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PlayStation (Games) Media Television Entertainment Games

Sony's PSX A Hit In Japan, PS2 Launches In China 146

Posted by simoniker from the pee-ess-everything dept.
Thanks to Reuters for their story revealing Sony's PSX 'media center' has been a major hit in Japan, after the PlayStation 2, DVD recorder and DVR combo "went on sale on December 13 in Japan amid a flurry of media attention." According to Sony boss Ken Kutaragi: "We sold 100,000 PSXs in the first week. It sells for almost 100,000 yen ($941) and it still sold out. There are no products out there that can say that." CNET News are also reporting that the PlayStation 2 has finally launched in China, after "the company... shelved plans for its December launch but failed to provide a full explanation for the change." The PS2 roll-out seems very low-key indeed, though, as "the electronics giant cut down its distribution to two cities from the original five."
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Sony's PSX A Hit In Japan, PS2 Launches In China More

Sony's PSX A Hit In Japan, PS2 Launches In China

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  • Still sold out? (Score:5, Informative)

    by ObviousGuy ( 578567 ) <ObviousGuy@hotmail.com> on Thursday January 08, 2004 @07:16AM (#7913506) Homepage Journal
    I walked through Yodobashi this afternoon and the PSXs were all sitting quietly next to the Digas and Pioneer sets.

    None of it was moving very fast.

    They may be selling quickly, but you'd never know it by the amount of stock still in the store. Perhaps someone in the article was exaggerating?

    • Re:Still sold out? - Point of view (Score:4, Funny)

      by Maresi ( 456339 ) on Thursday January 08, 2004 @07:57AM (#7913691) Homepage
      Hmm, praps Sony IS sold out, but all these boxen rot in the stores.

      So Sony sayes the truth: THEY are sold out. If any of these boxes has ever reached any customer is another story (this is, btw. an often-used marketing trick, e.g. M$ used it with WinME and esp. XP).

      Maresi
      • Let's see if the PSX follows console pricing or electronic gadget pricing. I.e. Game consoles intro at whatever the manufacturer feels like then drop to $199, -> $150, -> then $99 for it's last 2 years of viability. After that it drops into the bargain bins.

        Personally I'll buy a PSX as soon as it get's cheep.
      • Many gaming companies use their figures in terms of how many they have shipped. If they've shipped all of their games/consoles/whatever, they've "sold out". The sell-through rate is a less-used figure in gaming.

    • Re:Still sold out? (Score:2, Informative)

      by kzharv ( 175360 )
      I went through there last weekend, quite a few (relatively) being carried on the street and at the station.
      Also around Nishi-Shinjuku I also saw a couple in hand.
      Compare the feature / price ratio to the other similar things on the market here, DVD HDD systems like diga, and the PSX really gives the most bang for buck.

  • Linux (Score:4, Funny)

    by manon ( 112081 ) <.slashdot. .at. .menteb.org.> on Thursday January 08, 2004 @07:16AM (#7913507) Homepage Journal
    Will the Linux pack for PS2 be the China Red Flag Linux version?

  • It might be making money now... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Realistic_Dragon ( 655151 ) on Thursday January 08, 2004 @07:16AM (#7913510) Homepage
    ...but what happens when Sony get sued by TiVo for including a PVR?

  • $941??? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 08, 2004 @07:16AM (#7913511)
    You could buy all the different players seperate and still come out ahead, sheesh.

    • Re:$941??? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by iainl ( 136759 ) on Thursday January 08, 2004 @08:31AM (#7913825)
      "You could buy all the different players seperate and still come out ahead"

      Yes, you could. However, they wouldn't then be all in one stylish box. Sony haven't really made much fuss about these boxes being aimed at anyone other than people who want cool gadgets that look good next to their plasma screens and iMacs; boxes aimed at the more cost-conscious buyer, or at least price-cuts to reach them, will come once the first lot have been sold for a fortune, just like with the PS2.

