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PlayStation (Games) Entertainment Games

Smaller Playstation 2 Theorized 102

Tim Grube writes "According to Gaming Horizon and several other industry insiders, Sony will be celebrating their fourth-year anniversary of the Playstation 2 on October 26th by releasing a smaller, more compact version of the game system with the new name PStwo. Some analysts believe the PStwo will retail at $149.99, the current price of the Playstation 2."
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Smaller Playstation 2 Theorized

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  • Of Course (Score:3, Insightful)

    by urbaer ( 778997 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:13AM (#10274353)
    Ah.... of course, I just bought my new PS2 last month... the main reason I bought the PS2 was for San Andreas (I decided to buy early), so it's probably a smart idea to launch it at the same time as GTA. The PSTwo might sell a little bit... but it's not going to be huge is it?

    Does this mean the PS1 will finally disappear from our shelves?
    • Re:Of Course (Score:4, Informative)

      by Fred Or Alive ( 738779 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @04:03AM (#10274988)
      I think production of PSones has already stopped, they're just going through remaining stock. In the UK "Game" stores had a neat PSOne + official LCD Screen + GBP10 game deal for GBP80 (the PSOne's RRP is GBP50). Pity I didn't have enough money to get it at the time, as it was obviously a stock clearance measure.
  • It seems to me that it was just last week that people were paying $500+ on Ebay when the PS2 was first launched. What was the time frame between Playstation and the PSone launch? Was it about the same time frame, or am I just getting older and time goes by faster for me now?
  • Mainly because it was released so close to the PS2 that people didn't see a point in buying one. This could revitialize sales for Sony and drum up some buzz for the PS3.
    • Umm, I don't have numbers handy, but IIRC, PSone sales were substantial during the PS2's reign. Not like PS2's of course, but an upward spike in PlayStation-class hardware was probably most appreciated even as PS2 was taking off.

      Also, I'm sure a lot of people bought PSones as replacements for PSXs that died. We did - my kids inherited my 1998-vintage PSX when I got my PS2, but a year or so later they killed it by leaving it on overnight...

      GTRacer
      - Wondering what an import PSP will cost...

  • I want a handheld version of the Playstation 2. Oh yeah, the DVD discs would never fit. Oh well, it was nice to dream.
    • Re:Forget that... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by mrgreen4242 ( 759594 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:07AM (#10274503)
      On a related note, how come Nintendo doesn't do this and utterly destroy the PSP? Like you said, the DVD disc would never work for a handheld, but the GCs discs are already the same size as Sony is plannign for the PSP. The GC is already fairly small, and by now they must be able to put the whole thing onto a single low power draw board.

      Instant access to the entire GC library coupled with a fairly low price ($200?) would make it the obvious choice.

      That said, I'm still getting a DS over the PSP. However, the more I think about it, with Nintendos lackluster console sales and their continued dominance in the handheld arena, it might be smart to let MS and Sony duke it out with the PS3 and XBox2, while releasing a P(ocket)GC rather than a GC2.

      • Re:Forget that... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by DarkZero ( 516460 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @02:35AM (#10274768)
        On a related note, how come Nintendo doesn't do this and utterly destroy the PSP? Like you said, the DVD disc would never work for a handheld, but the GCs discs are already the same size as Sony is plannign for the PSP. The GC is already fairly small, and by now they must be able to put the whole thing onto a single low power draw board.
        Instant access to the entire GC library coupled with a fairly low price ($200?) would make it the obvious choice.


        Most Sony consoles, or at least the two that have existed so far, begin their life cycles as serious loss leaders. Sony loses tons of money for the first two years, at which point their slow refinements to the manufacturing process finally begin to draw a small profit. By the system's fifth year or so, they're actually out of the hole and profiting from the hardware itself.

