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Games Entertainment

US PlayStation 2 To Have A Modem & Hard Drive? 198

Posted by Hemos from the beating-the-giant-to-the-punch dept.
rit writes, "It looks like Sony is trying to beat Microsoft to the punch with the Playstation 2 - according to this article at CNet, they have announced plans to release the U.S. Version of the Playstation 2 with a modem and a hard drive. No details on modem speed or hard drive, but we can assume it will be at least up to par or close to what Microsoft plans to offer with the X-Box; giving Sony a one-year head start on Microsoft for gaining a stronger foothold in the gaming market. Now if only they'd ship it with an ethernet card... "
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US PlayStation 2 To Have A Modem & Hard Drive? More

US PlayStation 2 To Have A Modem & Hard Drive?

Comments Filter:
  • What am I going to do with a modem in a house
    with no phone line? (But full ethernet connectivity)

  • Colecovision (Score:3)

    by cricklewood ( 153707 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @06:23AM (#1132013) Homepage
    Now, they just have to add a keyboard and a tape drive and they would have the Colecovision 2000.

  • Dreamcast already has this now. Does anyone know how useful this is? Can you really surf the Internet or play online games?

    But of course, if you are going to surf the Internet, I'm sure that the first thing you are going to go to is the "JenniCam", since it is such a fixture of the Internet.

  • Microsoft will probably only release anything decent after the fifth version, and by the time it does, it probably only be as good as PS1, but seriously, Microsoft *is* going to flop with this very much in the same way that they flop in every single field that they go into in which they know nothing about, **unless**, they buy into someone, and judging by Sega and Nintendo's poor showing, I wouldn't be that surprised.

  • hey (Score:1)

    by blinko ( 97812 )
    sony is a giant too

    --
  • At last the console manufacturers seem to be catching onto the idea of online gaming. Everyone and their online dog know the future is broadband so it's not difficult to see how Sony can exploit this with their Playstation. Welcome news indeed - let's just hope someone can produce some decent games.

  • Now I'm getting pissed. (Score:3)

    by jued0001 ( 95852 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @06:24AM (#1132018)
    I thought that the PS2 (as is) was supposed to be capable of handling anything Micro$oft would be creating. The Emotion Engine would slaughter the competition, hands down, and I wouldn't have to worry about what choice to make. Now they're going to throw a modem and a HD in there (which I am assuming will increase the already outrageous $300+ cost). The modem I understand, but a HD? Why? Developers for the Japanese PS2 must not have had a HD in mind, and I doubt the American developers did/do either. What the hell does this do to the games already in development? And why even put a HD in a system with these performance numbers, I would think it would just lead to *lower* performance. BAH!

  • Nah - Develop a Front End. Leave the rest Alone. (Score:4)

    by detritus. ( 46421 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @06:25AM (#1132019)
    I don't see a reason to ship it with a hard drive and modem. The IEEE 1394, USB and PCMCIA ports should be a clue to anyone (who knows what they are) that it can easily support modems, hard drives, etc...

    Shipping them with hard drives and modems will soon become obsolete. I hope sony takes the direction of making them optional accessories and not turn to a proprietary bus to market sony-only accessories (that's all we would need).

    Personally I think they should leave it alone and work on developing a front-end for the Playstation (hmm - SonyLinux?) to make hardware support and driver detection so the hardware really has no limits to what is plugged into it.

    - Detritus

    "I never really liked computers, but then the server went down on me"
  • "Dreamcast already has this now. Does anyone know how useful this is? "

    The Dreamcast? I cant think of any use for it, no. Theres no really good games out for it, and when the PSX2 hits the U.S/Europe, then its all over for Sega...
  • I'm a marketing intern and we don't count without taking our shoes off. Revision:

    Modem and hard drive
    Playstation peripherals
    Will it run linux?

    Thank You.

  • Comment removed (Score:4)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @06:27AM (#1132022)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I've read in PCComputing that the Dreamcast Internet browser looks like crap. Bad res, hard to use, etc.
    And I apologize for referencing a ZDNet source. =]

  • why care? (Score:5)

    by Max von H. ( 19283 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @06:30AM (#1132024)
    It's not running Linux. Its OS is not open-source. It doesn't use a Transmeta CPU. It doesn't have Ethernet. They don't even talk about it on Userfriendly, and Hubble hasn't spotted one near yet.

    Really, I wonder why any slashdotter would be interrested into it...

    But... I WANT ONE!!!!

    max

  • So... (Score:3)

    by Maïdjeurtam ( 101190 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @06:30AM (#1132025) Homepage Journal
    The next PSX 2 in the US will have a modem, a hard drive,... In other words, il will be a computer with proprietary harware.

    I can't see the point of it : wouldn't a cheap console be better for simple gaming ? With a cheap PC next to it for Internet apps and word processing ?

    OK, it would have an refreshing architecture compared to the usual x86 crap. But I'll be really happy the day I'll see a story about cheap PowerPC boxes, or something like this.

    I mean... Real non-x86 computers with open hardware which aren't labeled as 'game consoles'.

    Moderator : this is NOT flamebait nor troll... In fact, those are just my ideas ;)

    Stéphane
  • Well, a nice side effect for Sony of having a hard drive in the Playstation is that hard drives generally have a lifespan of a few years which means that people will be back in a few years for seconds (or to buy Playstation III's). That's the one thing which has been bothering me about everything turning into a dedicated PC - the lifespan is being shortened on these things because failures are much more likely when you having moving parts (i.e., the hard drive). Then again, five years from now when the hard drives fail in my PSX, TiVo, and whatever else, the state of the art will probably have advanced so much that I'll be excited to upgrade.
  • And, you just KNOW that as soon as it's released, three dozen geeks will start working on porting Linux to it, and two weeks later, distributed.net [distributed.net] will have clients for it!

    CSG_Surferdude

  • but will it have games? (Score:3)

    by tuffy ( 10202 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @06:32AM (#1132028) Homepage Journal
    The more I hear about the PSX2, the less I like it. First the goofball architecture which isn't going to make ports easy. Then the all-in-one focus that makes me think of 3DO all over again. Now hard drives? If I want a computer, I'll buy a computer. DVD+HD+graphics are available at any Best Buy for a thousand or two and have plenty of games already.

    But where's the games for PSX2? No one's talking much about them that I've heard. It seems like if I want a box to just play games with, the Dreamcast is the way to go. I've got plenty of computers already; give me a gaming console for a change.

