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PlayStation (Games) Entertainment Games

Smaller Networked Sony "PStwo" Officially Announced 322

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stuff-to-play-with dept.
Asriel86 writes "Tokyo Game Show has just kicked off, and with quite a bang. Sony just officially announced the PStwociting a stateside release date of November 1st, 2004. The system will be 25% smaller than the current model, will feature a sleeker design, and a built-in Ethernet port (no adapter required). Sony also says that there will be 120 new Playstation 2 games with online compatibility by the end of the year. That equates to thirty games per month or about one game per day for the rest of 2004."
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Smaller Networked Sony "PStwo" Officially Announced More

Smaller Networked Sony "PStwo" Officially Announced

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  • new games (Score:5, Funny)

    by BoldAC ( 735721 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:13AM (#10306963)
    One hundred-twenty new online games before January? That equates to 30 games per month, or over one game per day until the end of 2004.

    Woop! I am totally calling in sick -- for the rest of the year.

    AC
    • "Before January" in weasel terms is between Christmas and New Year :)

      So you have 12 reverse-days of christmas playing and sucking at 10 games a day while the beta testers wh00p your a$$ on the ones they've played for a couple of weeks more ...

      • Re:The come out for christmas (Score:4, Informative)

        by jandrese ( 485 ) * <kensama@vt.edu> on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @09:08AM (#10307949) Homepage Journal
        Uh, no major game company releases their big game _after_ the Christmas rush. The 10 games a day is actually somewhat believeable if you've looked at the release charts from now until Christmas with every developer trying to get their 3/4 finished game out the door and on the shelves before mommies everywhere try to find something for their kids.
        • Uh, no major game company releases their big game _after_ the Christmas rush

          I'm pretty sure I remember Mega Man regularly being on the cover of Nintendo Power in January. The post-Christmas seemed to be the niche for that series. After all, kids need something to spend the $50 cheque from their uncle that came a month late on.

  • Hmm (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bigthecat ( 678093 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:13AM (#10306967)
    "Sony also says that there will be 120 new Playstation 2 games with online compatibility by the end of the year." Developers are getting to the point on the PS2 where they've got to decide between creating a game that might be for a redundant system, or creating a game that might be ready for the new system's release. The change in status of the PS2 to the PStwo is symbolic, as it was for the PSone. It means that it's getting close to the end of it's lifecycle, which can only be downhill for developers.

    • Dude... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:20AM (#10307021)
      The PS3 will be like another year at least, maybe another two years. We won't even see first *signs* of the PS3 until March of next year. There has been zero indication whatsoever, even in the deepest depths of the rumor mill, that any developers even have the option of developing for the PS3 available to them yet.

      Meanwhile unlike, say, XBox developers (and it does look possible the XBox2 may even be out before the PS3), PS2 developers have the comfort that their games will be compatible with the PS3 once it's released. For some time after the PS2 was released before the best-selling PS2 games were all PS1 games-- that's encouraging for developers of PS2 games.

      • Re:Dude... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by strictfoo ( 805322 ) <strictfoo-signup.yahoo@com> on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:51AM (#10307278) Journal
        that any developers even have the option of developing for the PS3 available to them yet

        I'm sure Sony has at least provided some fairly detailed documentation (wrapped in a nice tight NDA), possibly even code samples. Considering the development cycle of major titles is about 2 years now, and most likely will be even longer with a console as complex as the PS3, any PS3 game that would be available near the launch of the PS3 should already have some of the development foundation laid.
    • PSOne didn't change the game API, did it? Why should PSTwo and PS2 be different from each other?

      Also, PSOne wasn't released until after PS2 was released, but PS3 won't be for a while, same with the competitor's new consoles. This may be an attempt to fuel more sales, although I thought PS2 installed base is more than Gamecube and XBox combined.