        Nintendo, on the other hand, based on what little they've told us in the past, likes to make at least some money on their consoles, and they're probably making a small profit on every GameCube they sell right now. If they were to make it a handheld competitor to the PSP, they'd have to start losing money on it and bet that they can make it up in software sales. The problem with that is that even though they could conceivably make up the difference in software sales, they're a much smaller company than Sony or Microsoft. If they produced a loss-leading console or handheld and Sony happened to royally kick the crap out of it, the one-two punch would probably knock Nintendo right out of the hardware business.
        • And if it was compatible with the existing GCN library, they wouldn't be able to sell as many of those very profitable games - a lot of the early adopters would already have a decent library to draw from.
        • Re:Forget that... (Score:1, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward
          Serious loss leaders? Prove it. Cite some evidence.

          I don't think you know what you are talking about. When Sony announced the price of the first Playstation, Sega accused them of dumping. Sony was never taken to court over this. That's where this whole idea got started.

          Prove to me that Sony has sold all their consoles at a loss.

          I guarantee you cannot cite adequate evidence to support this. You don't know what you're talking about and you're just repeating the same old crap that gets posted in the games s
          • Re:Forget that... (Score:4, Informative)

            by DarkZero ( 516460 ) on Saturday September 18, 2004 @12:30PM (#10285490)
            Prove to me that Sony has sold all their consoles at a loss.

            I guarantee you cannot cite adequate evidence to support this. You don't know what you're talking about and you're just repeating the same old crap that gets posted in the games section all the time. Not all consoles are sold at a loss - get over it.


            Most of the reliable sources (newspapers, magazines) don't have the stories available for the PlayStation and PS2 in easily-searchable sources like Google news, but a quick search turned up two interesting bits about their current plans:

            As per 1Up's article [findarticles.com], Sony plans to sell the PSP at a loss. And if you Ctrl+F for the word "loss" in ZDNet's PSX story [zdnet.com], it will not only tell you that the PSX was planned to sell at a loss, but that it is generally an industry standard, much like the razorblade entry.

            makers typically sell hardware at a loss and make their profits from royalties on game software sales. That model gets shaky, however, when you start cramming nongame functions into the same box, Cole said.

            "They've been able to get the price way down on game systems, because they can make it up on software," Cole said. "With these kinds of hybrid devices, you're selling to people who aren't necessarily going to buy a lot of games. But you can't necessarily expect to charge a premium over the existing products it's intended to replace."


            The only thing I can't really prove is that Nintendo actually sells theirs at a profit. That's mostly from print sources like EGM's Quartermann column.
      • On a related note, how come Nintendo doesn't do this and utterly destroy the PSP? Like you said, the DVD disc would never work for a handheld, but the GCs discs are already the same size as Sony is plannign for the PSP. The GC is already fairly small, and by now they must be able to put the whole thing onto a single low power draw board.

        The biggest problem with this would be trying to fit all the buttons from a GameCube controller on a handheld.
        • I was thinking about that myself, after I said it. At first, I agreed with you, but the more I think about it, the more sure I am it could be done.

          It's kind of hard to explain what I am visualizing, but the analog sticks could be replaced by a curved disc that moves in the same manner a the original does, but without protruding almost at all. The face buttons are easy, they're just buttons.

          The shoulder buttons would again be pretty easy, just make the analog motion of the L and R move into the handheld, so

      • I'm wondering WHERE IS THE MODDINC COMMUNITY IN ALL THIS?! The GC's entrails are already pint-sized, all we really need to do now is to slap a custom control board on top, add a 3" LCD, and put it in a purdy box. This is really all that is required: - 1 GameCube unit ($99) - 1 controller (included with above) - 1 3.5 in. LCD (available with XBOX controller for $50) - Custom board for controls (can be hawked together from controller board and spare wire) - Custom board for power, reset, eject buttons (can
        • Re:Forget that... (Score:4, Interesting)

          by mrgreen4242 ( 759594 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @11:38AM (#10277614)
          Well, it might be doable, but I think that the draw would be in a slick, small package that carries the power of a full home console.

          You could probably hack something together with existing parts, but you'd spend alot more than $200 to build it. (The screen on those XBox controllers sucks by the way). Search on google for the guy who made a PSOne portable unit and see how much he spent to do that.