  • Little more info.... (Score:3)

    by homerj79 ( 58075 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @06:32AM (#1132029) Homepage
    According to here [theregister.co.uk], the hard drive will be 8GB, matching that of the X-Box. IMHO, Sony is doing this for two reasons, to counter the onslaught of the X-Box as well as to strangle the Dreamcast out of exsistence. The only thing the Dreamcast had going for it was its modem, but with the PS2 now having a modem, apparently, you can expect Dreamcast sales to lag off. As for the X-Box, even with its launch well over a year after that of the PS2, Sony could still feel the heat from the fire. Sony basically doesn't want Microsoft to do to them what they are doing to Sega, having more features and thus strangling off sales.
  • Does anyone else think there should be some destinctions between console games and PCs? They should just leave it as it is, you buy a console becasue you don't want to buy all the extra stuff that comes with a PC. You just want to plug in you cart and play. You buy a PC to do al sorts of crazy stuff and games on the side. It's just not right I tell you!
  • Now if only they'd ship it with an ethernet card...

    I can see why it would be easier, and more profitable for them to ship a modem rather than an ethernet card. They can charge for their dialup service, and they don't have to worry about things like cable modem DHCP issues. But a modem is going to be of NO USE to a lot of people. I can't have my phone line tied up with data calls, that's part of the reason I have DSL. Then again, I imagine that most of their market will be people with nothing but a phone line in their house.

    How much will the price get augmented by something somewhat useless as a hard drive on a console? I'm not cool with paying $100-200 extra for a somewhat inexpensive console just so I can cache web pages, and store ugly e-cards from my aunt Darlene.

    Competition is good, I just hope that Sony has considered consumers in this, instead of starting a peeing contest with Microsoft.

  • You have to remember, that the specs on the XBOX are bound to change, as the 8GB HDD is only an estimate simply because this is the size they can afford to package fairly cheaply. I would surely assume that if they can add better components in the up coming round of the console war, they will. Not that there is any historical evidence to back this up, rather, just look at this level of technology compared to years past. They will have to just to survive. I don't see too many people in Japan with a PS2 that do not already have a computer, and I am sure it will be the same here. Ethernet and an IP would surely make or break a next gen system market, so they could network with their home computer and use it for storage.
  • This should have been expected, it's just a further part of the process of everything technological slowly melting together. Game boxes are becoming computers, computers are becoming game boxes, entertainment centers are becoming obsolete.

    This is all leading to that eventual day when all your computing power and entertainment value will all fit on a little card (probably branded AOL/Time Warner) that slips in your back pocket, and then we'll all accidentally lose them in our sofas and society will disintegrate and we'll be back to the dark ages.

    Hail the march of technology!

    -Mad Dreamer


    -Mad Dreamer
  • another $250!

    tcd004

  • Re:Colecovision (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You of course mean the Colecovision ADAM 2000. I had one of the originals. Came with a fucked up printer and a word processor package that could be toggled so you could use the printer as a typewriter. Very cool for its time, just not well done.
  • Indeed. Why not put in a simple, cheap 10 Mbit/s Ethernet chip and combo connectors in the gaming devices, instead of just a modem? Ethernet chips are really commodity hardware these days - I see absolutely no reason why they don't put it in. It makes connecting much more flexible.

    Ethernet makes sense even for those without a permanent net connection (big gaming party in the house?). Also, most people with cable modems use Ethernet - the connection between the cable "modem" and your computer is often an Ethernet link. Add a cheap hub, and voilà!

  • IBM is making some pretty durable IDE drives these days; 10, 12 and 14mm form factors with a guarantee of G-rating while spun up. They're very pricey, but I doubt you could kill one without intentional violence (hammer, chisel, 1962 Dodge).. They may be referring to something like a solid-state flash disk; SanDisk, anyone? O/T: I've seen IBM full-height drives still run after a fifteen foot fall from the second floor landing onto concrete. I had to replace the lower daughterboard, as it was crushed into PCB dust, but the mechanism itself survived with only a bent surround.. When IBM says 100G, they mean it!
  • "Yeah, my playstation is making a funny grinding noise..."

    "You'll have to replace your harddrive, sir."

    "How do I do that?"

    "You bring it into the shop and they'll charge you $$$ for the drive, and $$$ for installation and $$$ for not knowing any better..."

    'cause not every video game enthusiast is tech savy.
  • Think about it for a moment.

    * First you would need to build a cross-compiler that compiles for the PS2's CPU
    * Next you would have to get it onto the PS2 somehow. You can't just go into Easy CD Creator and burn a CD for it. Obviously Sony is probably using a proprietry CD format which hasn't been implemented into a CD burning application
    * There probably is a keyboard for the PS2, but even with this the kernel would need to be rewritten to support it.
    * No Ethernet in it, so it's only suitable for servers which don't get enough traffic to fill a 56k line

    Put all that together and you'll find that you need a lot of Coca-Cola (maybe by injection) in order to make this worthwile.

    --
    Vote for mind21_98 this November!
  • Don't worry. If it doesn't run Linux yet, it will...

    Oh, yes, it will....

    ;)
  • Dreamcast is doing moderately okay. N64 still rocks Japan (the Kirby's adventure game that recently came out has sold more units than ANY PSX2 game). Hell, due to the whole Pokemon thing, N64 is still pretty okay here. Nintendo has officially said that their next system IS using hardware T&L, like the GeForce video card. Microsoft is working with nVida, so they likely will too. PSX2 does not. Dreamcast does not.

    That said, the PSX2 is pretty. Not mind blowing, but really pretty. It'll do well. The next nintedo console has the potential to do well. The X-Box . . . well, there certainly is room in the market for it. But I have doubts as to if it will see the light of day. And if it does, it could crash and burn a la 3DO, unless it manages to push out some good titles. It's going to be an interesting couple years.
  • It's a neat concept and all, but what would someone honestly do with the modem / hard drive?

    The main reason that I download stuff for my PC games is that a lot of the PC game companies release games before they are totally done, and have to update Video Card drivers, etc.

    The only POSSIBLE thing that I would want to use it for would be for updates to games that I own (ie Updating the Belts and Character Profiles on WWF Smackdown to match the show!!)

    But of that was a priority for the companies that make these games we would already have that kind of functionality for the PC, which we sadly don't.

    Just my $.02

  • With the wide spread deployment of xDSL and Cable Modem technology in the metropolitan areas of the U.S., why didn't Sony take a more modular approach? Drop the price of the console and charge for an upgrade which will either add a modem or an ethernet adapter?

    The ethernet adapter option is also a good way to get people to buy MULTIPLE playstations in homes with multiple kids & TV sets. Some games frankly suck when four people are on the same screen. PC gamers have an edge here in FPS's and other competetive (rather than collaborative) games.
  • "What am I going to do with a modem in a house
    with no phone line? (But full ethernet connectivity) "

    You know there was once a time when games didn't need to connect to the damn net to do anything. There's something called isolated programming that works quite well and dosn't have any problem.