      • Re:$941??? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Golias ( 176380 ) on Thursday January 08, 2004 @09:02AM (#7914040)
        It's not just about style. Little all-in one devices (such as the PSX and the iMac) are popular in Japan because Japan is a tiny island with about 150 million people on it. Anything that saves space is worth a premium, because housing there makes an American efficiency apartment look like a mansion.

        I don't really care if I need to set an entire room aside, separate from the media room, for just my entertainment devices. My "server closet" is practically a walk-in, and I'm fine with that. I've got plenty of space. Most Japanese people, even if they are well off, don't have that luxury.

        • Space considerations (Score:3, Insightful)

          by bryanp ( 160522 )
          I was wondering if someone would beat me to this post. People who haven't lived in Japan just don't seem to grasp just how much space is at a premium. Flatscreen monitors and wallhanging plasma tv's sell in droves not just because they're "cool" but because they allow people to reclaim space.

          I think too many people base their ideas of Japanese life on anime. Most of the apartments and houses in those shows are unrealistic. Think "Friends" where a bunch of people with mediocre jobs somehow manage to have
          • I guess the closest a lot of Americans have come to seeing a real Japanese apartment would be Piro's Japanese friend (can't recall the name offhand) in the early days of MegaTokyo [megatokyo.com], where it was covered all over with magazines and the floor doubled as a table and a bed.
    • At $941 you could probably also buy a PC notebook to do the same job. Or maybe even an iBook.
    • No, you couldn't. Not in Japan. A 250 GB Tivo-like device itself will probably run you about $900.

  • The wisdom of integrated components? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Realistic_Dragon ( 655151 ) on Thursday January 08, 2004 @07:23AM (#7913537) Homepage
    The thought of shelling out ~$1000 for a box that does so much fills me with slight dread, especially since (IME) Sony kit has of late not been totally reliable.

    When it breaks at best you lose a lot of stuff while it is repaired under warranty - which still costs you mony (time, shipping) - at least if it was just your PS2 or your DVR that broke you could entertain yourself in the meantime. Not to mention the fact that as seperate parts it would probably be cheaper...

    Of course this principle is why I went one step further and use PCs for my DVR and games machine as those I can always move onto another box if something breaks, and as far as repairs go it's usually a component that can be switched out cheaply :D

    (It would be a lot easier to pick seperated over an integrated unit if there was a decent interface (like scart, but more so) for a/v units that you could gaurentee always worked and could switch multiple components seamlessly without blocking.)

    • Re:The wisdom of integrated components? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Max Romantschuk ( 132276 ) <max@romantschuk.fi> on Thursday January 08, 2004 @07:29AM (#7913564) Homepage
      The thought of shelling out ~$1000 for a box that does so much fills me with slight dread <snip> When it breaks at best you lose a lot of stuff while it is repaired under warranty - which still costs you mony (time, shipping) - at least if it was just your PS2 or your DVR that broke you could entertain yourself in the meantime. Not to mention the fact that as seperate parts it would probably be cheaper...

      Then again, a lot of people simply don't want to tweak/assemble their own hardware. They want a box which does what it does, and they don't want to know how it does it.

      Judging from the sales, Sony seems to have delivered.
    • More stuff that I need to google. Ofcorse if you wouldn't mind putting up some links...
    • Try moving every 6-12 months, and then tell me that :) Seriously, good point, although for anyone that does move often a single box they can pick up and carry, compared to 2 or more, is wonderful. Also in terms of cabling - one box means less cables to disconnect, pack, lose, find again and reconnect.
    • Two years ago I bought a Sony DAV-C700 DVD home stereo combo. Exactly 12 months after the warranty expired, the DVD is dead with the dreaded C-81 error code which is apparently a failure of the mechanical drive that loads and unloads the disks. Now, to get it fixed costs ~$175 plus shipping and an unkown amount of time without the machine.

      Integrated components may have their up side, but I wont make that mistake ever again. And I wont get a Sony either. Nor will I get a multi-disk player.
      • Basing consumer electronics purchasing decisions on personal experience is a bad idea. [This is in no way defending Sony or trying to get you to purchase Sony products - just trying to make a point.]