          On another note, a Nintendo made GC portable would be a huge hit for obvious reasons (great graphics, huge preexisting game library, etc), but if they made it also compatible with mini cd-r/w's (maybe not dvd-r/w's, for sake of copy protection/piracy concerns) so you could use it for an mp3 player and possibly other media playback, it would be a pretty slick system.

          • the way I see it, there are two options:

            1. Leave the control scheme un-changed, and use a smaller-sized LCD on top, or

            2. Completely hack apart the controls, and arange them on opposite sides of a larger LCD (a la PSP)

            In option 1, we'd be resrticted to a 2.5" - 3" LCD, whereas option 2 would allow a gorgeous 3.5"-5" LCD. The challenge lies in the obvious: It'd be kind of hard to chainsaw the controller into two halves, and expect it to work, and, whereas the first configuration would really only require s
  • by lightspawn ( 155347 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:17AM (#10274367) Homepage
    It seems console companies always put out these small, streamlined versions... that lose some features that nobody's using or that they don't like. Power LED, keyboard slot, mystery connection that nobody knows what it's for, MIL-CD support, that kind of thing.

    Any bets on what we're going to lose this time?
    • Probably the DVD drive. I know I never used that. Well, maybe once when I waatched a movie DVD...LOL!
      • Pretty unlikely since all of the PS2 games are on DVDs

        • Replace the DVD drive with a small hard drive or big flash memory and have the DVD drive as a peripheral device used to load the game from the DVD to the drive. Then disconnect the DVD drive and take your player on the road. Perhaps even allow multiple games to be preloaded in this manner.

          Though they'll probably feel compelled to do some physical DRMming, such as locking down the peripheral drive so that it can't be used again until the game is unloaded from the unit it was loaded and hardware which self
    • Well, they already got rid of the firewire port from new versions. They need to keep the USB ports though.
      My guess is that they will take out the bay for the hard drive, integrate the network adapter, and make the whole thing top loading.
    • by DarkZero ( 516460 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @02:25AM (#10274743)
      It seems console companies always put out these small, streamlined versions... that lose some features that nobody's using or that they don't like. Power LED, keyboard slot, mystery connection that nobody knows what it's for, MIL-CD support, that kind of thing.

      Any bets on what we're going to lose this time?


      Well, we may not necessarily lose anything. The PS2's business is starting to depend on the presence of a modem in the machine, so there's a good chance that Sony could release the PSTwo at the same price as the PS2, but with a modem built-in. If a NIC costs less than $10 at your local Best Buy, CompUSA, or Mom & Pop Computer Shop, just imagine how little it must cost Sony.

      And besides, there's not a whole lot to lose in the PS2. The hard drive slot is mandatory for certain games, so they can't lose that. The modem slot is also mandatory for some, so they can't lose that. Removing the USB port would stab Logitech, Mad Catz, Namco, Sega, and a whole lot of other peripheral manufacturers in the back. The only thing it might lose is the DVD player, because the unit can be produced cheaper without the DVD licensing cost.
  • DVD play? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Daetrin ( 576516 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:27AM (#10274389)
    Will the PSTwo have a decent DVD player that can handle _all_ dual layered disks? Not that i'm going to bother upgrading unless my PS2 falls apart more than a couple months before the PS3 release, but it would be nice to know that after four years they could finally get the thing working right.

    I'm also curious what Sony will do about the names if they ever decide to revamp the PSX or PS2 a second time. PSOne-2 and PSTwo-2? They could just leave the names alone i guess, but they only seem willing to reuse names on entirely different products.

    • I'm also curious what Sony will do about the names if they ever decide to revamp the PSX or PS2 a second time. PSOne-2 and PSTwo-2?