    I don't want all of my games to be network required so that I have to pay massive ammounts of money just to play a game.

    I predict people are going to loose a lot of money on this little thing if that's what they're trying to pull.
  • I can't see the point of it : wouldn't a cheap console be better for simple gaming ?

    This isn't supposed to connect you to the internet. I'd be suprised if it even had a web browser. The modem is there to set up up for multiplayer games and the hard drive is there to more effectively store saved games. Previously, storing data onto those memory chips would have been difficult to work around- you'ld only be granted a very small amount of space.

    Additionally, the processor is extremely well for rendering for games. It is not well designed to deal with normal day to day functions. There is no real use for slapping on a keyboard because the machine really isn't designed to deal with that sort of thing.

    Remember, this box is only going for $200 or whatever. There is only so much you can do with that kind of budget.
  • well, it does have pcmcia. so you could plug a pc card ethernet adapter in.

    --

  • Two words and a number: Gran Turismo 2000. The game looks amazing. I bought an N64 to play Zelda, I bought a Dreamcast to play Hydro Thunder, and I'm buying a PS2 to play GT2000.

    -B
  • Nintendo's poor showing?????

    As a side note, in November1999 (The only month I can remember details from), 4 of the top 5 selling console games were from Nintendo. They were Donkey Kong, + 3 Poke'mon games.

    For all of 1999, 7 of the top 10 games were Nintendo (DK64 + Poke'mon + Super Smash Brothers) From www.gamedaily.com [gamedaily.com]

    Off-hand, I'd say that Nintendo [nintendo.com] is doing very well for itself. Don't ever underestimate the power of hordes of screaming children.

    We want Poke'mon!!!!
    We want Poke'mon!!!!
    We want Poke'mon!!!!

  • This is great news especially considering the Squeak [squeak.org] has been ported for Playstation. The mailing list has all the info [uiuc.edu].

    With Squeak, we can use the PS2 to surf the web and use e-mail. Squeak's license is more open than the GNU License.


    --Ivan, weenie NT4 user: bite me!

  • You say this about the PS2, but how about the X-Box? Come on, that thing is nothing but a mutated PC! (I mean that in the nicest possible way, of course :)

  • Re:Nah - Develop a Front End. Leave the rest Alone (Score:5)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14, 2000 @06:52AM (#1132051)
    No, no, no! No offense, but you just don't get it. I used to be a hardcore console gamer several a few years ago. It might seem strange to the tech-heads here, but the way the console game industry works is different than the computer game industry.

    As a console gamer and developer, if the system doesn't come with a harddrive or a modem or whatever peripherial, then they do not exist, period. Sure, Sony themselves could sell an official harddrive addon and an official modem addon, but almost every developer and gamer will act as if they do not exist. Its the all-in-one-shrinkwrapped-box theory of the console game industry.

    They key to the console industry is that you have fixed hardware. So this pretty much rules out most peripherial components. I could name tons of examples with past console systems... but I will let you do your homework on that, if you need.

    Lets all hope that the harddrive and modem for the PSX2 don't mean that console game developers will develop buggy games like most computer game developers.
  • Why does a game console need a harddrive?

    Faster access time? You know these win/dos games that have that full-super-install that copies everything (including FMV stuff) to the hard drive to speed things up? I have no idea how fast a dvd-drive is, is a goodish hard drive faster?

    A cache for web access? A big memory card could do this, or using free memory+compression would work. But even a big cache doesn't make a dent in 8 GB.

    Storing drivers/other data that would usally be on a mem card? This seems most likely. But 8 GB seems like overkill.

    Ripping a DVD to the hard drive and then using the ports to copy it to another drive? Nah. :)

    Wait. If this thing is so close in power to a "standard PC", a hard drive could store work. Just add a keyboard and type up your term paper by staring at your fuzzy tv for hours. Ick.

    Any other ideas?

  • Re:Ethernet would make a lot of sense (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    hello, stupid. it already comes with 2 pcmcia slots so all you have to do is get an ethernet card yourself. the modem that will come with the console is targeted to people who don't already have existing modems. if you already have a cable or dsl modem, just put in the damn ethernet card and connect it to your broadband modem.

    it's not rocket science, folks.
  • Does this mean they weren't planning on shipping with a modem previous to this? That doesn't make sense. They would be at an enourmous disadvantage against Dreamcast in the online gaming arena. Surely Sony realizes that online is the future of gaming. Even Microsoft realizes that. Microsoft has enough vision (!) to include an ethernet adapter with their upcoming console. Does the Japanese PS2 not have a modem? Did Sony not think online gaming has a future? Or is Sony one of those greedy companies that want you to waste $100 on their "special" PS2 modem? I find it hard to believe that Sony had not planned on shipping built in modem with their new console. Idiotic

  • Re:Can I run Linux on it (Score:3)

    by slashdot-terminal ( 83882 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @06:54AM (#1132055) Homepage
    "At last the console manufacturers seem to be catching onto the idea of online gaming. Everyone and their online dog know the future is broadband so it's not difficult to see how Sony can exploit this with their Playstation. Welcome
    news indeed - let's just hope someone can produce some decent games."

    Online gaming is something that really isn't a terribly good idea for several reasons:

    1. Point of control/failure.
    I don't like the idea of someone else holding my "game" and having to have control over it. I want to access my game from anywhere and without a net connection of any sort. If their server goes down, they go out of business, or make another product that superceedes the current one your our of luck.

    2. Cost
    When I buy a game I want to have that game for the rest of my life without extra cost. With these things they will most likely cost and I don't want that.

    3. Interactivity dosn't take the place of a real isolated program that is done well.

    Just because you can't code your way out of a paper bag dosn't mean that I have to look at some shitty program that just has multiplayer capabilities built into it.

  • I'd hate to see a modem be the only method of net access on this beast. I got DSL for the speed and so my phone line would never be tied up again. It seems ridiculous that I could have 5 machines on a LAN in my home and have an equally powerful box sit on a regular phone line. It's my hope I could drop a regular Ethernet card in the PCMCIA slot, but what's that do to the price point of the whole package (currently about $300) if a modem is included, especially one I won't ever use? Same thing goes for the hard drive, why not keep the price low and not include a hard drive, since you could just hook up a Firewire drive if you really wanted it? I mean, PS2 comes with extraneous hardware, but doesn't even come with a game? Come on.

    I want my PS2 to have a static IP.
  • I've been modem free for seven months now. Why the hell would I want to go back? They'd better off putting in an ethernet NIC of some sort and providing a way of setting up an IP address either static and/or dynamic. I would want to plug this into the switch on my LAN so that it can use my DSL connection (which BTW uses the crappy PPPoE protocol). It would also need some way for me to configure proxy settings too, although playing around with NAT tables I can handle, unlike the average consumer.