  • PSone + PStwo = ? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by joeldixon66 ( 808412 ) * <joel@jd53.cBLUEom minus berry> on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:13AM (#10306970) Homepage
    Does anybody else get a little annoyed by this kind of thing? 25% smaller, half the weight and an included Ethernet port... enough to be jealous when my brother buys one, but not enough to buy one myself.

    Will anyone that owns a regular PS2 buy one of these?

    • Re:PSone + PStwo = ? (Score:5, Informative)

      by peterprior ( 319967 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:19AM (#10307020)
      This BBC article [bbc.co.uk] says that it has been reduced by 75% and has pictures.

      It does look a _lot_thinner. I guess this would reduce manufacturing costs, for sony. It might mean what you bought 3 years ago is old and out of date now, but hey, thats the tech industry for you.

    • Re:PSone + PStwo = ? (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I have a regular PS2 and I think I just might buy one. Why? I hate having to share my PS2 with my kids.

      My six year old never let's me play GTA: Vice City without using cheats. He likes rampaging through the town on land or water (hover car cheat) just for kicks. Me, I just want to finish the damn game.

      Maybe if I had my own PStwo I can play SOCOM II without my kids or wife bothering me. All in the comforts of my own room. :)

  • Yay (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Tyndmyr ( 811713 ) * on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:15AM (#10306984)
    "Internal volume has been reduced by 75%, overall weight has been halved, and thickness trimmed down to 2.8 cm (thickness of current model is 7.8 cm)."

    I think all of us agree this is a good thing from a gamers perspective. After all, we all agree smaller is generally better and what not, and dialup is evil.

    However, on the flip side, how many people will buy them? Most people I know who enjoy using consoles already have a PS2, and are not likely to go buy a new one just because its a bit cooler. Even me being an addict, owning ever semi-modern console, I doubt I'll purchase anything that doesnt allow me to play more games.

    And 120 games! By the end of the year? Do they realize what kind of a task that is? I realize its probably been planned for a while, but we all know that game developers have a hard enough time meeting deadlines without attempting to coordinate with a console release. They'll be lucky to clear 50.

    • Re:Yay (Score:4, Interesting)

      by tgma ( 584406 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:43AM (#10307202)
      I hear what you're saying, but I have been vacillating about buying a PS2 for a long time now. I am happy with the games that I can play on my computer, and don't need the DVD capability that much. I was about to buy a PS2, but will now definitely buy this, as it looks much cooler!

    • Re:Yay (Score:3, Interesting)

      by nutrock69 ( 446385 )
      - However, on the flip side, how many people will buy them?

      I have a first gen PS2, and I've been thinking about getting another one to put in the car for the kid. Taking out the power supply and making it that much smaller is making it look very attractive for this purpose...

    • However, on the flip side, how many people will buy them?

      This always works the same way:

      • clearing old inventory quickly: Some people will take advantage of the fact that the old PS2s will be discounted to clear inventory. So that's boon #1 for Sony.
      • updating to the latest version: Others will replace their existing ones with the new ones becauase of the coolness factor (also looks like it would take up a lot less place in the back seat of an SUV), another boon for Sony
      • reduction in manufacturing cost
  • "Sony also says that there will be 120 new Playstation 2 games with online compatibility by the end of the year. That equates to thirty games per month or about one game per day for the rest of 2004."

    Would his next words happen to be?:

    "We don't seriously expect most of these games to make any money. We are just using our marketshare to push X-box and Gamecube out of the market."

    Seriously, 120 games!?! What ever happened to quality over quantity?

    • Re:120 games??? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by rdc_uk ( 792215 )
      Sony + Playstation + Games

      Has always been a "quantity rather than quality" formula; the only 2 things the playstation (1 or 2) ever got right were: "have the best controller on the market" (by far), and "have the most games on the market" (by far, and in PS2's case by backwards compatibility; masterstroke!).

      The first makes their machine the most comfortable to use.

