone any way? Rather, I see some Sony Ericsson execs trying to tie the popularity of the Sony PS2 with their new phone line (bad pun not intended), and that's it.

    < tofuhead >

    • IIRC, Sony previously mentioned it wasn't about to enter the whole portable gaming domain with a portable Sony system to rival Nintendo's GameBoy series. They always said that cellphones and palms-devices would be where people will be playing portable games in the future.

      Nintendo is totally unchallenged in the portable gaming area right now. Maybe it's just feature bloat in cellphones now... but I think Nintendo should be watching this very closely.

  • So what? (Score:3, Funny)

    by robolemon ( 575275 ) <nertzy.gmail@com> on Friday April 26, 2002 @12:26AM (#3414096) Homepage
    I'm really not that impressed. I mean, come on, the XBox has been able to listen in on all the telephones in your house from the very beginning.

    "Oh, what Bill?... Oh, I wasn't supposed to tell them that? Sorry."

  • Unrelated (Score:2, Insightful)

    by propheci ( 113702 )
    The comparison between VMU and this thing is totally absurd. the VMU was made mainly so you could have a separate screen while playing the game (i.e., picking plays in NFL2K series, stats for NBA2K series). when you unplugged the VMU, it couldn't "talk" to the DC. in addition, you couldn't play the game just on the VMU (there were separate, simple games on it).

    if the smartphone works as advertised, you could essentially play parts of the game with the phone. i can make trades in Madden while i'm in class! it's would be like a PDA for the PS2 and sync whenever you connect. awesome idea.

    • i can make trades in Madden while i'm in class!

      Good idea! This would be great not only for sports games' rosters, but would work for stats-oriented role playing games, too. Rolling up a Baldur's Gate character, for example. ("Dude, check out the 18/00 strength, 90 point Paladin I rolled during math class!") Back in my day I had to tool around on the TI-81 during boring lectures; once these babies come out I'll have to go back to school just for the goofing-off time.

      Other than that, though, its uses seem fairly limited.

    • Re:Unrelated (Score:5, Informative)

      by Tofuhead ( 40727 ) on Friday April 26, 2002 @01:08AM (#3414218)

      The VMU wasn't made "mainly" as a private second screen. It was made mainly to be used as I assume this phone is supposed to be used...as a memory unit that also acts as a detached game playing device. The VMU was also designed with the private screen function, but really it's a glorified memory card that can play simple games; that's why it's detachable from the controller, and not just an LCD built standard into every controller.

      (Don't tell me you've never heard of people raising their pet Chaos from Sonic Adventure on their VMUs, or baby Godzillas. What do you think the D-pad and buttons on VMUs are for? Such portable game data could then be used by games, since the VMU is just a memory interface any way.)

      And while you can't use the VMU as a mic, there is a Dreamcast mic that comes with some games (domestically: Alien Front Online, Seaman) that acted this way. So yes, this phone is a glorified VMU/mic combo, with a phone at its foundation (making this thing expensive). Please also note that in the article, the Sony Ericsson exec mentioned that this thing would likely be connected to the PS2 via USB...I seriously doubt you will be dialing into or remotely accessing your PS2 remotely, not when you consider the hassles it would be trying to deal with the as-yet non-bundled PS2 modem or BBA.

      < tofuhead >

  • With just a $300 dollar PS2, a $90 dollar phone adapter, $20 month for Sony's special ISP, I can talk to someone over the Internet! Im going to go sell my cell phone right now!

  • I already carry around enough crap. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Kris_J ( 10111 ) on Friday April 26, 2002 @12:58AM (#3414191) Homepage Journal
    I tried out one of those Pikachu tamagotchi things a while back, but it's an awfully useless thing to have clipped to your belt. My keyring is so full of keys that nothing plastic survives on it for very long. I carry around a TRGpro, so if someone wants me to play their game anywhere it better damn well work on a grayscale Palm with OS 3. And quite frankly, a little PalmOS app that could read and interact with a save game from a standard flash card (CF for me, MMC/SD for most other new Palm owners) wouldn't be too hard to write. Oh, that's right, none of the games consoles use standard flash RAM...
  • Oh great, now I can be in the middle of a meeting with clients when my Tamagotchi will phone me and let me know it's hungry and wants food.

  • ...it has *not* been done before... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sodakar ( 205398 ) on Friday April 26, 2002 @01:53AM (#3414311)
    To all of you complaining about having to carry *another* item, or saying that "it's been done before"... Are you telling me that your VMU or PocketStation could make phone calls, store phone numbers, and have semi-PDA functionality?

    The whole point of this product is that you *won't* be carrying anything extra, as the gaming feature will be enabled on your mobile phone. Additionally, because they claim that you'll most likely use the USB cable to synchronize your data, you won't have to have your phone plugged into your PS2 when playing with the PS2.

    However, it's not without major snags. If it's going to sell, then Sony has to make it a "must-buy" product for everyone. So... while a mobile phone with gaming functions may work for adults and teenagers, what about kids? I'm guessing not too many parents want their 6-year-old to have a mobile phone just so s/he can play games, then turn around and overuse the mobile phone and run up the bill...

    So... then what? Sony would have to make a non-mobile phone version of this portable gaming unit for young kids. Unfortunately, though, once Sony starts selling *just* the gaming unit for $100 or so, then all the people who already have phones won't have incentive to spend $300 on a gaming-phone when $100 will buy them the game, and they can keep their current mobile phone.

    So... make the gaming/training ability not too complicated or meaningful, in efforts to lower the cost? Then people won't carry it around...

    I've seen consumer spending habits for mobile phones in the last 10 years, and while I'm no expert, I think it's safe to say that very few people are willing to dish out $200-$300 on a new phone when they have a perfectly working one...