    Modem? Bah! Nasty evil thing that should be thrown out with floppy drives. Shame we couldn't start the new century without them.
  • It will probably be like the dreamcast, where the modem is easily removable, (just one button) and can be replaced with an eithernet at anytime. Also most people at home DO NOT have ethernet, but do have a dial in connection. Cable modems and xDSL are becoming popular, but still most people connect to the internet at ~56k baud and will for the next 2-5 years. An ethernet only system would make no economic sense for them, as a modem would probably make no sense you.

  • FUD? (Score:1)

    by sqlrob ( 173498 )
    Is this announcement FUD, pure and simple?

    The source didn't want to be named

    There is no official PS2 in the US yet. What's to say it will ever be released with these accessories?

    It's an early enough announcement to put the kibosh on DC sales until the PS2 is out.

    The main competitor with the HD is vaporware. Why bother with the announcement, just do it. Cheapest thing to do: Fight vaporware with vaporware

    I wonder what the result of this announcement will be in Japan. The consumers there just bought a new system, and now it is being released with more features (for the same price???) somewhere else. I know I would be PO'ed

  • That seems fair enough. I just worry that in the mad dash to put a PSX2 at the core of every home's entertainment center, the emphasis on gaming is being lost in the process. My hope is the PSX2 and Dreamcast can have a good old fashioned SNES/Genesis-style battle in the marketplace which will be good for everyone. But at present, I'm not so sure the PSX2 will live up to the expectations.
  • 1) Okay, a few weeks of effort, and then an ongoing optimisation effort: or: PSX2 will run TaoOS Elate OS for apps, and that already has gcc ported to its own Virtual Processor code. Compiling your own programs will be easy.

    2) Go into EasyDVD creator and burn a DVD. Sure, some special boot stuff will be needed, but it won't be that much effort!

    3) THey are using DVD, idiot. That is why there has been so much furore over DVD in Sony PSX2 recently. 4) A keyboard driver will take 5 minutes to port because it will be USB. Same goes for the mouse, gamepads, ADSL modems etc. All USB. Firewire HDs and ethernet. PCMCIA CD-RWs, HDs, Ethernet.

    5) Ethernet an easy add-on: USB/PCMCIA/Firewire.

    It will be done, just whether it is really worth it is the question! The code for gcc for Elate is obtainable obviously, being under the GPL! Sony have their own gcc for PSX2 as well...

  • Playstation 2 & Linux (Score:4)

    by jelwell ( 2152 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @07:03AM (#1132062)
    Setting a few people straight: Playstation 2 [theregister.co.uk] development is already done in linux :) does this imply that it would be easier to port linux to the PSX2?

    Quite possibly - as a matter of fact the PSX 1 development kit uses GCC as it's compiler! doesn't that mean there's already GPL code that targets the PSX. My bet is the PSX2 dev kit will ship with GCC also. I'm a little shocked no one has ported linux to their PSX. Although with a hard drive and a modem, it'll suddenly be useful to be running linux on it. :)

    By the way: Screw hopes for an ethernet card by default - that can be bought seperately and use with the USB port. The important thing is that if the system comes with a default modem installed, more games will take advantage of it; then when you buy your ethernet adapter, there will games for it. If it doesn't come with either then games won't come with networking either. :(

    Now if only Sony could figure out that a default of 2 controllers aren't enough. Not enough games come out with 4 player modes for the PSX because the system only has two ports standard. And a few too many games that say they support the 4player multitap don't work well with the tap!

    Joseph Elwell.

  • Sony is out to create a PC which is tied to them, which is why they are adding features which are both useless and detrimental for a console based system.

    I say let them, they will soon find (after the initial console zealots decide they have to buy it just because it's a Sony) that simplicity is essential for the console market.

    Sega learned this the hard way, after producing two failed peripherals for their system. (hey, I loved my SegaCD but it was a failure from a commercial perspective.) People want consoles to be simple and cheap. If a gamer doesn't mind complexity, he'll buy a PC for game playing.

    This complexity is (hopefully, as I want to see Sony fail) going to kill the PS2 in the long run. We've already seen it with a software recall on the PS2. A software recall? On a console? I never heard of that happening before.

    Right now Sony zealots are going to be spreading FUD about competing consoles like Dreamcast and Dolphin, so people won't buy them and they won't get any exclusive games (which is what sells console hardware, even moreso than simplicity, unfortunately).

    Another way to look at this is that Sony is abandoning the console market in favor of the cheap PC market. In which case, since people will still want consoles, game companies which actually make consoles should still suceed. (That is, unless Sony uses it's monopoly power to indimidate companies out of developing for them or stores out of selling them.)

  • who needs a special hard drive?
    just get a good one...
    I move my computer at least 1 a week
    and it has been bump plenty of times...
    my friends computer even droped off of
    a 4 foot desk (that can cause a heart attack)
    and nothing even happened to his hard drive.

    *- You play with fire, and you get burned!
  • I know of a US firm that is planning on making a cheap (sub $50) adapter to connect a game platform with a modem (or any device with a modem) to a LAN. No offical project release yet, but I got the tip from an old high school friend that works in the Valley. Supposedly, this thing simulates a phone circuit, (dis)assembles packets for differences in MTU, and looks totally like a NIC from the network. I thought something like this existed before and tried to tell her that, but she insisted that their RnD department said there was no such animal. I've never had such a use for a device so I've never cared. Has anybody ever heard of this?
  • The console landscape is littered with consoles that were technically brilliant but didn't get the titles necessary to be a success. For instance, the Saturn's dual processor architecture actually had more horsepower than the PSX's, but who bothered to push it to its limits? Most developers went for the much simpler PSX instead and they learned it much better. The result should be obvious.

    Now we have a reversal. The Dreamcast is simple to develop for, but what about the PSX2? Probably much less so which could prove to be a hindrance in the coming months.

  • Games don't have to be on-line only to be played online. Witness the typical PC game with a huge on-line following, like Quake, Half-Life, StarCraft, etc. Most of these games also allow you to play on-line for free, assuming you already have an ISP. Whether it will be that way in the console world remains to be seen, I suppose.

    Personally, I think that on-line gameplay with other humans is much better than single player for most games. You haven't fully appreciated Half-Life until you've played Team Fortress Classic on a good server with a good team.
  • Two words and a number: Gran Turismo 2000. The game looks amazing. I bought an N64 to play Zelda, I bought a Dreamcast to play Hydro Thunder, and I'm buying a PS2 to play GT2000.
    Of course, games sell systems, that's always been true.