      The second means that any given consumer is more likely to find a game that appeals to them for that machine. (the fact that once they get the
      • "have the best controller on the market" (by far)

        This is a big matter of opinion... I, and many people I know prefer the Gamecube controller. I mean, come on, the analog stick is used so much, why is it still located in that weird spot, instead of in place of the D-pad?

  • 75% (Score:5, Informative)

    by paradesign ( 561561 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:16AM (#10306991) Homepage
    Thats 75% smaller, not 25%. Its top loading as well. Check Gizmodo.com or engadget.com for better coverage.

  • Wondering... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Opalima ( 744615 )
    How much will these improvements increase sales? I would suspect based on the age of the PS2 that most folks who have wanted a PS2 already have one, which would diminish the value of this "new and improved" model

  • More than just 25% smaller... (Score:5, Informative)

    by ShadeARG ( 306487 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:18AM (#10307005)
    See a couple of pictures here [bbc.co.uk].

    • Three words (Score:3, Informative)

      by straybullets ( 646076 )

      External power supply

  • Quality? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BigDork1001 ( 683341 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:18AM (#10307008) Homepage
    Sony also says that there will be 120 new Playstation 2 games with online compatibility by the end of the year.

    It seems to me that Sony has always favored quantity over quality. If you go to any game store or video rental place there are many more PS and PS2 games than there are for the other consoles. And most of the PS2 games aren't all that good. I'd bet the ratio for good games to total games for PS2 compared to the GameCube and X-box is much lower.

    • Looking at the current ratio of PS2:Gamecube games I have, I'd say that the quantity:quality ratio for the PS2 is about the same as for the other two.

      This all depends on your preferences, of course. I play RPGs, and Sony's platforms have been the place for RPGs (outside of the Zeldas and the occasional odd Fable or KOTOR) since Final Fanatasy 7.

      Honestly, though, this isn't "Sony's flooding the market with games". This is "Developers decide to go with PS2 because it has the largest user base." Also, the

  • The catch... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by deminisma ( 703135 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:19AM (#10307012)
    No hard drive bay, which means no Final Fantasy XI.

    Sort of similar to how they dumped the parallel port on later models of the original PlayStation, I suppose. It's interesting how support never really matierialised for the hard drive; but then again I can't think of an console expansion that has ever really flown in the marketplace.

    Squenix can't be thrilled though.

    • Re:The catch... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
      Even worse, it seems like they're going to (or already have) discontinue the old model so new users won't be able to play FF11 at all. I have a feeling this is going to cause some complaints by people not doing the proper research.

    • Re:The catch... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Bigthecat ( 678093 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:32AM (#10307121)
      "It's interesting how support never really matierialised for the hard drive; but then again I can't think of an console expansion that has ever really flown in the marketplace."

      Indeed. From the MegaCD, to the 32x, large updates to older gaming systems have ultimately been a failure.

      When it comes down to it, the one thing that console lovers always have over people who compare them to computers is the lack of requirement for the developer to account for every hardware configuration under the sun. Adding simple components and accessories is fine; an extra controller here, an add-on for a specific game (Such as the dance pad for DDR or various light guns for shotting games), but when you come out with extra components whose sole use is to enable the play of a few new games, this detracts from both the user and the developer. No longer can you run down to the videoshop and rent a game because it has PS2 written on it, the playerbase is split into who owns one and who doesn't, and then the gamebase is split into which games require the addon and which don't.

      That's not why people buy consoles. The current console doesn't have enough memory to play properly, such as with the memory expansion for the N64? There's a great new format to play games on, such as with the MegaCD? That's great, these are some pretty grounds for creating a new console. People buy new accessories for new features, such as the ability of large online multiplayer with the recent online additions to all consoles. Buying new parts for a console that does nothing new on it's own other than enable the gamer to play games they feel they're already entitled to since they purchased the system to begin with is boring, and ultimately feels like a ripoff.