      Super PStwo Turbo
    • PSTwo-CD ... no that won't work.... ...PSTwo-32X

      Segas hardware developers had to go somewhere, no? :)
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Metropolis doesn't work. There are lists you can google of dual layered disks that crap out. i gave up on the ps2 as a dvd player anyway - i just use my plextor in my pc. the gf is watching "queer eye for while you were out trading spouses and spaces" all day on the tv.
  • by miyako ( 632510 ) <miyako AT gmail DOT com> on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:34AM (#10274401) Homepage Journal
    I've owned 3 PS2's, all of them have had problems, I sent my first one (one of the originals that Sony admitted to having problems with), and got one of the second generation ones, sent it in for repair 4 times before they switched it out for a third one, after having to send it in several times for repairs I finally just decided to go with a gamecube, which has served me faithfully for 2 years now.
    There are still a lot of PS2 games that I have missed out on though, being a huge RPG fan, and Star Ocean has had me considering trying a 4th PS2. I haven't though because other people I know have not had any better luck with their PS2s, and I don't want to get burned again. If these things are going to be redesigned and manufactured differently, then I might consider getting one.
    BTW - anyone know what the backwards compatibility features of the PS3 are supposed to be? If it'll play PS1 and PS2 games then I might just wait to get a PS3, but if it'll only play PS2 games then I'll shell out for a PS2 so I can play my PS1 games on it, since I have a huge collection of great PS1 games, and ePSX on Linux might as well be an XBox emulator, it has microsoft-esque stability :P
    • Ummm.... (Score:5, Informative)

      by NEOtaku17 ( 679902 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:46AM (#10274430) Homepage

      You do know that if you call up Sony and say anything about a "disk read error" that they will have you ship them your PS2 and send you back one with a new DVD-ROM and/or a new mobo with all the latest firmware updates and DVD player software right?

      • Is this still the case if it's out of the normal warantee period?

        I've had my PS2 since they were first released, and living under a rock, I never knew about the proliferation fo problems till I started experiencing them about 6 months ago. Now the thing will not play PS1 games at all, (makes a wierd grinding noise at spinup) and is just now starting to give me DVD read errors. I guess I got "lucky" and got a unit that outlasted expectations. I assumed that since I was out of warantee I was SOL.
        • Yes. I sent mine in a few months ago, at no cost. I was one of the people standing outside Best Buy waiting to get one the day they were released, so the warranty was long passed.
        • Is this still the case if it's out of the normal warantee period?

          I can attest that they do, indeed. I had it done earlier this year. I think it has something to do with a Class-action suit over bum drive mechanisms or something.
      • You do know that if you call up Sony and say anything about a "disk read error" that they will have you ship them your PS2 and send you back one with a new DVD-ROM and/or a new mobo with all the latest firmware updates and DVD player software right?

        Does Sony do that if your PS2 is out of warranty? My was having that problem. The main reason that I didn't just exchange was lack of receipt. I hate those little pieces of paper that vanish when I need them. I originally got my PS2 for PS1 & DVD combo use
      • yeah, that's how I went from playstation2:1 to playstation2:2, and from playstation 2:2 to playstation2:3.
      • More info on this free Sony repair can be found in the "Disc Read Error Sony Repair FAQ" at Gamefaqs.com [gamefaqs.com] (which doesn't allow direct FAQ linking). Tells you how to know if you qualify, what you need, what you should say, etc. Pretty handy.
    • Sony has screwed you not one, not two, but three times! and you still think on going back to them!

      People like you has made Microsoft the monster it is today. It was not Bill Gates, nor Ballmer, nor some bad decision at IBM. Just uneducated customers.
      • Actually, I paid sony from 1 playstation2 unit. In the end when it didn't work, after exchanging for a new unit, they did refund my money to me. While I was unhappy with the quality of the hardware, I didn't feel like I was mistreated, and if they are able to redesign the system so that there are not so many manufacturing / hardware flaws, then I would happily buy another one.
    • Abnormal experiences (Score:3, Interesting)

      by billybob ( 18401 )
      I have had a PS2 for years, as have many of my friends, and none of us have had any problems whatsoever. You shouldnt talk like all PS2's are this way. You just got unlucky I guess... :P
      • Agreed, I have two PS2s, one running Linux 24/7 and the other for gaming, neither have given me a days trouble. My brother's PS2 gets treated like shit, it gets thrown in the back of various mates' cars and spends its life on dirty student's carpets, amazingly it's still running perfectly too.

