When
I first heard the
word "PlayStation"
way back in 1994,
my first though was
of a Fisher Price
Kids Toy and I promptly
bought a Sega Saturn.
Looking back on it
now I obviously made
the wrong choice (one
which was corrected
a few years later)
as the Sony PlayStation
quickly established
itself as the number
one choice for both
developers and the
gaming public alike.
Bringing
the "geeky"
pursuit of video gaming
to the mass market
is something that
will always be attributed
to Sony and the master
minds who thought
up the endless barrage
of PlayStation adverts
over the years. Sony
was king and everyone
was looking forward
to the announcement
of the PlayStation
2.
However,
unlike its elder brother,
the PS2 is just a
big mess up, at least
so far. Although they
managed to ship some
1 million units of
the console on its
Japanese launch, sales
of software for the
system have been lackluster
and rightly so. There
hasn't been a single
noteworthy release
for the system to
date - its relying
on a diet of sequels
and well trodden genres.
There is just no originality,
when the PlayStation
was first released
it had loads of original
games, but slowly
they all turned into
"FIFA Version
2 Billion" and
"Tomb Raider
- Lara's More Curvier
This Time Boys!".
Sooner
or later the public
just wont accept this
same thing over and
over again and this
is one of the many
reasons behind the
PS2's failing. Of
course it is still
outselling everything
except the Gameboy
Colour in its homeland
but basically most
people seem to using
it as a DVD player
than anything else.
The original shipment
of the console had
a bug which even allowed
you to record out
via the RGB port to
VCR, something which
isn't possible on
a standard DVD player
- the thought of being
able to knock out
a few dozen pirated
copies of a DVD film
(which are more often
that not released
much earlier than
their VHS cousins)
to video and the selling
them on, no doubt
made a few people
rush out and buy the
system before Sony
fixed the mistake.
That
may seem like a small
oversight on the part
of Sony but it has
been the start of
a series of cock-ups
which have blighted
the system since launch.
One of the most constantly
voiced complaints
from developers is
that the system is
just too hard to code
for - a complaint
which also floored
the Sega Saturn. However,
if enough people buy
the console then developers
will be forced to
get to grips with
the PS2's idiosyncrasies
and the games will
obviously improve.
Aside from that, it
has also been muted
that although the
console can push a
hell of a lot of polygons,
it doesn't have enough
video memory in order
to texture them all
- so although the
console is obviously
superior to Dreamcast
the games will never
look much better.
This seems the most
stupid mistake on
Sony's part, surely
it should have made
sure that the console
would have been able
to texture all the
polygons? Ah well,
too bad, I guess.
Sega
took the commendable
decision to include
a built in modem with
the Dreamcast (although
they shipped a crummy
33.3K modem in Europe),
online gaming is the
future and it was
a sensible decision.
Sony, however thought
it would be a good
idea to leave a modem
out of the PS2, citing
the fact that they
were waiting for broadband
to arrive before releasing
a solution. This has
a certain logic, since
online games are limited
by bandwidth, but
games like Worms have
shown that a proper
online gaming experience
is possible with current
technology. Mass market
penetration of broadband
is still years off
- in the UK you still
can't get ASDL and
it will be a few years
before the entire
country is even ready
for the service to
be rolled out.
By
leaving the modem
out, Sony has cut
off a potentially
lucrative market -
everybody knows console
add-ons just don't
work: Mega CD, 32X,
Superscope, the PlayStation
CD-ROM drive for the
Super Nintendo. Even
if they renegade on
the waiting for broadband
statement (which they
appear to be doing
at the moment), the
buy separately modem
is never going to
work. No one will
buy it, and developers
will not bother including
support for it because
of this fact. This
goes for the recently
unveiled hard drive
for the system too,
no doubt hastily cobbled
together to meet the
X-Box threat - if
it ain't in the box
when you buy it, it's
going to be a flop.
Maybe Sony should
look at the mess Sega
made or there may
never be a PlayStation3.
Apparently,
there is even going
to be a shortage of
units for the Western
release - now considering
that Sony have had
almost a year to prepare
for the systems launch
outside Japan, they
should have at least
made sure they could
meet demand. There
are going to be lots
of pissed off people
come this September
and particularly Christmas
and who's to say they
won't just go buy
something else? (I
recommend a nice DVD
player by the way).
Sony
is skating on thin
ice, the shambolic
internal design, the
questionable external
appearance, pathetic
release schedule,
stupid add-ons and
hardware shortages.
It could still succeed,
no small thanks down
to the good reputation
of the original PlayStation
and the brand that
has build up around
it. However, there
could easily be a
new console king and
it ain't going to
be Sega or Nintendo...
//agi.
[agi@fsmail.net]