      • Indeed. From the MegaCD, to the 32x, large updates to older gaming systems have ultimately been a failure.

        Yes, but you forget that the Mega CD and 32X were both made by Sega. Great games, lousy management. But at least with the Hard Disk Drive, the 32X is beaten by the least used perephial. (I think anyway, I don't know how many games use it really as it was never releasd in Europe, and may never be now).

      • Re:The catch... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by buysse ( 5473 )
        The N64's memory expansion is a pretty poor example. It was required for some games, but later versions of the console had it built-in. Also, even for games that didn't require it, it improved the graphics quality. Mario 64, for example, would use the additional video memory (as would most of the 3D games) to extend the range you could see -- push back the "fog of war."

        Not comparable to the hard drive that only FFXI uses, because it improves games that were written before it existed.

    • That is disappointing.

      In my memory, the only console expansion that has ever really taken off is the PS2 network adapter. Price is the driving factor there. The hard drive is just too expensive for most users to care.

  • No HDD? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by semaj ( 172655 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:19AM (#10307013) Journal
    The critical thing about the slimmed down version is that there doesn't appear to be anywhere to put a hard disk drive - which might well be a thinly veiled attempt by Sony to stop HDLoader [hdloader.net] or clones from being able to play copied games on newer consoles.

    What about games that use or need the HDD? Final Fantasy XI in Europe? Hmm. The BBC [bbc.co.uk] and IGN [ign.com] are both running the story.

  • PSTwo Pics (Score:5, Interesting)

    by deadsquid ( 535515 ) <(asx) (at) (deadsquid.com)> on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:19AM (#10307014) Homepage
    Pretty slick, very slim.

    http://www.engadget.com/entry/8413288107686276/

  • Sony's strength (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:22AM (#10307050)
    I've got to say I'm suspicious of the number of games promised; the figure sounds incredibly high. However, there's no denying that Sony's greatest strength in the console market has always been their ability to get a vast number of third party titles on the shelves. The quality isn't uniformly high by any means and the PS2 probably has a higher ratio of turkeys to stars than any other platform. Nevertheless, the "shotgun" approach ensures that most gamers can find a good number of titles they like in their genre(s) of choice. I've owned all three consoles for over a year now and my PS2 is over two years old. However, I still find myself buying more games for the PS2 than for any other platform, because the sheer volume or releases means there are more titles that I want.

    The alternative approach is best embodied by Nintendo (I'd say Microsoft fall somewhere in between the two). These days, Nintendo have a pretty sparse line-up of third party games. Their strategy seems to be to put out "big name" first party games on a fairly slow rotation. I won't get drawn into the argument over how good these games are; to some people they're the greatest and most innovative things ever, to other people they're insipid remakes of fifteen year old concepts. The point is that no game is going to appeal to all gamers. With a larger spread of games, the odds of you reaching the critical point at which your console becomes a "must buy" for an individual are inevitably going to be better in all sections of the market. This is why Sony have won the last two rounds of the console wars so comprehensively and why they will continue to do so (leaving aside the question of handhelds).

  • Asian dominance of Online Gaming (Score:5, Interesting)

    by davejenkins ( 99111 ) <slashdot&davejenkins,com> on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:23AM (#10307052) Homepage
    As many of us are aware, the youths in Asian countries, specifically Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Malaysia (in that order) are very, very, VERY into online games.

    Sure, Americans play Quake and Half-life and has its fair share of NeverEndingKnights (insert MMPORG of your choice), but what many people in US and EU may not realize is the extent and length of most games here in Asia-- all leading titles are Final Fantasy-type soap operas involving complex character building or multiple levels of progress, or are extended Command & Conquer-type 2-hour long epics dramas. There is an entire channel in the basic cable TV package that is essentially GTV (GameTV) and shows nothing but tournaments of overweight acne-ridden basement-dwellers duking out C&C-type games in a studio with cheeleaders, music, commentary, and bright flashing lights (it puts Iron Chef to shame).