        Let's make the numbers simple to illustrate this. We'll have Company A and Company B, which both manufacture the same product you want. Company A has a defect rate of 1 in 100,000. Company B has a defect rate of 1 in 5. Now, in the past you've bought from Company A and been part of the group that gets stuck with

        • Point taken....up to a point.

          Setting aside my current frustration with Sony products (which seems to have dominated my previous post), basing the purchase of component type on personal experience still seems valid to me.

          Buying an integrated system means that when one piece dies, the whole thing is made useless during implementation of possible expensive repairs (my current experience). If I had been smart enough to purchase components in the first place, I would junk the broken DVD palyer and get a new on

  • Big sales in Akihabara (Score:5, Interesting)

    by WebTurtle ( 109015 ) <derek,dimatteo&gmail,com> on Thursday January 08, 2004 @07:28AM (#7913556) Homepage
    In the US such a roll-out might be marked by long queues and frantic buyers worried about the store running out of stock. Not so here in Japan.

    When I was in Akihabara last week they had huge banners in front of AsoBitCity (and other stores) under which there were several salesmen holding PSX units, running raffles, and demoing systems to crowds of people. However, there were plenty of units in stock and everyone around me was pretty calm.

    I think the media center concept is a great one for Japan because space is at such a premium here. So having one unit that combines console gaming with DVD is huge since it reduces the number of items clogging up your precious shelf space.

    Also note that most unmarried adults in their late 20's live at home with their parents, and like to have their own TVs and whatnot in their small bedrooms, so again, this device saves a lot of space... that's why it's so attractive to buyers here, whereas in the USA, where your living room is huge by comparison, there is no need to worry about space as much, so you have have multiple components sitting around being redundant.
    • Also note that most unmarried adults in their late 20's live at home with their parents, and like to have their own TVs and whatnot in their small bedrooms

      And some married as well. I found this odd at first when I went to Japan. The oldest of the siblings moves back in after college then gets married etc and yet still lives with his parents. I laughed the first time my mother in law explained it to me. I think it's a cool idea now that I've gotten used to it. Screw buying your own, just squat out you
      • I thought it was because young people in Japan have absolutely no hope of affording their own place due to the outrageously inflated housing prices. It doesn't help that the perpetually depressed economy leads to a scarcity of good paying jobs for those fresh college graduates.
        • I think it's more that there is no land to buy. It's all either rice fields, houses, or mountain. I never saw anyone I would consider poor, they say the economy sucks there but I didn't buy it. The wealth seemed a lot more spread around than here in the states. I loved it there. If I spoke japanese better, I wouln't have came home to the states. However, I stick out. Not to many nazi poster boys running around. In Tokyo no one looked at me strange, but in the country people would point. Not used to
        • Not exactly. Young people have little chance of buying a new house, but getting an apartment is super easy. The average cheap apartment price in Tokyo is about $500 a month. Out in the country you can getting f***ing huge places for $300 or so. You don't need to be making a huge income to afford that. The big reason is simply cultural: there's no burning need to move out. In America, you're an ubergeek for living at home at age 30. In Japan, you're just saving money. There are plenty of love hotels
          • Wow, $500 a month? That's dirt cheap. The crappy college apartments back in Blacksburg often went for more than that. Up in the DC area you're lucky to find anything under $1000US/month that doesn't have an income limit, even if you go way out into the suburbs.
            • Like I said, that's the (reasonable) cheap end. The flat average apartment price in Tokyo for single folks in their 20s is probably more along the lines of $700 or $800. Of course, the catch is that these places are small. Japanese housing tends to be on the small side, but livable. A $750 apartment in Tokyo, however, is a completely different story. To get an American-sized apartment would easily run you $1500 or more (depending where you live in Tokyo), but it doesn't even occur to people to get apar

  • PSX? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by FrostedWheat ( 172733 )
    Isn't that what the original Playstation was called? Rather odd choice of name.

