Nintendo’s forthcoming GameCube almost directly contrasts Sony’s PlayStation2, the “computer entertainment system” that has been on the market for a full year. Unlike the Cube’s powerfluff dedication to the video-game experience, Sony has expanded its target market to include the home electronics’ consumer, perhaps forgoing its core audience in the process.
Picking up where Sega’s Master System (1986) and then Sega Genesis (1989) consoles left off (after irreparably breaking Nintendo’s lock on the market), Sony’s original PlayStation (1995) broke video gaming wide open, took the world by storm and clearly defined the video game player as hip, digitally stimulated and commonly in the 18-to-35-year old demographic. Sony promised to surpass that industry-defining performance with the PS2, intimating a reinvention of the wheel, but delivered instead a mere “next gen” video game console that also happened to mimic an entry level DVD player – and had no “computer entertainment” features otherwise.
Coasting through its first year on hype and spin alone, Sony recently cranked up the marketing-machine and is well prepared for a three-console battle, announcing enough “computer entertainment” peripherals and add-ons to choke a small Gateway PC. More significantly, for the loyal fans thus far waxing ecstatic about its mediocre game library, there’s a veritable slew of killer-calibre game titles coming to the PS2 as well.
PlayStation2 Pros:
Sony took the nerdiness out of video gaming and made it cool (and lucrative) with the first iteration of PlayStation, a console found today in more than 80 million homes around the world. Couple that fact with a tremendous amount of “next gen” hype and spin and you’ve got a gaming console that claims slightly more than it delivers but still sells frightfully well based on brand loyalty alone. (Put a marketing-magician’s spin on the production fiasco and you’ve got “overwhelming demand”.)
PlayStation2 is “backward compatible”, which means it will also play all of the old PSX games – most of them glitch-free – making the PS2 as much a routine “upgrade” for 80 million PSX owners as a new product purchase with a vast library of (dated) content.
At long last, games’ designers are more-or-less familiar with the PS2’s programming quirks and conundrums. There’s a new slew of high-quality games for PS2 that firmly establish the unit as a genuine supersystem.
Moreover, there are currently several blockbuster games exclusive to PS2 (for example, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec) plus anticipated chartbusters (Metal Gear Solid 2 and Final Fantasy X) which essentially guarantee voluminous system sales just for play of these singular “killer app” games.
Though nothing has been stated officially to press time, Sony is expected to drop the price of the P2S (as they did in Japan) to compete with the more powerful Xbox and the lower-priced GameCube. Alternately, Sony may keep the price fixed at US$300 but bundle the unit with extras like a hard drive and modem/Ethernet Adapter. Or, they may offer a “basic” and “fully loaded” bundle at different prices. Regardless, Sony is not expected to remain idle while Xbox and GameCube thunder through the holidays!
Strategic alliances with Sun Microsystems’ JAVA platform, Macromedia Flash, Netscape, AOL and Cisco Systems – which will enable online multiplayer gaming, web-surfing, streaming and interactive multimedia, email and Instant Messaging functions – truly fulfills the PS2’s “computer entertainment system” appellation.
PlayStation2 Cons:
Seemingly oblivious to the fact that a generic Personal Computer of similar capacity could actually cost less and do more than a fully loaded PS2, Sony’s bravado is wearing thin. The PS2 as a consumer product is losing focus; its multi-functionality is rolling out in fits and starts, piece by piece, not as a unified bundle with an unambiguous purpose. Besides, they forgot to add a Word Processor.
Traditionally, only a small percentage of consumers purchase add-ons for their products. Peripheral appendages (and the additional costs) are known to confuse potential buyers looking for a full-functioning unit “out of the box”. As it follows, developers are reluctant to incorporate peripheral compatibility into game design because there’s no money in it, detracting, again, from the viability of the peripheral(s) in the first place.
Many game designers are (still) unenthusiastic about writing for the PlayStation2. While the end result can be fantastic, the amount of manpower involved in learning how to create a great PS2 game seriously detracts from the time spent creating the game itself. Sony continues to deny this openly lamented foible like a naked Emperor, but even their key developers have admitted a preference for Xbox and GameCube, more powerful, designer-friendly consoles clearly focused on the video game experience.
Sony should downplay the fact that there are more than 200 new PS2 games coming out this year and emphasize, instead, the odd-dozen that are actually great.
Ignore the promise of peripherals and drop the mention of the entry-level DVD movie player function on this “Computer Entertainment System” and you have a rock-solid, world-famous, high-calibre video game machine. Otherwise: smells like Betamax. Bring on the PlayStation3.
Conclusion:
Sony has done many great things for the video-game industry; it brought it to the mainstream; it made a lot of gamers happy and, presumably, several executives rich. But these days, the sense of panic smouldering under a high-gloss coat of arrogance seems almost palpable. Sony righteously claims the #1 position in the video game business – not a difficult task considering it’s currently the only company with a product on store shelves. Soon we may very well see Sony claiming #1 status in a new business venture; the business of “Ball Dropping”.
Score:
Very good but ultimately disappointing.
7/10