    Even car racing games have extended season-long stories, and you must match up against your arch rivals from across town. The arcades here have point cards not unlike the comp point cards at the casinos (which came first?).

    In short, launching an electronic consumer good (TV, Stereo, Monitor, stand-along HD, Game Console, Guitar Amplifier) without an ethernet port nowadays is unthinkable.
  • Does this mean the CD-ROMs only last 25% as long? Ohhh, Zing!

    Really though, it is interesting about the apparent lack of HD room, though it appears that there might be some sort of access pannel on the top left of the machine, possibly large enough for a drive? Anybody know the answer to that?

    I might just have to make the leap from my good 'ole SNES one of these days. I should get a TV first though.

    -Jesse

  • SCEI's official press release (Score:4, Informative)

    by Snowy_loves_you ( 606223 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:31AM (#10307112) Homepage Journal

    Here are a official press release [scei.co.jp](pdf) and some images [scei.co.jp] by SCEI [scei.co.jp].

    It comes smaller and slimmer: 900g weight(-55%) and 230x28x152mm size(-77% !!). It also have a new feature, a network interface(100BASE-TX/10BASE-T) as standard.

    And still more, SCEI also announced PS3 will adopt blue-ray disc [scei.co.jp](pdf).

  • Because of /. Effect (Score:2, Informative)

    by Tyndmyr ( 811713 ) *
    PStwo Officially Announced

    This is straight from the news wires, posted minutes ago. We'll have pictures for you shortly.

    Tokyo, September 21, 2004 - Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI), announced today a completely new look for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system (SCPH-70000), which will become available in Japan, North America and Europe for the year-end peak selling season. The new model will be available in stores on November 3rd in Japan, and on November 1st in North America

  • Better feature (Score:4, Interesting)

    by StevenHenderson ( 806391 ) <stevehenderson@NOspam.gmail.com> on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:33AM (#10307134)
    Personally, I think that integrated WiFi would be a better addition, either in addition to or in place of wired networking capabilities. This might make it a system-seller, but I doubt the slated feature set will sell many extras. Most likely just to the parents at Xmas time...

    • Re:Better feature (Score:2, Insightful)

      by wx327 ( 782536 )
      WiFi would only be good as an addition to wired capabilities, not as a substitute. One of my friends attempted to hook up his PS2 to the network using wireless, and had issues with variable signal strength and latency. We had played a few games online before he relocated his router and hard-wired the PS2 (switching the desktop to wireless). Game play was much improved.

      With all the competitive players online, you don't want your network connection to be another relative disadvantage.

  • Development Kit (Score:5, Insightful)

    by alatesystems ( 51331 ) <chris&chrisbenard,net> on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:35AM (#10307145) Homepage Journal
    Sony needs to release a more advanced sdk for game developers. The PS2 isn't even near reaching it's potential and xbox games look SOOO much better simply because the authors can code in c++ and directx, which is what pc programmers have been programming in forever.

    People say "graphics don't make the game" and are correct to a certain degree, but when aliased edges suspend your disbelief, it significantly reduces the amount of fun to be had in a sitting.

    When you can get into the game and totally forget you're playing a game and just have fun in the "virtual world", that is when you know the developer has made a truly awesome game.

    Chris

    • Re:Development Kit (Score:5, Informative)