    • Re:PSX? (Score:2, Funny)

      by fr0dicus ( 641320 )
      No; that was a term of uncertain origin which all the "cool" computer media sources insisted on using instead of its real name. It was never officially called "PSX". I generally treat anyone using this term to describe the original Playstation with as much contempt as possible.
      • Those of us in the video game industry will tend to call it the PSX, as that was the name it was presented to most of us with before it was released publically. The programming manuals all refer to the original playstation as PSX as well.
      • Never officially called the PSX? Incorrect. In all the literature Sony sent out to dev teams before the actual launched of the Playstation, it was abbreviated as the PSX.

        You're generally treating the people who developed the games you enjoyed playing with as much contempt as possible, tough guy.

      • I read that the name PSX came from the developmental period between Nintendo deciding not to do the cd add-on for the SNES and create the N64 instead, with Sony turning the project into a full blown console, ie: Play Station eXperimental. The game media picked it up, and have stuck with the development name because, I assume, (as you say) it just sounds cool.
    • The Play Station Xtra was originally an addition to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo got cold feet and we Nintendo funs got stuck with the far inferior Nintendo 64. For more information poke around a bit around GameFaqs. [gamefaqs.com]
    • " Isn't that what the original Playstation was called?"

      Not in Japan. The "PSX" is (from what I gather) an overseas only term for the Playstation. I've heard rumour that it was because Sony was initially concerned that the name "Playstation" wouldn't sound serious enough for American gamers, but it may nothing more than a rumour.

      • Presumably they won't call it the PSX for the export versions, then. PS2X, perhaps? PSX2? PS2.5? ;-)

        They're going to have to do something, because an enormous number of review sites, game stores and magazines will still be using the original PSX abbreviation to refer to the original Playstation.

        • True. My guess is, just like Nintendo called the Famicon an "NES" in America, and Sega called the Megadrive a "Genesis" in America, Sony will pick a completely new name for the export version. "PSAdvance" or something ^_^

          Japanese companies using totally different names for the same products in different markets is nothing new. Just check out car names!
    • Yeah, and I still get overly excited when people say they have a PS/2.

  • PS Linux? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by cies ( 318343 )
    Will PlayStation Linux [playstation2-linux.com] run on it? I heard Sony released a distro of linux for their playstation, will thay also release one OR update it for the PSX?

    I do hope so!

    cies.

    • From what I've heard it's mostly the same. The thing in question is the burner, for which the drivers are almost definitely not on the CD they've already distributed.

      What I would like to see would be some full distribution like Gentoo 'ported'...

      • What I would like to see would be some full distribution like Gentoo 'ported'...

        "BlackRhino [xrhino.com] is a free Debian-based GNU/Linux software distribution for the Sony PlayStation 2."

  • Unwanted (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mphase ( 644838 )
    An overpriced consolidation of products the company is not good at creating. Reminds me of an all-in-one office device, except that those are normally more approriately priced.
    • Check the price of TiVos with DVD-R functionality. The PSX is actually slightly cheaper than Pioneer's TiVo DVD-R product.
      • Touche, kind of. Pioneer's [techtv.com] actually has a street price $41 dollors cheaper than the PSX. My arguement agaisn't the PSX applies to products like the Pioneer as well (to a lesser degree), the Pioneer at basically just adding 1 function to an existing device though whereas this monster from Sony is attempting something much more delicate. Price wise though, I do have to admit you got me.

  • It sold well (Score:4, Informative)

    by News for nerds ( 448130 ) on Thursday January 08, 2004 @07:41AM (#7913621) Homepage
    not in the traditional retailing, but in reservation. Huge number of interested customers reserved it on internet well before its release, and quietly received it on the release, withtout making rows in front of shops. Apparently SONY (not SCE) learned from PS2 launch. SONY doesn't need hype, unlike SCE.
    PSX has very reasonable price compared to other DVD recorders, and if you are not gamer it's good shopping and you have gaming feature just as unexpected bonus. It's opposite to PS2, with which DVD playback was bonus. Moreover, easy navigation with Emotion Engine / Graphics Synthesizer gives PSX good advantage to other consumer products.