    However, that doesn't mean that this systems actual design isn't inferior to it's competitors (except Micros~1, unless they have something really amazing that I can't imagine up there sleeve... which I doubt).

    This system doesn't sound like a console anymore, it sounds like a new kind of personal computer. In which case, it shouldn't be considered to be competing in the console market.

  • what is goin to happen to the memory cards?
    i doubt that they will be able to seriously convince people to purchase these if they knew that there was already a storage media in the box to save your game data to...
  • Er.. consoles `do well` whatever they`re programmed to do well... So, in my opinion, the PSX was programmed to `do well` more often than the N64, so it makes it a `better` console...in terms of `which one shall i buy`.

    When PSX2 gets out, and developers and users both get into it, it`ll `do better` than Dreamcast. Which console are they more excited about? Theres no contest. Ask a developer... :)

    (FYI - NFL is not of interest outside of the states.)

    P.
  • I wish there was a cheap solution to programming your own Playstation and Playstation 2 programs. I think it would be neat to see some open source programs written and playable under a stand alone console. I was always interested in it, but I'm sure Sony might lose money doing it that way. It'd be neat if they could charge a small fee for a program or a specific burner that could do it. (becasue their commercial, don't flame me for that).

    I always wanted to write games since I've been playining the Atari and 8-Bit Nintendo. Infact, I tried messing with some game and code a while back for the Emulators when they came out and had a blast trying to make my own moving charachters, etc. Just an idea to be thron around... very doubtful Sony would even take it serious since there are soo many develoeprs for commercial.. However this would bring in a lot of unknown talent to commercial Vendors? Think of 989 Studios seeing little Johny programming a RPG and liked his skills, they could offer him position...

    Just food for thought...

    I like the idea of console online gaming, it'd be nice to play someone in Syphon Filter 2 and *NOT* see them in the split screen... other then the 2 tv link (never used much huh?)... I just doubt it's going to catch on quick because they'll start with atleast a $20 fee... Where most gamers also use an ISP for $20 a month or more if cable...

    Welps, that's just my 2cents...

  • Re:Now I'm getting pissed. (Score:3)

    by mochaone ( 59034 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @07:14AM (#1132072)
    Don't you get it? The PS2, in Sony's mind, will not just be a gaming console. It will be THE console for the house. Want some new mp3's? Just get on the PS2 and download from internet to harddrive. Does the missus want new recipes? Download 'em. Want to snap some screens from games and transfer 'em to pc? download 'em to hardrive and transfer 'em over firewire.

    Stop thinking in terms of gaming. Sony has their eyes on the prize....the big prize.

  • I wouldn't hope to see Sony fail, myself. But I see far too many "Sony will crush everyone!" posts for my liking and that worries me. The console market needs competition in order to grow and thrive. If the PSX2 becomes the only game in town, I think we'll all wind up the losers in the process.

    IMHO, let's cheer for market equity rather than market dominance or failure.

  • There is no need for ethernet, as Firewire can handle all the network protocols, and firewire networks can be set up at four times the speed of 100BT. I've set up a firewire network (between two macs) and it works super duper. I just hope (can't wait for) I can connect my PS2 to my G4 and at least display it on my computer, and hopefully have access to my DSL connection. I have the software to do this, if the PS2 has any networking capabilities, and with a HD, I'm sure something could be worked out ;0) . . . there's just too many possibilities with the PS2, I sure something will be hacked up. Peace,
  • Yes, but the CD ROM in it is probably more likely to get damaged than the HD. Plus I've destroyed several N64 games/systems just from dropping them... nothing visibly broken but it stopped working none the less...
  • Sony wasn't planning on shipping and analog modem because they were waiting for broadband to become more widespread. It would be pretty damn stupid to saddle a machine with the horsepower of the PS2 with a 56K pile of crap.
  • Do you forget that there is such a thing as PCMCIA modem? Why are they including a modem if you could just go buy a modem? In other words, it makes just as much sense to include Ethernet as it does to include a modem, given that they are both available as PCMCIA devices (that's all that the original poster was saying).

    I agree; it's not rocket science.
  • Now this is quite obviously a troll, but I am hungry...

    1) Linux is a better Server for dynamic content. Linux will soon become a better server for static content when the 2.4 kernel comes out within the next couple of months. Win2k costs a lot lot more, Linux is free. You might also want to consider FreeBSD, which is also free, and runs Yahoo and Hotmail (the Microsoft email service).

    2) Linux is harder to pick up than Windows, but that is because it is more configurable and powerful in the end. A clever person should be able to pick it up within a week though, and you shouldn't be hiring dumb people, MCSE or not.

    3) It isn't important - Java programs run fine under Linux.

    4) Linux people spend more time getting the job done and working, while MS people spend all their time tidying up and trying to look neat and tidy to hide the fact that they only do 90% of the job. They can't actually do 100% though, because the OS won't let them.

    5) Offer a good wage and a nice working environment. Let them show you the benefits of Linux or FreeBSD. They probably don't need Windows skills - it is all obvious anyway. Don't you know that MCSEs are worthless yet?

    6) They are available on Linux/FreeBSD - but they are not standards, they are proprietary Microsoft languages and protocols designed to tie the developer into the Microsoft environment from the desktop to the server. Linux supports more powerful scripting languages such as Perl and Python and Scheme and PHP. ActiveX is a security hole, don't use it.

    7) Linux/FreeBSD are specialised (moreso than the Windows click-and-nearly-do system). Twice the wage would be fair, because of the amount of time and effort they have put in to become experts at the system. A true Unix expert in invaluable to a company, as they an work true wonders.

    8) FreeBSD.

    9) No. unless eating Pizza and curry is left wing.

    10) No, this is more prolific amongst the Microsoft crowd actually - Napster was originally a Windows program. Unux administrators (well paid) pride themselves on their security measures, and you will get the best security for you money.

    11) No it is not. Only if you take existing GPL software and modify it is this true. You would be more interesting in FreeBSD, and you can take the BSD code and use it without contributing back. If you are writing your own software it does not matter.

    This answer has cost you $500 in consultancy fees. Please email me to arrange delivery of the fee.

  • come on... you'll still have all the original playstation games to play on your brand new PSX2 :)
  • My computer, which is connected through ethernet to my DSL modem (and my roommate's PC) is a gateway (software router) and has firewire ports. Seems like some good possibilities. . .
  • Remember, this box is only going for $200 or whatever. There is only so much you can do with that kind of budget.

    Not always... I'm sure they may go over the $200 limit and still charge consumers the price. They make a lot of revenue in games... They'll probably have one of those stupid deals with their online service like the DreamCast is suppsoedly going to do...