      by tempmpi ( 233132 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @08:36AM (#10307658)
      A better development kit isn't going to fix that. PS2 developers can code in C++ and a higher level graphic sdk, but that isn't going to get them anywhere near good performance.
      The problem is the very ambitious architecture of the PS2. The GS (graphic synthesizer) got just 4mb of very fast ram. While that enabled Sony to have extremely high theoretical fill rate by embeding the RAM into the GS and connecting it with a 2560-Bit bus, it is also not nearly enough to store all the textures and the framebuffer. That results in the PS2 having to spend a lot of time transfering textures between GS and regular RAM. Because changing out the texture takes a lot of time, you need to order your triangles in a way that minimizes the texture changes, which is a lot of trouble and hurts performance for sure. The PS2 EE (the main CPU) also got just 16kb cache, which is clearly not enough. Memory access to stuff not in the cache is extremely expensive and the Rambus RAM with its high-bandwidth but also high-latency access profile isn't going to help. Because of that a PS2 coder needs to spend a lot of time on optimizing algorithms for ordered local data access and rewriting stuff in assembler to be able to fit the whole routine into the cache.

      A interessting document from Sony about PS2 performance is here: (PDF only sorry)
      http://www.scee.sony.co.uk/sceesite/files/presenta tions/PSP/HowFarHaveWeGot.pdf [sony.co.uk]
      While marketing said 66 million polys/second, even after all these years the fastest real world Sony seems to know about is 125k polys @ 60 Hz, which translates into 7.5 million polys/second while the average recent game seems to do just 3 million polys/s
      Better SDKs aren't able to help here. The problem are hardware limitations. And while the hard-to-optimize-for design will sure enable programmers to squeeze out quite a bit of additional performance, but it will never be able to reach the real-world performance of XBox and Gamecube.
      And Sony even has better DevKits now, but as you can see their feature isn't C++ or something similiar to DirectX but instead tools to analyse how the cpus is stalled by cache misses etc.
      Imho the PS2 is similiar in design to the first Pentium 4, ambitious, marketing-driven design with very high theoretical peak performance but low real world performance.
      BTW: Gamecubes marketing is exactly the opposite, Nintendo claimed 7-12 million polys/second while one of their launch games 'Rogue Leader' was pushing 15 million polys/second in some scenes.

  • Xbox? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by attam ( 806532 )
    If MS were to somehow make the xbox 75% smaller, it could be about 10x more appealing. Not to mention the fact that it would make a much sexier set top box. Considering that they are already losing the big bucks on every console, it's not likely to happen though. *sigh*
    • Actually miniturisation usually reduces costs. Especially PCB manafacturing costs. As i believe all the Xbox components are Surface mount anyway, it probably wouldnt reduce costs to any significant degree.

      They are probably also hampered by the fact that its basically a PC, and has a PC's cooling requirements.

  • Shrink the fan noise, not just the size! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Lispy ( 136512 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:37AM (#10307153) Homepage
    The one thing that really bothers me with the original PS2 is its noisy fan. If you play for a few hours or watch a movie on the DVD-player it really is annoying.

    Are those new ones just as loud or did they improve the cooling?
  • For someone who's never seen a PlayStation before, what does it mean that no adapter's required this time? What did the Ethernet port on the last model look like, and why did it require an adapter?

    --A PS noob.
    • The original Playstation 2 did not have an ethernet port, therefore consumers were required to buy an add-on adapter to enable online support.
    • The ethernet adapter (and modem, in that case) was about $50 when it first came out. You plugged it in to the back of your PS2 and you could play online games. There was also a company (I forget the name) that sold a CD that would boot the PS2 and enable it to stream digital media from your computer to the PS2. Pretty much like what Xbox Media Player does but you don't need a mod-chip for the PS2 because it was commercial software.

      This unit has the ethernet (but no modem) built in, which is what should ha

    • Originally, you needed an adaptor that attached to the back of the system to access the internet on your PS2. A year or two back Sony started bundling this with the console for $20 more (the adaptor by itself cost $40). The PStwo has a port integrated into the system, no adaptor required.
  • Now seriously. Why not throw in wireless support? Maybe they have and it wasn't mentioned in the /. article (I haven't RTFA yet). But this is really surprising to me. I suppose I could spend $70 and get one of these [bestbuy.com] but that just bites. Why Sony? Why?