    • Re:It sold well (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Umm...I can pick up a DVD recorder for less than $100. How is this a good value? The PS2 can be had for $179 and a PVR for around $200-300. This hardly adds up to a good value and I could buy a fairly nice computer for what this thing will cost that would do so much more. It just doesn't seem likea good enough value to warrant dropping $1000 on it, regardless of it being all-in-one. Remember, if one part goes out, you lose it all.

      • Re:It sold well (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        PSX has 250GB HDD and internet connectivity. Although with $1000 you can get decent PC, you must set up it to do the job, while with PSX your grandma or children can control it.
      • What AC said, plus space isn't just nifty in Japan - it's an obsession. They need space so bad that they actually RENT breifcases. No, I'm not being cute! Why are you looking at me like that? *People throw rocks at Zack*
      • I don't think your parent was talking about drives for the pc but standalone units. Also this has pvr capabilities right? Don't TIVO's cost at least $300? This has a giant 250 gb hard drive so it'd probably be one of the biggest capacity tivo it'd compete with.

        250 GB PVR
        DVD Recording
        Sony PS2 gaming

        One box

  • PSX (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Gary Whittles ( 735467 ) on Thursday January 08, 2004 @07:47AM (#7913652) Journal
    It's interesting that Sony is working on a series of "convergence" devices like the "multipurpose" PSX. That would be the caused by the many sales of xboxes related to people wanting to use it as a multifunction entertainment device.

    Of course, people who use the xbox as a multifunction device tend to hack it and use linux or whatever to drive it. Not Microsoft's intention I'm sure!

    The consumer electronics industry has pushed "convergence" for a long time, and the market has continued to support the modularity of separate devices over all-in-one machines.

    Of course, that doesn't mean that some multifunctionality isn't desired. Personally, I love the fact that my game consoles (minus the Cube) play DVD movies. That sort of convergence wasn't forced, but was just a natural choice, given the fact that Sony and Microsoft opted to use the DVD format for their game discs. Now, adding DVD to a console that doesn't use DVD for the game functionality would be a different story.

    At this point, though, I don't see shoving TiVO-like capabilities into game machines. In the future, when the standard hard drives are much larger, maybe it will be just a natural feature to add in. But I think it is ill-advised to add features that require equipment above and beyond what you're using for the device's primary functionality.

    • You make some very valid points but you do realize that a lot of your points are negated by the fact this was created for a certain niche that probably exists mostly in Japan right?

      But I think it is ill-advised to add features that require equipment above and beyond what you're using for the device's primary functionality.

      Again this is negated by the fact that they have the Sony PS2 which is just simply the dedicated game machine. The PSX is for space conscious people (mostly in japan) with enough mo

  • In China... (Score:5, Informative)

    by taxevader ( 612422 ) on Thursday January 08, 2004 @07:47AM (#7913653)
    ..grey imported machines, fully modded with two original controllers and 5 free games (which only cost 6RMB a pop anyway) cost 1800RMB. The offical non-modded Chinese PS2's with only one controller and no games cost 2300RMB. In two cities where the average income is below 1500RMB per month, who would buy the official version?

    • Re:In China... (Score:3, Informative)

      by awing0 ( 545366 )
      For anyone lazy or that cares:

      1 CNY(China Yuan Renminbi) = 0.120818 USD
      1 USD = 8.27690 CNY

      ..grey imported machines, fully modded with two original controllers and 5 free games (which only cost $0.73 a pop anyway) cost $217.47. The offical non-modded Chinese PS2's with only one controller and no games cost $277.88. In two cities where the average income is below $181.22 per month, who would buy the official version?