    I doubt they'd go too much over the budget... but still. Marketing is screwy. I remember the beatles Anythology Album being sold her for $3 cheaper then the music store bought it for. Supposedly the attraction made them a lot of money...

  • The Playstation just uses a MIPS R3000 or something. Getting GCC to cross-compile to that shouldn't be difficult. What you DO need to use is proprietory libraries and a proprietory boot loader to make a cd that the PSX can run. And if you want it to work on non-modded playstations, you're only choice is basically to give money to Sony.

    I can't imagine the PS2 being a whole lot different, except the CPU architecture's more of a beast, and blank DVDs are more expensive than blank CDs. But obviously someone's written A compiler for it...

    One of the reasons the PSX had such fantastic developer support was that it was architecturally fairly simple. A off-the-shelf processor, and the graphics acceleration was nothing fundamentally unusual, parallel, or tricky. Whether the bar has been raised on gaming and it's now worth the extra effort to suppor the sort of mad craziness the PS2 has inside it is anybody's guess.
  • Many people seem to be asking why a hard drive and modem, so I thought I might provide a few answers that could help.

    First, the PS2 runs on a linux kernel, and thus with a hard drive and modem could be as close to a recompile away to have mozilla/netscape running on it, and many many other full featured applications like office suites and things of that sort. Your next question might be what good is this with a keyboard. Well, there is a USB port on the back where you could stick in a USB keyboard and mouse, and with multiple linux projects working on providing full USB support under linux it might not be that far away.

    The hard drive could also be a good place to keep save games rather than the annoying little packs you have to buy.

    Now we also know that it has a PCMCIA slot. I believe some people were wanting the feature of ethernet. So drop in a PCMCIA linux compatable card, and away you go. The other trick of having a hard drive is that you could then drop the linux kernel on the hard drive rather than the boot rom, and get it to have more options for configuration.

    Many poeple have posted saying, ohh big deal, the performance of the PS2 is far superior to anything the competitors can provide now. So let's think about this for a second. Console groups tend to release new consoles about every 3 or 4 years at best. Graphics card manufacturs come out with a new generation of cards about every 6 to 9 months in which they double or more the speed. The PC market could come up and bite Sony with outperforming them by far in a year or two.

    Now, we have this other feature of the X-Box that it is Intel based, and runs windows, which means that a lot games might be instantly availble for it.

    Sony is probably just trying to make sure there product will be able to endure for the next few years, since they don't want it to end up having to give the thing away for new users to use it.

  • Smells like a rumor (Score:5)

    by Junks Jerzey ( 54586 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @07:30AM (#1132088)
    This is looking like an incorrect rumor for a couple of reasons:

    Sony has stated in the past that they wouldn't be shipping a modem because it didn't make sense to slap such outdated technology on a machine as cutting edge as the PS2. They're waiting for more people to get DSL or cable modems.

    The PS2 case has already been designed and is in production. Is Sony really going to start over on this now?

    There's no purpose for a hard drive. The Sony Network isn't ready yet. No online games are in development. People are writing games for 32MB RAM and a huge DVD. What is a hard drive going to add to the mix that will justify the significant extra cost? It would be cheaper to just add another 32MB of memory, or to double the VRAM.

    Hard drives are a consumer nightmare: relatively high failure rate, not suited to being kicked around in a console.

    On the other hand, a US release date for the PS2 hasn't been announced yet, so anything is possible.

  • The development systems run Linux (supposedly), and Linux is being ported to it (Wulfstation Cluster Project [sourceforge.net]).

    And they should really be talking about it on Userfriendly. Shame on you, Iliad! ;)
  • You're totally on crack. MS may not make the most technically excellent products around, but they're anything but a flop (MS-BOB excluded). IE5 is the best browser around (we'll see how Mozilla does as time progresses), Visual Studio is easily the most powerful IDE on the market, Visual Basic is the single most popular development environment for the PC, and Windows is... well it's popular anyway.

    But MS is hardly a flop.

    -----------

    "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

  • The HD is not necessarily for the games; the downloaded content that Sony and licensees would market, such as new songs for Bust a Groove 3, or more maps for Final Fantasy X Online, or music videos to go with James Bond:Whatever the Sequel is Titled, etc.

    It's primarily a preemptive strike against M$ if it does come out, but it's not like you'd need it yet either.

    -AS

  • I mean, they aren't marketing it as such. You're not supposed to do your taxes on it, you're not going to program a QuakeIII mod on it, you won't be doing AV stuff on it...

    It's meant as an entertainment device first, and a computational device second, even though there are definite overlaps.

    -AS
  • >Want some new mp3's? Just get on the PS2 and download from internet to harddrive.

    errrm, seeing as sony is also in the entertainment/music industry, i'm not sure they would like people using mp3's on the PS2. they may have some other things in mind, like saving game setting and such, but i doubt they'll make it easy to play mp3's from this thing.

    LL

  • Sony obviously wants the PS2 to be the centerpiece in any home's audiovisual entertainment center. So what has this to do with the extra hardware?

    Simple!

    Sony sees this huge,untapped market for distributing MP3s over the internet! I mean, what else do 12 year olds do nowadays besides play video games, right? And as we all know, it takes quite a bit of HD space to hold a substantial amount of MP3s...so voila! Sony is set and poised to become an MP3 power...

    Coming soon...Sony's buyout of Napster, and the addition of banner advertising...a la ICQ!


    telnet://bbs.ufies.org
    Trade Wars Lives
  • If they do add the modem and hard drive to the US version, won't that effectively split the market for the game designers? Now they can either write a game that doesn't use the modem and drive storage, so that international release is limited to PAL/NTSC changes and language translation. Or, they can write the game to use the modem and hard drive in the US, and have to dummy down the game or not release it at all internationally.

    It seems that for game platforms, creating multiple configurations will fragment your market and give an advantage to a competitor who has the same configuration accross all markets.

    If they do add the modem and hard drive, I hope they make a low cost add-on available to the Japan version that is functionally compatible so that they don't suffer from having multiple variants of the console in different markets.

  • Will it raise the launch price of the console? (Score:3)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @08:46AM (#1132136)
    I had generally heard estimates of $300 for the US lauch of the PS2. But with this news, I have to think that the launch price will be closer to $400.

    Although I agree that having some sort of on-line gaming ability built in is a really good idea, wonder how well that balances out against the loss in sales from the higher price. I think $300 is supposed to be the price at which the mass market generally starts accepting a component, and even though the PS2 looks fantastic there are probably a lot of people who won't buy one at $400.