    • Re:Where's The WiFi? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by slim ( 1652 )
      Now seriously. Why not throw in wireless support? Maybe they have and it wasn't mentioned in the /. article (I haven't RTFA yet). But this is really surprising to me.

      Maybe because Sony would have to field phone helpline calls about WEP and SSIDs, and need to know the ins and outs of every Access Point that's ever been on the market.

      Support is expensive, and to reduce that cost you need to narrow down exactly what you support to as small a set as possible.

      Xbox Live! has a similar policy on wireless. "It

  • CONTEXT PEOPLE! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Fr05t ( 69968 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:47AM (#10307230)
    To the 50 - "blah blah blah how will they make 120 new games in 3 months, blah blah blah".

    Here is a copy of the offical press release: http://www.gamegossip.com/pressrelease.php?id=9959

    And if you don't want to RTFA:

    "During the year-end peak-selling season about 80 online game titles are expected to be available in Japan, with 120 titles and 65 titles respectively in North America and Europe. With the launch of the new network-ready(*2) PlayStation 2, the company expects to continually expand the world of online gaming in this generation."

    I almost prefer people just copying other peoples work when submitting a story to reading something out of context and passing it along to the masses.

    • > with 120 titles and 65 titles respectively in North America and Europe

      As usual, Europe gets the short end of the stick with the videogames. Don't think I'm going to buy one of their consoles, I'll stick to my general-purpose PC without region specific shit, thanks.
      • PAL is partly to blame - different frame rate, different framebuffer size (using more video ram). As a PS2 developer, doing a PAL port is a headache i'd rather not think about.

  • The real reason for the new PStwo (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bludstone ( 103539 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:48AM (#10307246)
    Has nothing to do with style, selling more consoles, or getting more people online.

    Its because Sony figured out a way they could make more PS2s, cheaper, by changing the design... and probably get more cash per-sale for the units.

    This is the same reason for the PS1.

    This isnt necessarily a bad thing. I rather like the new PStwo (just as i really like the PSone) but dont go fooling yourself on the reason why. Its a cost-benifit analysis. Thats all.
  • Can anyone tell me if the PStwo can, with additional software/hardware, be used as a streaming media receiver? As small as it is, I would like to be able to use it to stream music and video over my home network, as I've been doing with my modded Xbox. The Xbox worked great, but its cooling fans were kind of noisy, the case is kind of clunky and awkward, and now it also just happens to be broken.
    • There are a few coding houses out there that have bootable apps on disc. Can't think of them off the top of my head.

      The issue here is that there is no room for the HDD (so FFXI and RE: Outbreak players are stuck with old-school PS2 model, I guess). So, unless you are just going to stream with no chance of local caching (not that I've heard of any of these apps caching things to the HDD), I really don't think it's going to be a strong media center. But it should handle lower-bandwidth-type stuff (music

    • Check out http://www.broadq.com/qcast2.htm

      Supports MP3, Ogg Vorbis, AC3, MPEG-1/2/4, Divx 3,4,5 OGM and more...
      • I'm using the Qcast Media Player (actually now marketed and sold as the GameShark Media Player). I can tell you that it's a great little app. It plays back just about everything wonderfully. It has a little trouble with XVID encoded AVI files - the video tends to freeze - I think there's too much info coming down the pipe and the buffer is getting overrun. I use it as a simple TIVO - watching MPGs mostly- of TV shows I download using Bit Torrent. It is nice getting the HD broadcasts of some shows becaus

  • No firewire/i.link/1394/blahblah? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jcostantino ( 585892 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @08:02AM (#10307377) Homepage
    I was looking over the pictures on Sony's page and there is a conspicuous lack of firewire on the new (and old) unit. Why did sony ditch firewire? I'll admit that *I* never used it the entire time I had my PS2 and IIRC, it was supposed to be used for multiplayer gaming, right?

    Anyone care to enlighten me?