      Apologies for hijacking your post, I hope you don't mind.
    • A friend of mine bougth a PS2 for cheap in China about a year ago. He said that it wasn't imported, it was made in a factory in China but left it through the back door :) Even in China you can't evade the laws of supply and demand :)

  • Extra space.... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by kaiwainz ( 739019 )

    Sounds like an interesting product, however, not to rain on anyones parade but the media is still too expensive and worse still, there is yet to be a format set down which all market people can conform to. Imagine recording something then taking it to a friends house only to find that he has one from Fujisu and that it is incompatible.

    What I would find interesting, however, is if they allowed users to hook up external hard drives and the media is saved in regular MPEG4 format thus allowing to watch it on t

  • Am I the only one that finds it strange that Sony used to call the original playstation the PSX? I mean, it's a good name, but they already used it on a product thats similar enough that it might cause a lot of confusion for soccer moms on ebay and such.

    1984 was never meant to be a how-to guide.

    • You're right.

      Imagine the cons on eBay when this comes out State-side.
    • "Am I the only one that finds it strange that Sony used to call the original playstation the PSX?"

      Apparently not, someone else mentioned this earlier in the thread.

      And had pointed out to them that Sony never did any such thing; it was the same 'trendy' clever-clever magazine types doing this as the ones that kept using the dev-title of 'Ultra64' for the Nintendo 64. Sony only ever used PS or PlayStation.
      • Wherever the term came from, the reality is that people know the original PlayStation as PSX. I've been calling it that ever since PS2 came out. I've never heard the term PS1 or PS used. Sony must be aware of this and should have named this new product accordingly.
        • And the fact remains that the PSX is a product sold in Japan only right now, and the Japanese do not know the original PlayStation as the PSX. I don't see why they should have named the new product in order to fit a market it's not being sold in, any more than Nintendo should have called the Super Famicom the "Super NES" because the original Famicom was known as the "NES" in America.
      • No... actually, as was also mentioned in the other thread, Sony's development materials all used the term PSX.

  • The Chinese don't like Japan (Score:3, Insightful)

    by lazyl ( 619939 ) on Thursday January 08, 2004 @08:01AM (#7913701)
    The PS2 roll-out [in China] seems very low-key indeed

    Many Chinese (including those under 30) are still quite upset at the Japanese over the Sino-Japan War atrocities [centurychina.com] they committed, and would never consider buying a legit PS2 from Sony when they could easily get a black market, pre-modded one for a fraction of the price.

  • Apple says it every day... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by adzoox ( 615327 ) * on Thursday January 08, 2004 @08:04AM (#7913710) Journal
    "[High Price] ...It sells for almost 100,000 yen ($941) and it still sold out. There are no products out there that can say that." Apple says that about the iPod all the time. They sold 740K of a high priced product (vs the competition) and usually upon ANY introduction it makes (PowerBook, iBook, G5) it sells the first two shipments in the channel in a matter of days. Anybody that makes a cool a product (regardless of price) will sell out. If Sony releases that iPod/Playstation/VideoPod cell phone, all in one - they'll sell it out within a matter of hours for several months straight.
    • Or, there's at least 100,000 fools in Japan who are quickly parted with their money.

      This won't sell in the US. Space isn't as much of a concern here as it is in Japan. People will buy separate components in they are cheaper and they won't re-buy a PS2 if they already have one.

      The US is more price conscious than you realize.

  • Supply and demand in Europe (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Kingpin ( 40003 ) on Thursday January 08, 2004 @08:15AM (#7913752) Homepage

    I live in Denmark. We have yet to see the first Tivo like appliance in the stores for average consumers (the closest we come is a Kiss Tech DVD player with HDD, but no TV tuner.. stupid). I wonder why? If there's a good market where people are willing to pay the price, why not sell to that market?

    What about the other countries in Europe? Any of you get these sexy TV appliances?

