Although Sony will start selling network adapters to allow PlayStation 2 (PS2) users to tap into existing Internet connections on Tuesday in the US, the launch will not be mirrored in Australia. Sony spokesperson Anne Carol told ZDNet Australia the adapters would be released in Australia, but would not specify their local release date.
-We're still working on broadband, but we don't have a date yet," said Carol. -All the plans are being put in place behind the scenes." This follows news that Australia is unlikely to participate in the November launch of Xbox Live.
According to Carol, the Sony PlayStation market is divided into three regions: Japan, America, and PAL. The PAL region is named after the TV system used, and includes Europe, Australia, South Africa and the Middle East.
-The US is one country and one language, Japan is one country and one language," said Carol. -PAL is 120 countries and God knows how many different languages and broadband systems."
The release of network adapters into the PAL market is likely to be staggered, according to Carol, but she could not confirm when the 420,000 Australian PS2 owners could expect to buy one.
Sony is keeping initial expectations modest for PS2 online gaming, expecting to ship a total of 500,000 network adapters to a worldwide audience of more than 30 million PS2 owners by the end of the year. Sony executives, game publishers and analysts all anticipate several years of experimentation as the industry looks for online gaming approaches that will resonate with consumers. While analysts see annual revenue from online gaming reaching $1.8 billion by 2005, consoles will account for a small fraction of that, with subscription-based PC games such as "EverQuest" dominating into the near future.
The financial challenge posed by online gaming is likely to be one of the biggest hurdles. Unlike Microsoft's Xbox Live service for its game console--under which the software giant will maintain all network infrastructure and collect subscription fees--Sony is leaving the details to game publishers.
Individual publishers will be responsible for maintaining the resources to put their games online, and--at least for now--they'll be doing it for free. The 15 or so PS2 titles expected to go online by the end of the year all will offer Internet play as a free add-on to traditional single-player games.
Sierra has taken one of the most innovative infrastructure approaches with "Tribes Aerial Assault," the upcoming PS2 version of its popular PC shooting game. The game utilizes the PS2's modest processing power to turn the machine into a mini-server, capable of hosting up to 15 other players.
"The PS2 handles that kind of server load really quite well," said producer Chris Mahnken. "If we had made the original decision to make it a 64-player game, the PS2 probably wouldn't have had the power to handle that. But 16 players is well within the hardware."
Sony won't directly profit from online gaming, either. The company is waiving royalties for any paid online services that eventually emerge for the PS2. Aside from games it publishes, Sony's financial payoff for online gaming is largely limited to any extra hardware sales such gaming inspires.
It'd be good if the writer got the facts right. Sony has estimated 500,000 units for the US market only - not globally. He also fails to mention that the online adaptor has already been released in Japan.
See link below:
http://ps2.ign.com/articles/367/367846p1.html