    • Sony ditched FW about 18 months ago. If you go into a store today, tear open an old-school PS2 box, you will see:

      1) no FireWire; 2) a built-in IR receiver for the DVD remote; 3) progressive scan capabilities (okay, maybe you won't see that).

  • Look at the press release. Or the pictures. At no point does they use anything other than the PS2 logo or PlayStation 2.

    People are going to call it the PStwo informally, but technically it's still the PS2, or perhaps the mini-PS2, or techincally the PlayStation 2 (SCPH-70000).

    In other news, I notice the US model has a modem as well as the ethernet adaptor (PAL models don't, we've never had a modem), which seems a bit of a waste.

    I wonder if Final Fantasy XI is comming out in Europe on PS2 either, the a

    • [1] Oi, they should enable strikeout tags, it has endless comic potential. ;-)

      *Real* geeks use ^H
      • Just becuase I'm a Mac user you get all "you're not a real geek". I mean, just because those command pipe thingies confuse me, and Xintrinsic.conf.ppp.x11.linux files are inpenitrable doesn't make my less of a geek does it? All you people on the World Wide Web, I mean people complained about Outlook quoting wrong or something on newsgroups. I wish my coffee holder hadn't broken...

        (I'm not that bad really (I do know how to use a command line, but I do find Linux seemingley impossible to configure, which is

  • PSone prompted by PS2 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @08:03AM (#10307386) Journal
    I have heard from many sources that Sony released the slimmed down PSone because they had created a new chipset to allow the PS1 hardware to be integrated into the PS2 for backwards compatibility. Thus it made sense to package it as the small, inexpensive, stand-alone PSone to help revive that older market.

    I wouldn't be surprised if this new PStwo stems from the exact same type of technology - a redesigned (aka smaller) PS2 chipset designed for integration into the future PS3.

    Dan East
    • I have heard from many sources that Sony released the slimmed down PSone because they had created a new chipset to allow the PS1 hardware to be integrated into the PS2 for backwards compatibility. Thus it made sense to package it as the small, inexpensive, stand-alone PSone to help revive that older market.

      I wouldn't be surprised if this new PStwo stems from the exact same type of technology - a redesigned (aka smaller) PS2 chipset designed for integration into the future PS3.

      That's quite a logical leap.
    • From this Slashdot article: [slashdot.org]
      They will also be using the PS2 chips in TVs- and the original was waay to bulky.
  • I mean, I'm really excited that a product like this can last for as long as it has, but it's a good number of years old now. Why re-release newly packaged old hardware so late in the game? Are they really going to sell enough of them to make up for the expense of at least having to redesign the packaging of the thing, not to mention the tooling to construct it in the factories where they're made / assembled? I guess I just don't understand the _why_.

    Can anybody clue me in?

    -Jesse
    • One simple explanation: Sony is still selling brand-new PSones as we speak. I think a new one can be had for under $40. Nice price for a college student or a grade school kid running a newspaper route. You can still buy the latest big name EA games for the PSone (yes, it is still being coded for).

      Sony expects to follow that success with the "PStwo" and has already said that their PS2 timeline goes up to 2008 or beyond.

  • ... it won't play resident evil 4 [gamerankings.com], so who cares anyway?

  • Ethernet port (no adapter required). Sony also says that there will be 120 new Playstation 2 games with online compatibility by the end of the year. That equates to thirty games per month or about one game per day for the rest of 2004.



    Or, 120 games on Dec. 20th, ready for the xmas season.

  • I like it, it's really tiny. If it plays DVDs, I might opt for it to reduce space consumption in the living room, plus the odd PS1 and PS2 game I might fancy playing.
  • Looks like it'd be pretty hard to mod this PS2 design.

  • This product is doomed. (Score:5, Funny)

    by peeping_Thomist ( 66678 ) * on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @09:13AM (#10307996)
    Do they seriously expect to be able to compete against Infinium Labs' Phantom [phantom.net]? Good luck!

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