    • Asus' Digimatrix [asus.com] is pretty hot these days here in Belgium. A famous cash and carry sells it for 800 EUR furnished with a Celeron 2 Ghz, 256 MB ram and a Seagate 160 GB hard drive

      - A.
    • You can buy/order the Dreambox [dream-multimedia-tv.de], a Linux-powered DVB satellite receiver with a LAN adapter and an optional HDD. Not really useful if you don't have a parabol antenna, but otherwise really sweet.

      Positive side-effect: you can upgrade programme keys via the Internet & watch all those nice channels for adult entertainment :) Problem, though, is that more and more programmes are scrambled in SECA2, which hasn't been hacked yet...
    • I think they have been introduced in the UK - there is also a model tied into Sky's satellite TV service (Sky+). This may also work in Ireland (where I am), but I don't know about elsewhere. Personally I'm using a Shuttle as a PVR, but I've had so many problems with the TV recording (primarily audio/video sync problems) that I can see why a box that 'just works' would be appreciated.
    • I live in Ireland. I have yet to see the first Tivo like appliance in the stores for average consumers (the closest we come is Sky's [sky.com] Sky+ which only works with sky's satellite TV). I think that TV Listings are the primary issue for the slow roll out of these products into different countries. I personally suspect the PS3 will probably be the first real product to hit Ireland with this, Sony having "perfected" the system with the PSX in Japan will probably carry it forward worldwide.

  • hey! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 08, 2004 @08:19AM (#7913771)
    Nice freakin' job Slashdot! How about some links to pictures [liksang.com] of the product and sony's page [sony.co.jp] on it!!!
    • From the pictures link:

      Receiving channel: Ground analog (VHF:1-12ch / UHF:13-62ch / CATV:C13-C35ch),

      Are there only 35 cable channels commonly available in Japan? They'd certainly have to bump that up for the North American market (VHF 2-13 and CATV 14-125 or whatever the upper channel is on TV tuners nowadays). Or am I misunderstanding this feature?

  • Definitely more supply than demand right now (Score:5, Informative)

    by Alita ( 48540 ) on Thursday January 08, 2004 @08:22AM (#7913783)
    I live near Nagoya (Japan's 3rd largest city) and just like the Tokyoites are saying, PSXs all over the place.

    Not only that, remember when PS2s were hard to find and they were going for ridiculous prices on eBay? Well, I checked out Yahoo Japan Auctions and PSXs are going for about 10000 yen (~$100 US) LESS than retail. Obviously, not a lot of demand.

  • My .02 cents (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Raven42rac ( 448205 ) * on Thursday January 08, 2004 @08:51AM (#7913974)
    Well the PSX is shaping up to be a much less powerful/feature packed machine than was originally promised. Honestly, (I am officially waving bye-bye to Karma), for all the things that the PSX is trying to be, the XBOX did at launch or shortly thereafter, so Sony is late to a game they will have a hard time winning. If anyone can pull it off, it is Sony. The first thing they need to do (and will not do) is standardize the online portion of their service a la XBOX live. For instance, you go on XBOX live playing Crimson Skies, and someone can send you a message to play Rainbow Six. If you are on your PS2 playing Tony Hawk 4, no one can message you to say "Hey, come play SOCOM with us". That is a huge difference. Yes I am praising a Microsoft product. While the XBOX may be the size of a house, and the controller almost comically-sized for our American gorilla hands, they did get the online portion of their console spot on. My current favorite Japanese export? Ichi The Killer.
    • If you're talking about the ability to play games, then yes. However, the Xbox doesn't have a DVD writer or the ability to act as a PVR (unless you mod it), and those are the selling points of the PSX...
    • The X-Box still doesn't do half the stuff the new PSX does, plus it has vastly more games available (and the prospect of more big titles to come in future)...

      I think online gaming is going to be somewhat secondary to the ability to record to DVD and utilise TiVo tech for any consumer forking out for this kind of kit. The gaming aspect is almost secondary.

