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- Bill Loguidice
- clok1966
Is Sony creating a Wii-clone with the old Playstation 2?
Rumor has it that Sony wants to reposition its PS2 on the market by making some sort of Wii-like system out of it by fitting the system with a new Wii-like motion sensitive controller. All this is supposed to be happening by Christmas 2007.
This rumor is to be found in the latest issue of 'Electronic Gaming Monthly'. I for one was laughing out loud and someone has even gone as far as to create a very convincing Sony Wii-like controller mock-up! Too crazy to be true? Well indeed, it seems that Sony has responded by stating that this rumor is not true! Thank god the PS2 can remain a PS2 and Nintendo will remain innovative and won't have to file a big lawsuit against Sony for blatantly ripping off their Wii-controller technology. Here is a nice thread on Wired discussing this rumor.
What is surprising is the fact that the PS2 does seem to be still going strong. Sony would be rather stupid to drop support of the PS2 range, a whole market is still out there. As a console like the PS2 ages, developers are able to get a real feel for the machine and squeeze out more than the 1st generation of games. So the whole rumor about Sony milking the PS2 a bit more by introducing a Wii-like control scheme might in fact not be such a bad idea - from an investment in existing user-base point of view - as the PS3 seems to fail to become the true successor of the PS2 that Sony intends it to be. A large part is of course the pricing - which at 599 euros is very high for a console. As a blue-ray video player it is a good buy though compared to the other players out there on the market. For the rest it's the games - I have yet to come across the killer-app for the PS3 and I will not be buying one in the foreseeable future.
But buying a Wii over here in the Netherlands still is not possible - as there are no units in the stores - more than 6 months after its official release over here - how's that for wierd marketing/distribution ideas!!!!?
Addition on monday juli 2nd 'hold on' Nintendo Wii's are stacked high on Media Market Stores across the Netherlands as of June 30th 2007 Wow finally, more than half a year after the official Dutch release it is obtainable in a store. Cool! Err... but now the peripherals and games seem to be missing from the store........ Ouch...
Comments
Indeed, I'm one who has thought about picking up a PS2 if I could find one cheap enough. Truth is, there are many, many games for it out there that I'd like to play. Perhaps it will become goldmine for bargain hunters like the Dreamcast did. However, I was disappointed with the PS1. I picked one up three or so years ago and never was able to build up a good library for it. Even "bargain bins" tended to price their games too high. I think the backwards compatibility kept the bottom from falling out for these older games.
I also don't get the appeal of the Blu-Ray player. I've heard many times that it's a good reason to buy a PS3, but--well, I just don't see many Blu-Ray disks for sale anywhere. Besides that, I'm definitely not in a position to start replacing my DVD collection with Blu-Ray. Heck, most of my favorite movies were hard enough to find on DVD, much less BR. My guess is the only movies you will be able to find are the latest Hollywood blockbusters, and I really couldn't care less about 99% of them.
Indeed, I'm one who has thought about picking up a PS2 if I could find one cheap enough. Truth is, there are many, many games for it out there that I'd like to play. Perhaps it will become goldmine for bargain hunters like the Dreamcast did. However, I was disappointed with the PS1. I picked one up three or so years ago and never was able to build up a good library for it. Even "bargain bins" tended to price their games too high. I think the backwards compatibility kept the bottom from falling out for these older games.
I also don't get the appeal of the Blu-Ray player. I've heard many times that it's a good reason to buy a PS3, but--well, I just don't see many Blu-Ray disks for sale anywhere. Besides that, I'm definitely not in a position to start replacing my DVD collection with Blu-Ray. Heck, most of my favorite movies were hard enough to find on DVD, much less BR. My guess is the only movies you will be able to find are the latest Hollywood blockbusters, and I really couldn't care less about 99% of them.
The slimline PS2 is quite attractive, but I personally have an original style PS2 with internal network adapter and aftermarket hard drive. I also have HD Loader, which allows me to transfer many of my PS2 games to play directly from the hard drive. Very convenient. If you were to get a PS2, I'd highly recommend going for a used or refurbed original model. While I still favor the Xbox over all other consoles of that generation (since it generally had the best versions of the multi-system games), it's undeniable that the PS2 has by the far the biggest and most diverse software library, and by far the biggest range of bargains.
Unlike when I was an early adopter with the DVD format over VHS (I got one of the first players back in 1997 and immediately stopped purchasing tapes), there is not a clear advantage with the hi-def optical disc formats over the standard def DVD's. Yes, you get better picture quality and sometimes better sound, but you also need the optimal setup to get the most from it and there really aren't any other major advantages (they're both on a small disc, they're both random access, they both have extra features, etc.). In my opinion, unless the movie would absolutely benefit from a true hi-def bump (rather than an upscale of the regular disc, which those players also offer), there's NO REASON to replace your DVD collection. After buying a Blu Ray or HD-DVD player, I would simply buy whatever new came out in the new format. Again, simply put, unlike with DVD over VHS, hi-def discs don't immediately make standard DVD's obsolete. It's an entirely different scenario. On a similar note, it's been announced that combo HD-DVD/Blu Ray discs (one format on each side) have been pushed back until next year. Not good. The fact that we still have two very incompatible formats is not good for overall adoption. We either need players that can play both formats or the discs need to be dual format.