    We shall see...
  • Mesa no havin da booma!

  • GBA? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by wastingtape ( 576230 )
    This sounds like a plan to keep up with Nintendo's GameCube to Game Boy Advance adaptor. Same idea, just different device.
  • That's right, this is bound to fail, but not for the reasons you're guessing. Let me start at the beginning:

    In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud [scottmccloud.com] discusses the various levels of abstraction in comic art. How abstract a character is has a great deal of influence on how the character is perceived. Charlie Brown is Charlie Brown because of how he is drawn as much as because of his personality. If Charlie Brown were drawn by Gary Larson, of The Far Side, or acted by Mike Meyers, it just won't feel like Charlie Brown.

    If you're with me so far, then it's not too terribly large a step to say that video game characters don't translate well across levels of abstraction either. The semi-realistic Lara-croft would not feel like the same character if presented as a pudgy Mario-esque character. Of course, over franchises, characters do evolve, this is a tricky process, often involving the redefinition of a character. Donkey Kong, for example, is an entirely different character in Donkey Kong Country than in the original Donkey Kong.

    There is yet another aspect of abstraction with games. That is, the gameplay itself can be more or less abstract. Ultimately, players have no problem with a 8-bit Mario who can jump 8 times his own height, and doubles in size when touching a mushroom, but in a 3d third-person shooter, this would seem quite out of place.

    So, ultimately, my point is that games that go back and forth from 128-bit near-photo-realistic graphics and advanced simulation to 128x128 pixel monochrome display with menu-based simple game mechanics will ultimately not be terribly compelling. This is more true for games whose characters, settings, and mechanics are more technologically advanced and more realistic. It would be like watching a movie with your favorite actors, and then when you're out of the house, getting to see a cartoon version with simplified plot and dialog. Not that there's anything wrong with either form, it's just that they do not mesh well together.

    There are games for which this system would work perfectly well (Pokemon coming to mind), but as the industry will not rally around the niche created by this phone, the number of games who will take good advantage of this technology will be severly limited, for good or ill.

    ben.c
    • Not that I'm entirely disagreeing with your point, but you obviously have not seen a P800 or looked at the specs [sonyericsson.com]. It's roughly equvialent to an iPaq or Jornada. And, interestingly enough, there IS in fact a port of Lara Croft Tombraider for the Quartz Symbian platform, specifically written for Ericsson (they had a megadollar tie-in with that movie). It actually looks pretty good - as good as the PC version IMO, albeit with a smaller screen.

      So, in theory, the P800 could run ports of various PS2 games without losing that much in play-ability. I could definately envision a slightly scaled down GranTurismo that you could play against another P800 via bluetooth or even against a PS2 via USB.

      From this article though, I think that they are very much thinking baby-steps: using the phone as strictly a memory device with the primary benefit of linking the SonyEricsson mobile phone with the popular Sony PS2 brand in the consumer conciousness.


  • This will have little to no impact on the gaing industry. There is one simple reason. For game add-ons, they MUST be standard equipment that everyone who purchases the system will have. Otherwise game companies won't invest the money to support it. Here is an example using made up numbers for illustrative purposes:

    Microsoft's (boo, hiss, etc - moving on) xbox features a built in hard drive. All developers can use its capabilities. Mainly this means drive caching and too a lesser degree wma audio. Sony is going to release a hard drive add on soon. I expect very little to come of it. Game companies will be forced to support the PS2 hard drive and user with no hard drive OR just pretend that nobody has the hard drive. Which path do you think is cheaper? In addition, how will game makers know if their game's target market are purchasers of the hard drive? Most likely Sony will only have sales data. ie Sony knows they have sold 1 million PS2s and 250,000 hard drive units. They do not know if it is teen FPS gamers buying the hard drives or the RPG players. Meanwhile Microsoft has sold 500,000 xboxes and therfore 500,000 hard drives. Bassed on this, I expect xbox developers to unanimously support the hard drive and hardly any PS2 developers to support it.

    How's this for a comparison:

    Sega's dreamcast had a built in 56k modem. Towards the end of it life, sega realeased a broadband adapter. Hardly any games supported it. Yes I do recognize that the system was on its last leg but I don't think that changes anything.

    Anyway, Sony is adding a feature to its phone that they can tout and have press releases about. Will developers support it? A resounding no.

    IANAGP -I am not a game programmer - just a player.

  • PS2 RPG developers are considering a new character class, the "Mobilius". Members of this new powerful class can utilize up to 8 3G gadgets, though the character in most cases dies from brain cancer before reaching the 30th level. Can use efficient light magic like "Instant Interracial Porn Video Feed" and "Direct-to-Brain Anime Download". The ultimate dark magic is ".Net Armageddon", which destroys the opponents' non-proprietary information sources, and makes them pathetic license fee paying slaves.
  • my phone lets me talk to people.
  • Since Sony was seriously talking about making the Playstation the center of your entertainment unit, how long before you can simply call up your PS2 and tell it to record a TV program for you?

    Of course, this might mean you might also start getting calls from the PS2...

    Imagine having to tell your boss you have to go home to finish MGS3, because if you don't, the villian in the game will start deleting your MP3 collection.
  • The p800 is an exceedingly cool device. I got a chance to play with one last week and it will rock your socks clean off. J2ME and MIDP Java applety things are a main bonus but the whole way it's put thogether, the kick ass UI and the quality Symbian [symbian.com] operating system underneath it all is very exciting.

    The OS is the same as that in the Nokia 92XX series and their 7650 camera phone.

    This is exceedingly exciting.

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