    • Call me a reclusive weirdo but the only people I want to play video games online with are friends of mine I know in real life. I mainly just play sports games online [with my PS2] but if I'm in a game of Madden and someone wants to play ESPN Basketball, they can call my cell phone. That is why I don't see XBox Live as being the great killer app that a lot of people do. Obviously everyone has different expectations for online play so my needs differ from others. There's my two cents.

  • Noise level in comparison to PS2 (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Kingpin ( 40003 ) on Thursday January 08, 2004 @09:19AM (#7914154) Homepage

    Anyone know if this is as noisy as the PS2?

  • I want to see a home computer based on PS2 hardware, running Linux and marketed at the mainstream.

    I'd love to see a return to the glory days of the 16 bit home computers (Amiga/Atari ST)! It could also come with a basic development kit (but not some crippled Net Yaroze) for "bedroom coders".

  • What happens when PS3 comes out? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Bill, Shooter of Bul ( 629286 ) on Thursday January 08, 2004 @10:04AM (#7914550) Journal
    Yeah, you've go this nice all in one unit and one third of it becomes obsolete. A all in one pvr DvdR device makes sence, but why put in a gamesystem that will be obsolete in a few years?
    • Thats what I thought when I first saw it. I said to my self, "Why not wait 2-3 years when the ps3 and xbox2 are out, and buy that version of it." If this one is successful then we know that are going to do it again with the playstation 3. We also know Microsoft never likes to be behind and they already have talked about their next system being a "media center." I wouldent be surprised if it has some kind of video recorder.
    • Last time I checked, when a new system comes out you can still play your old one.

      That and with the popularity of the PS2, you will be seeing games coming out for it a couple of years into the PS3 era.

      And a few years is also a DAMN long time! Unless you're a 500 year old being getting 3-5 years out of a device seems like a good deal to me.

      I mean why get the PS3, in just a few more years the PS2012 will be out and you'll have wasted your money on the PS3.
  • like others have said, there's still piles of psx machines at all the big shops: bic/yodobashi/sofmap. a friend who works at sofmap said they reached the maximum number of reservations for psx's but on sale day a large number of people didn't pick them up. i would have bought one (a video recorder with 160GB hdd and 12x dubbing for 79,999yen? that's a damn good price. look at the competition!) but the interface isn't bilingual (like the PS2). plus the dropping of features was not cool. plus it's a sony, s
  • I saw a picture with a keyboard somewhere. Come on Sony, release this kit as a home computer entertainment system!!! It would be cool to be again able to code for a platform other than the PC from our bedrooms, only this time the box will have everything, including special controllers.

  • Wouldn't it help if they released the harddrive here in America before they released the PSX? Or is it out and I am just crazy?
  • It really makes me sick to continuously read in articles about China being a hotbed of video game piracy. The PS2 was JUST released there? You gotta be fuckin kidding me. How long has it been out in the US? Japan? 4-5 years or something? No wonder the Chinese have to pirate all that software because THEY WEREN'T EVEN RELEASING IT to them in the first place. This behaviour is forced onto those who want to play games on a reasaonble timetable with the rest of the modern world, not 5 years later. You leave the
  • ". It sells for almost 100,000 yen ($941) and it still sold out."

    SWEET MOTHER OF...$941 for that thing?! What was Sony thinking? Or rather, what were the Japanese thinking? (Obviously, Sony did alright for themslves.) You'd think with all the tech-gadgets on the market in Japan that never even make it to the U.S., the consumers would be a little more discerning...

    They just spent $100 mil on a Tivo-Playstation 2-Stereo combo with a few other tacky, nick-nack features...and the thing doesn't even have


    • Check out Japanese electronics prices, and you might be less surprised. The cheapest Tivo-like device I found at Yodobashi Camera was $580, and that was with an 80 GB hard drive. The $941 dollar PSX is the one with a 250 GB hard drive. The cheapest 250 GB Tivo-like device I could find was the Toshiba RD-X4, which costs $1,442. So you get a pretty decent Tivo-like device for comparatively cheaper.

      However, I agree in spirit. Sure, the PSX may be comparatively well priced, but it's still too darn expen

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