  • Re:Can I run Linux on it (Score:3)

    by slashdot-terminal ( 83882 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @09:16AM (#1132143) Homepage
    Yeah I guess I don't really know about that. See most companies like to betray people with massive inefficient code that breaks almost all computers.
    What exactly is Half Life about? What makes it so good? What about online play is any different from the usual fare about having things where you see how quickly you can kill your fellow players and the like.
    Playing online has never been very fun for me at all (when I can find a computer that isn't mine that can actually do anything). The whole idea makes me sick. I am tired of playing people who kick my ass 700 times before I fall to the ground. To me the concept of playing against others is a rather bad idea. I don't want to play a game I can't win. I don't want to fight a game that I never can do anything with.
    A good example for you:
    Starcraft. Ok I get the shareware version and play the entire thing all the way through in a college cumputer lab. That was somewhat challenging and I rather enjoyed it. Next I decide to try to play some multiplayer stuff on the net. Well after several days I hadn't won a single game with large ammounts of time dedicated to this.
    I didn't win a damn one. Not only this but I wasn't enjoying it much at all (you should know how it feels to loose).
    I tried almost every conceivable military tactical strategy that I had heard published and some of the stuff from the Art of War. Nothing helps. I almost never win anything.
    Second example:
    Quake III arena. This game obviously was on a better machine that I didn't own as well. I started playing the damn thing and for the life of me I never seemed to avoid death or deliver any death to almost anyone. Nothing worked at all. Seemed that it was an impossibility.

    Now maybe I am "ignorant" but this dosn't seem like something I would want to do for free and especially not for a fee.
  • Code Warrior clearly has the multiplatform/language thing going for it, but if that were my criterion, I would've said Emacs anyway ;) But I really don't think that the CodeWarrior IDE is comparable to what MS has done with Visual Studio. I guess then, I should say that, for x86 development, you really can't beat VS.

    -----------

    "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

  • Where do you get that the PS2 runs a Linux kernel? I think you're smokin bad hash man.

  • The Dreamcast and PS2 (Score:3)

    by Graymalkin ( 13732 ) on Friday April 14, 2000 @10:05AM (#1132156)
    For anyone that was paying attention, the Dreamcast has a modem which is attached to an expansion port. This means (put on your thinking caps) you can *remove* it and add an Ethernet or Firewire adapter to this so-called expansion port. Having an expansion port is a good thing because you can attach anything you like to it as long as you pack it with a driver disk. I think the expansion port is a much much better idea than hardwiring a modem into the DC for the very reason that more people are getting xDSL and cable access. If Sony has a smart set of fellows working for them they will do something similar, hopefully even make the hard drive an option. They could just ship the PS2 with an expansion bay you COULD stick a hard drive into, it would keep the price down and give them some room to expand.
    As an aside I was thinking about Sony and what their plans might be for the future, I'm thinking after the PS2 has been out for a year or two, maybe three, they're going to start building VAIO PCs and laptops based around the EE (maybe with some modifications to make it a little more general purpose) and some of the PS2's architecture. Right now they are making a run for consumer's living rooms and the next logical step would be the office. The PCs they sell now are Intel's bitches and in many ways are being held back by Intel and x86. Don't give me crap about Itanium, the EE is out NOW not sometime next year. The EE would be a real boon to Sony in the audio/visual editing department considering audio and video filters are just a bunch of operations performed on the samples or pixels (the vector units on that puppy would tear through high demand video filters). The PS2 is primarily a gaming machine but I think it's secondary objective is to test out some architectural ideas. Sony might even try to poise itself as the next decade's SGI. That's just my five pesos.
  • Ethernet would be an exelent addition to the PS2. Think about it. Lets say that you want to play final fantasy 11 (which is going to be entirely online) but you don't want to pay for some outrageous phoneline-connection to the game network. Alternative? Plug in some ethernet cable, and hook it up to your LAN at home. Voila, instant connection to the game server (and many others) all with one simple cable.

    It would be very wise for Sony to do this, and support connecting as I described... but of course, we all know what they are after. The buck always stops here. *sigh* Never know though. Heck, if PS2 comes with ethernet, I think it would be damn cool. I'd love to hook my playstation to my LAN at home.
    Fran Frisina (franf@hhs.net)
    http://www.zero-productions.com/money
  • Well, several sources (like the GIA [thegia.com]) have commented that Play Online, Square's online gaming service, is entering in beta testing this fall [thegia.com] in Japan. So modems might be ready for this fall, which is when the PSX2 will be released in the US,so I wouldn't dismiss this so soon...

    But, I must admit, the PSX2 shipping with a modem and a hard disk certainly looks to good to be true, so it probably is a rumor...
    ---------------------------------------- -------------------

  • I've had a different multiplayer experience. The first true multiplayer computer game I ever played was Quake... loved it as a single player game then I played on the internet and was killed constantly. Then I discovered an internet cafe in my town that had weekly tournaments, which I frequented regularly... Just a fun thing to do on a Saturday afternoon. Slowly I got better.

    About the same time, my friends and I discovered to joys of Red Alert and Warcraft II on a Lan. Thus far, I had found multiplayer gaming, LAN-style to be awesome and internet to be lacking.

    After this, I became a Quake II fanatic, writing console scripts for myself and others, making skins and levels, etc... I found playing Quake online to be fun... Not a replacement for the single player game, however- I don't like this multi-player only trend... It's fun, to log on, play for like half an hour, kill a bit, get killed, whatever. And since it's a FPS you don't get all the disadvantages that RTS games have in online play (I'm getting to that).

    RTS games, in my experience are something you play with friends. I've played Starcraft extensively with friends and kids I've taught at a computer camp and am pretty god at it. I love to play, but online... There are just too many groups of people who form a game just to stomp on the one or two guys in the game they don't know.

    I think a console online multiplay option would be good for many games... Imagine being able to fight a REAL, single elimination tournament in a fighting game. I mean, most fighting games already have very little single-player content, so they'd be perfect for this. There could be a tournament running constantly. The winners would get their names up on the game's web site for a week or something... Or maybe every month, the person who wins the most tournaments wins a tshirt or other prize. The money lost on prizes and keeping the server running would be offset by the fact that the company would be developing a community of fans for _it's_ brand of fighting game...

    I think online play will be good for the consoles, not replacing the single player mode, but simply adding a new mode...

    Josh Sisk
  • It shouldn't *MATTER* to the games programmer whether or not they are doing their network code over a Modem line, or using the local LAN port.

    This is what device drivers are for.

    And this is *far* more important an issue than whether or not the PSX2 ships with a LAN card or modem out of the box... yet nobody is really looking at this, because the OS part of these consoles is not subject to the same sort of review that OS's like Windows or Linux are.

