Sony Corp. has tried to stall rival Sega's booming Dreamcast sales by releasing more details of its highly anticipated PlayStation 2 entertainment console. With the announcement of details such as DVD-Video and CD audio support and backwards compatibility with original Playstation games, it's a system Sony is hoping consumers will think is worth waiting another year for.
The Japanese consumer electronics giant confirmed its technology-packed device will hit the shelves in Japan in six months, on March 4, at a price of 39,800 yen (around $572) -- the same price the original PlayStation sold for more than four years ago. Sony also revealed that the PlayStation 2 had 85 software partners in Japan and 46 in the United States.
Curiously, Monday's release by Sony is wedged between last Thursday's launch of Dreamcast and next week's Tokyo Game Show, the expected venue for PlayStation 2 announcements.
Encased in a black box that looks more like a conventional CD player than most existing games consoles, the Playstation 2 has been styled to fit alongside other home entertainment equipment such as video players and hi-fi units.
Featuring DVD-video and CD audio support, backwards compatibility with original PlayStation games and Internet access, the console is being positioned as a next-generation home entertainment unit.
Unlike the Dreamcast, the PlayStation2 will not come with an in-built modem, instead featuring a port to allow connection to conventional, cable or satellite modems. Using the modem connection, PlayStation2 owners will be able to play online games, access the Internet and download new games through Sony's planned e-distribution network.
While the system features 8MB memory cards, Sony also plans to launch PlayStation2 hard drives, allowing users to download more features and games for their system.
A million in two days
Some doubt that Sony can quadruple that number in the week after its March 4 launch in Japan. "I don't know if (Sony can hit a million) in that quick of a time. The price is still pretty high," said Eric Lampel, project director for consumer market watcher The NPD Group, who thought that the PlayStation will most likely retail for twice the price of Sega's just-released Dreamcast device.
"What this really shows is that Sega and Sony are going in two different directions," said Charles Bellfield, director of marketing for Sega of America Inc. "They want to be the all-in-one entertainment device. We are all about bringing the consumer in the arcade quality to the here and now."
Sony argued that their system does everything the Sega system does and much more. "Being half our price is indicative of the fact that they are less than half our technology," said Phil Harrison, vice president of research and development and third-party relations for SCE in the US. "This delivers a future proof element to our technology. It is many years ahead of its time."
Instant success?
"For the PlayStation 2, some companies have a programming staff of 12 just to develop a game," said Greg Rizzer, spokesman for game publisher Eidos Interactive plc.'s console development team, who contrasted that to Sega's Dreamcast. "Its ability to port games to the PC is amazing. You can take a title today and have it ported to the Dreamcast," he said.
Eidos has already announced it will release Fighting Force 2 for the Dreamcast, but would not release any details about its PlayStation 2 plans.
"(The PlayStation 2) is unbelievably complex," agreed another developer, who asked to remain anonymous. Still, Sony's popularity and the PlayStation 2's high technology won his company over.
"We think the window of opportunity (to develop a game for the Dreamcast) is a year. We think that is too short for us to do a good game," he said.
Tools on the way
"Over 1,000 development systems will be sent to developers in the North American market in the next few weeks," said Sony's Harrison. Each system will set software houses back a cool US$20,000.
As part of the effort, Sony has launched an initiative to help developers. Borrowing a page from Microsoft's book, the consumer electronics giant is encouraging others to create toolkits -- or middleware, in developer parlance -- that can be plugged into software to take over certain functions.
Need real-life physics for a flight simulation? Buy the middleware. Need artificial intelligence for certain game characters? Buy the middleware. "It's not about making development quicker or cheaper," said Harrison. "It's to let developers get a hold of well-evolved technology. When a movie director goes out and creates a movie, they don't make a Panavision camera from the ground up. The middleware is the same thing."
Between those software tools and the new workstations, Harrison hopes to not only get U.S. developers ready for a release a year from now, but to retrain them to produce a whole new class of software.
"If we want to change the way people play, we have to change the way developers create the software," he said.
'Being half our price is indicative of the fact that they [Sega's Dreamcast] are less than half our technology'
-- Phil Harrison, Sony
Sony execs expected to ship 1 million units in the first week and believe that even that many will not satisfy initial demand.
Yet, that advanced technology comes at a price for software developers.
Developers don't have a great deal of time to develop for PlayStation 2, either. Development systems have just begun to be shipped to companies in the United States.