        That said the CD/DVD drives in the PS1s and PS2s do seem to be their Achilles heal. I saw an article the other day saying most PS1/PS2 drives last about 7-8 years before they fail, yet 20+ year old Nintendo cartridge
      • Sony lost a class-action lawsuit in the USA because the PS2 disc drives were so shoddy and prone to breakage. (That is why they will repair them for free - that was the main terms of the settlement.) For the record, half of the PS2 owners I know have had their PS2 disc drive break ("Disc Read Error" on CD-ROM games seems particularly common - it happened to mine, too.). So it is likely that you are the lucky one. :P

        (Or more likely you have a newer PS2. The same is true for my friends who haven't lost a PS2
    • I've owned 3 PS2's, all of them have had problems, I sent my first one (one of the originals that Sony admitted to having problems with), and got one of the second generation ones, sent it in for repair 4 times before they switched it out for a third one, after having to send it in several times for repairs I finally just decided to go with a gamecube, which has served me faithfully for 2 years now.

      I'm used my ps2 for FOUR years, banged it up, taveled to Japan and back with it and it's never had a hiccup
    • There are still a lot of PS2 games that I have missed out on though, being a huge RPG fan

      Well, if you're looking for your RPG fix on the Gamecube, I would suggest you check out Tales of Symphonia [namco.com]. I recently rented it from GameFly, and I've been hooked since. I'm about 16 hours into it, and apparently haven't scratched the surface.

      I'm not a big fan of Cel-shading, but ToS has probably the best usage of the technique that I have ever seen. At my first glance at screenshots in magazines, I thought it was s
      • The storyline however, is not the greatest. If it weren't for the storyline I'd say the game was absolutely great, but I just cannot stand the cheesy dialog. However, I have spent almost 41 hours on it so it's unbearable, just lame. It's almost an exact clone of the star ocean for SNES in terms of mechanics, but the skill system is reduced to cooking only, and if you can't get the new SO, get this game.
    • Online I often read about PS2s and PS1s failing. I have never had a problem with these systems nor has a friend of mine. I wonder if something in the air like cigarette smoke increases the risk of PS failure. Or maybe I play my systems as much as others.
  • I'm really really hoping this to be at the $100-130 range, I've been putting off buying a PS2 becuse there are only a few games that I would want for it (FFs, DDRs)

    And I'm cheap :p

  • Celebrating? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by T.Hobbes ( 101603 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @02:01AM (#10274666)
    It's not like some engineers sat around drinking sake and thinking about how best to party down for the 4th anniverery of a product launch. It's more like some executives sat around drinking sake, thinking about how to milk a little more from an aging cash cow. Bah humbug!

    OT, but does anyone know a general rule to solve the equation n^n = x? For example, if n^n = 3125, how would you solve for n? (in this case, n=5)

    • As I recall, one takes the nth root of the number.

      The fifth root of 3125, for instance, is five. =)

      HTH.
    • There's no way I know of. You can use

      ln(x) = n * ln(n)

      and fiddle with n until it's close enough, though.
    • it would be horribly inefficient, and would get slow for large numbers, but you could write an algorithm to do it. just loop (use a while loop) forward from 1^1, 2^2 (use whole numbers at this point) etc, until you go beyond the target. then loop back accurate to the tenths place until you're less than the target. then loop forward accurate to the hundredths place until you're above, etc.

      do this for as long as you want to (as much accuracy as you need, keeping in mind it gets 10 times slower for each decim
      • If you're going to do it numerically, that's the worst possible way to do it. The simplest way is:

        rearrange:

        n*ln(n)=ln(x)
        n=ln(x)/ln(n)

        iterative form
        --> n(n+1) = ln(x) / ln(n)

        then put a first guess in (say, 7) and keep iterating until the answer converges. Takes 25 iterations in this case to five dp.
        • Why not just take the nth root of x?

          Jeez, you guys always do things the hard way. ;)
          • Because that way doesn't converge.