    Microsoft's X-Box presumably is designed around the same concepts of modern OS technology, with a driver layer between the API and the wire. This may in fact be to their advantage, because it means that developers can write software without having to worry about whether or not a particular peripheral is installed - this task should be a function of the OS, not the App (Game).

    So in my opinion, its more relevant to investigate whether or not the PSX2 gaming API's are device-agnostic due to a well written (and well supported) device driver layer from Sony... because if this is *not the case* (as in the past, with the PSX2), then X-Box has a leg up on PSX2...

  • The initial release of the DC browser was pretty limited in what it could do. Quicktimes, flash, etc all could not be downloaded. I believe they are releasing another version that has enhanced functionality.

    As for PS2 having an _analog_ modem, I would be very surprised. Higher ups at Sony have repeatedly stated that they won't drive up the cost of the PS2 to add a dinky 56k modem when the future is broadband. Now if they came out with an ethernet addition as a peripheral at launch, _that_ I could see.

    As for a HD, not too sure. PS2 has to create a foothold in the market that Sega is already doing well in and they _have_ to do it before the X-box comes out, regardless of how microsoft's machine will eventually do. Except for hardcore gamers (like moi) people will probably buy only one console. Sony has to make theirs the most attractive. The dreamcast should have its zip disk, cable modem and camera by then, Sony will need competing hardware. They will most likely not include it in the base package to keep the cost of the system down but might offer it at launch for those that want them. My $.42

  • It's hard disk, not hard drive, dammit!
  • It's this close to being an iMac DV ^^;

    DVD support, Firewire support, USB support, decent PSX compatibility(with CVGS), and a modem. In one unit.

    It'd be amusing if Apple released a iBox or something; a headless iMac for use with TV or monitor, with a G4 processor and AltiVec, for $500 or something. Then the biggest difference would be market targetting of the devices.

    Of course, the iBox would have ethernet support over the PSX2 modem, and the PSX2 would have better controllers and peripherals(unless they were USB... then switch and plug!)

    Just random rambling on my part


    -AS
  • Actually no. The SNES CDROM was being developed by Sony in response the SegaCD. Near the end of the project, Nintendo backed out and went with Philips (that project didn't come to anything either.) Pissed off, Sony added some stuff to the design, came out with the Playstation, and ate Nintendo's lunch. If anything, its is Nintendo that did the screwing, not Sony.
  • An ethernet card is not necessary for something that has firewire. You can set up a firewire network that approaches the speed of 100mpbs ethernet. Sony actually already does this in their VAIO line of desktop PCs.
  • I'm sorry, but families with three kids and income of less than $20k don't have dsl or cablemodems. But, I bet they will have PS2s... Many of them will, at least. The modem is a way to lure families who can't afford computers or DSL/cable onto their ISP.

    Josh Sisk
  • True, but it's not expense, it's simplicity. Do you think that average console user can figure out the difference between an ethernet and firewire port? I mean they could write instruction manuals and step by step diagrams, but in the end, why bother? Firewire works just as well, is integrated, and is one less driver that the OS needs to load.
  • Here is where you are mistaken -

    Several aftermarket add-ons have been successful - the Sega CD, Jaguar CD, Light Guns, the Nintendo 64 4MB Memory Pak, Sony Multitap, and Nintendo 64 Rumble Paks. It is quite possible to create accessories that developers use, they just have to be worthwhile. The Famicom Disk and the Sattelaview for the Famicom and Super Famicom were unsuccesful since no one was interested in downloading text games from satellite or in a format that offered no advantages over the cartridge. Similarly, I would be surprised if the Nintendo Robot offered anything to anyone. Lots of failed add-ons exist (Sega 32X), but in general, if there is enough of a use for hardware add-on, developers will support it at least secondarily.

    However, internet support is a massive add-on that is very worthwhile - plus, if you are developing a multi-player game, adding in support for broadband internet access is pretty easy. Since Sony has refused to allow a modem connection for the PS2, developers will NOT need to worry about optimizing network code for high-latency low-bandwidth connections, so adding internet support to Gran Turismo 2001 or Madden 2002 won't be terribly time-consuming. Net games are already in development for the PS2 (Final Fantasy XI, anyone?)... I doubt that the internet add-on will be anything but successful.

    As for the hard drive... From what I've read of Sony's white papers, the HD is not designed for heavy games use. Sony envisions a broadband network where you can setup the PS2 to download a DVD movie while you play Tekken, and cache it on the hard drive, or store tons of MP3s. Its use will be primarily as multimedia storage for the internet/application side of the PS2, not for gaming. It will be a convenience for the PS2 owner, not the console developer, so it should be reasonably successful - especially for people who don't own computers and use the PS2 as their primary internet device.

    Also, all current information points to an external 50GB+ Firewire hard disk released at the same time a PCMCIA Ethernet card is released - early 2001. Sony is already losing enough money on every PS2 that they sell to include $200 more hardware in the box.

  • My guess is that sony plans a launch of the system in two versions, one with modem & hard drive, one without. This way, you can legitimately say 'So the X-box has feature y? Got that, and a years worth head start...' while still offering a 'value-priced' console for people who don't need feature y.

    Remember, the NES was released in two versions- the Super Mario Bros. version, and the Duck Hunt/Gyromite versions, so there's a good precedent to follow here... A hard drive and modem sounds much cooler than a 'Robotic Operating Buddy', though I don't know if you could have convinced me of that 15 years ago...

    But I'm older and wiser now, and have learned to steer clear of the R.O.B.'s of the world... wait a second... What did you say CmdrTaco's real name was?

  • It's definitely an ISP-centric rather customer-centric solution. Believe me, as a customer it's a pain in the arse.

    It causes win9x based LANs allsorts of problems to do with MTU settings (it has to be set lower than the ethernet 1500).

    The PPPoE client software from my ISP (based on NTS) hard-locks an SMP WinNT box when it tries to connect. There is no official client for Win2K or BeOS, etc.

    I haven't found a PPPoE client that doesn't cause blue screens or doesn't have other problems with bugs or causing client side apps to fail.

    The Linux solutions are either a pain install, or are not in kernel space and have a CPU over-head.

    PPPoE is based on a non-standard RFC.

    Hardware routers, such as those from Linksys are problematic... so, a lot of software won't work and thus it's a matter of waiting for a firmware update.

    If my ISP had used DHCP or something similar, everything would work properly from my end. Other well established protocols/standards/etc have proven clients that are readily available on most platforms. These PPPoE clients aren't developed fast enough to be bug-free. Their customer base is too small to get the kind of attention PPPoE needs to work properly. If it were big enough Windows, Linux, Solaris, etc would all come with a client and we wouldn't have to put up with the crap we currently do.

    On the other angle, it helps big brother ISP.

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