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
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I have a decent sized DVD collection, to put it mildly, and am not ready to jump onto the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray bandwagon. With the recent LCD HDTV I purchased, I managed to get a standard DVD player that upconverts the image to 1080i via an HDMI cable and have been quite impressed with the sharpness of the image from regular DVD-- of course if a DVD looks grainy on a regular TV, it tends to look more so on a HDTV.
I'll admit not to have seen a demo in-person of DVD VS either of the High-Def format, but I understand the difference isn't as big of a leap as DVD was over VHS.
I have a decent sized DVD collection, to put it mildly, and am not ready to jump onto the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray bandwagon. With the recent LCD HDTV I purchased, I managed to get a standard DVD player that upconverts the image to 1080i via an HDMI cable and have been quite impressed with the sharpness of the image from regular DVD-- of course if a DVD looks grainy on a regular TV, it tends to look more so on a HDTV.
Hm, that does sound interesting. I know I feel like I miss out with my old-skool Sears TV. I can watch DVDs on my iMac, but the screen is not really as large as I'd like. Ah, I keep fantasizing about those 24" Dell UltraSharps. One day!!!
One problem I might have is that I tend to watch mostly older movies and TV shows. I guess they'll probably start offering Blu-Ray versions of some of them, but without the right TV, it'd be lost on me.
You know, it really seems like that you need a $1,000+ TV to really get the most out of this gen of consoles. It seems almost an abuse to hook a 360 or PS3 up to something other than an LCD or plasma screen.
I was over at mr custard the other day and he demonstrated his brand new ps3 machine. I was demoed the blueray movie on 911 and that was just amazing. The amount of detail visible on screen made it all the more chilling through some sort of enhanced feeling of reality.
At the risk of sounding absolutely bonkers but with 1.6 vision in both eyes high def movies will have my preference in the future. But the majority of people have 1.0 vision or have poor eyesight or don't have high-def tv's yet. But I too have yet to buy a high def player and when I do I will NOT be replacing my existing dvd collection as a dvd is still of very enjoyable quality on my high def tv. Perfect for most material out there. Heck, on dvd sloppy filming or old special effects are sometimes painfully visible I don't want to see even more of that on a high-def disc which will be relentless in that respect.
I agree that only for people with good retinas and a hd tv today it is worth to get hd disks of newly produced material.
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Mark Vergeer - Editor / Pixelator
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Xboxlive gametag
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and an affordable player of course! :-)
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Mark Vergeer - Editor / Pixelator
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Xboxlive gametag
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I think my eyesight is pretty good with glasses, and of course I'd like to have the added resolution even if I couldn't make out the tiniest detail. However, I'm definitely going to be a late adopter of this stuff, even if it manages to take off. I took a very long time to switch to DVD as well--in fact, I haven't ever bought a DVD player. We won our current el cheapo DVD player in a raffle! Of course, now I can watch DVDs on the various PCs.
I'm wondering too if games have reached a state where having the extra storage space is really that helpful. Does anyone need that much removable storage? Seems like between online options and built-in hard drives, there's much less of a pressing need for juggernaut removable storage options.
On the PS3 some games need to be installed onto the hard drive, but you still need the game disc to play! This very very much reminds me of PC game glory. So that is where the extra storage on the PS3 might be used for - simple disc caching so you can have the same data in your house twice. Once on blue ray and once on the ps3 hard drive. Now that is handy ;) In the US the extra storage can at least be used for VIDEO!
In Europe we have no real need for the bigger hard drive for film-media content, neither on PS3 nor on xbox360. We have no real use for a wonderful tool like AppleTV as most of the digital media content is very much not available outside of the US apart from music! The PS3 store, Xbox marketplace and the Applestore are devoid of interesting video - very much like the empty shelves in the former East Block countries prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall. TV shows that we are able to watch on our TVs we cannot buy and obtain digitally from these online stores, which might enable us to to finally watch a COMPLETE series in the PROPER ORDER for a change - without being interrupted by commercials every 15 minutes. But hey at least music seems to be moving across the globe without so much hindrance but moving pictures seem to be rather difficult when it comes to marketing/copyright etc!
So the European market will actually have no real use for this extra storage on consoles or the AppleTV other than caching/installing the odd game, housing an ever expanding live arcade game collection or streaming your mp3/mp4 coded cd-rips/applestore music.
Now what I find rather amazing is the fact that Apple is actually offering the AppleTV in Europe, it's out there in the stores but you can only use of for internet radio and streaming your own mp3/mp4 music well I see no need to hook it up to a telly for that! Wierd marketing scheme that is. Now I am not surprised if the AppleTV is going to be less than popular in Europe, but perhaps as a cheap hackable (Hackintosh) mini PC using VLC it might still be interesting for the technically versatile amongst the European population. So that it can at least stream ripped DVD's and divx movies across to your telly so it still has some real use.
I think a lot of European customers will be more than willing to pay what the Americans are paying for their TV series and digital content on PS3, Xbox360 and the apple store. But as things are now it's easier to Hack your AppleTV and download ripped/divx'ed TV series from a torrent site or from Usenet.
Now that is a European-rant!
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Mark Vergeer - Editor / Pixelator
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Xboxlive gametag
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Well I got myself a Wii with Zelda today, about time. ;-)
typing this on Wii btw
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Mark Vergeer - Editor / Pixelator
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Xboxlive gametag
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i think the more mature market will still continue playing with ps because of games like halo. however, the upbeat ones, which i think is the bigger slice of the pie, will find the nintendo wii more suited for them.
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