            Unless you're confused over his reversed notation (using n as the unknown, x as the known) and mean solving analytically? He's trying to get n=f(x):

            n^n=x
            take nth root:

            n=x^(1/n)

            then where? I'll admit I'm an engineer, not a mathmatician, so my analytical solution skills are very rusty.
  • GTA San Andreas (Score:2, Interesting)

    by yoyhed ( 651244 )
    I would attribute GTA: San Andreas's recent delay [gamespot.com] for "extra quality testing" to this smaller PS2's release, if it's true.
  • by Fred Or Alive ( 738779 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @04:13AM (#10275012)
    This sort of thing isn't really a question if they're going to release a 'PStwo', it's when. All successful consoles seem to end up with a cheaper shrunken model at the end of their life, see the little NES and SNES, Genesis 3[1], PSone.

    But I don't think PStwo will be replaced this year however, as these little consoles are usually nearer to the launch of a next generation console, I think next Christmas will be when the console turns up.

    [1] The Mega Drive 2 / Genesis 2 is an interesting one really, seeing as it came relatively early in the consoles life.
  • The real question is: Does the current high quality mod chip (DMS2/Matrix) will work in this little sucker?
  • Another clue! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nicksthings ( 678040 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @06:56AM (#10275311)
    Let me back up this speculation with one more fact:

    Sony has more or less recently stopped sending retailers Playstation 2 systems. This has been going on for at least two months and word is, we're not going to be getting any more in the next month, either. So of course you have to wonder, if they do intend on releasing this PStwo, what would be the point of supplying the market with more older models? Exactly!

    Can't wait to see what this thing looks like (and if it has a broadband adapter built it...and where the HDD will go and if it actually plays media!)
    • Yeah, I agree with that observation... I recently went in to EB to buy a PS2 for our office. (We had a little extra spare change) They only had one "network combo" console in stock. (The one that comes with Offroad Fury and the network adapter.) The others were just the barebones console which are priced the same as the combo pack -- this is why no one buys those. It made me wonder why their stock was so low on the combo packs, if Sony was going to drop the combo and just go with the barebones systems
      • Actually, the combo pack has been done for quite some time (since around E3 and the price drop). Retailers have just been selling their warehouse stock since then. I was referring to the barebones system in my post. I've had a lot of customers tell me they've had trouble finding them anywhere but big box retailers (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc) - they're able to purchase a lot more at once and probably have a ton of back stock.

        But as far as getting more, it doesn't look like that's happening for awhile.
  • Linux Kit (Score:3, Interesting)

    by karstux ( 681641 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @07:00AM (#10275316) Homepage
    If that PStwo still accepts a HDD, has a network adapter and will work with the Linux Kit, I might very well get one of these. Could be a sleek little desktop computer!

    And for 150$ it wouldn't even be expensive. I just hope it will be less noisy than the original PS2...
  • xboxone (Score:4, Funny)

    by David_Bloom ( 578245 ) <slashdot@3lesson.org> on Friday September 17, 2004 @07:14AM (#10275352) Homepage
    Soon they'll start selling DELL x86 laptops with a big sticker on the top that says xboxone.
  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @09:21AM (#10276219)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Looks like my crystal ball may be working pretty good with respect to the PSTwo [slashdot.org]!

    If it does come to pass, perhaps this re-released PS2 will offer some design/esthetic insights into the upcoming PS3. Will it be all curvy and meant to stand out from the rest of your entertainment components or will it be made to be right at home with them. These could be clues about how Sony feels about convergence after the relatively unsuccessful PSX in Japan.

  • Fascinating... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Thedalek ( 473015 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:40PM (#10279019)
    So, the PS2, which was of a fairly tolerable size, is possibly getting a miniaturized update ala PSOne, whereas the Xbox, hulking brick of technology that it is, is almost certainly not getting such an update.

    *AHEM* Microsoft, the only reason I haven't bought your system is because it's massive. Cumbersomely large. I don't have a lot of room to spare for these things, and I live in a fairly rural area with comfortable living space. Imagine what it must be like for people who live in an overcrowded society where the average apartment size may be smaller than your kitchen, and space is at a premium.

    Good thing you're not trying to capture any portion of that market.
  • Is October 26th the PS2 anniversary in America or Japan? The price listed in dollars suggest this new PStwo will come out in America. So far there's no news of it in Japan. Perhaps the Tokyo Game Show next week will reveal what's going on.

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