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Extra bits and pieces seem to be being added to consoles left, right and centre these days, but like Robocop having a marshmellow toaster attached to his head, they’re not really any good unless they are considered useful.
Look at it this way (tilt head to the side…) Consoles are there to play games. Anything that helps them do this is a GOOD THING, so that includes a nice array of joypad ports and access for memory cards, as well as support for decent sound systems and an assortment of connections to TVs and monitors. What I’m more concerned about is the ‘extras’ that console makers are now seeing fit to add to their machines, both in the package with the console and afterwards.
Look.
If you add more hardware to a console, you are going to increase the price. DVD players are great if the games come on DVD and utilise the space on the shiny disc, but if they have to have extra lasers and mechanics to play movies, then the cost is going to rocket and people are going to be put off of buying the machine. OK, so you find that most of your customers really do want a DVD player, and don’t want to go out to the shops and get a good quality, cheap stand-alone player, so what do you do? Put a good quality DVD player in your machine, making it easily rival other cheap players that you could have bought if the console was any cheaper? Don’t be silly, you put a sub-standard player in and still charge a lot for the machine.
Ok, next. When you have any peripheral that becomes part of a machine when you use it all the time, the games are going to be bound to use this as a main feature of their game play. This is especially true when the maker or even the licenser of the games is the same person who released the peripheral in the first place. Extra hardware, like Hard Drives for instance, will automatically be supported by the top games and, if successful, will be used as a necessity for them, thereby making the owners of that console go out and buy the hardware, whether they want to or not. This has happened before and will happen again. If too many pieces of hardware are then released, the cost of owning the machine will eventually be sky high if you want to play the latest games, and it will also increase incompatibility problems with third party games, both new and old.
So how can console producers win? Well, stick to the basic principal that a games machine is just that, a machine for playing games. Adding other bits and pieces to download stuff from the net or do your mother’s knitting for you may sound an attractive proposition at first, but your’ll soon find out that these peripherals from hell are not selling because people simply can’t afford them, support them as ‘standard’ hardware and you’ll have a queue of angry customers carrying torches outside of your head office.
Look at it this way (tilt head to the side…) Consoles are there to play games. Anything that helps them do this is a GOOD THING, so that includes a nice array of joypad ports and access for memory cards, as well as support for decent sound systems and an assortment of connections to TVs and monitors. What I’m more concerned about is the ‘extras’ that console makers are now seeing fit to add to their machines, both in the package with the console and afterwards.
Look.
If you add more hardware to a console, you are going to increase the price. DVD players are great if the games come on DVD and utilise the space on the shiny disc, but if they have to have extra lasers and mechanics to play movies, then the cost is going to rocket and people are going to be put off of buying the machine. OK, so you find that most of your customers really do want a DVD player, and don’t want to go out to the shops and get a good quality, cheap stand-alone player, so what do you do? Put a good quality DVD player in your machine, making it easily rival other cheap players that you could have bought if the console was any cheaper? Don’t be silly, you put a sub-standard player in and still charge a lot for the machine.
Ok, next. When you have any peripheral that becomes part of a machine when you use it all the time, the games are going to be bound to use this as a main feature of their game play. This is especially true when the maker or even the licenser of the games is the same person who released the peripheral in the first place. Extra hardware, like Hard Drives for instance, will automatically be supported by the top games and, if successful, will be used as a necessity for them, thereby making the owners of that console go out and buy the hardware, whether they want to or not. This has happened before and will happen again. If too many pieces of hardware are then released, the cost of owning the machine will eventually be sky high if you want to play the latest games, and it will also increase incompatibility problems with third party games, both new and old.
So how can console producers win? Well, stick to the basic principal that a games machine is just that, a machine for playing games. Adding other bits and pieces to download stuff from the net or do your mother’s knitting for you may sound an attractive proposition at first, but your’ll soon find out that these peripherals from hell are not selling because people simply can’t afford them, support them as ‘standard’ hardware and you’ll have a queue of angry customers carrying torches outside of your head office.
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Sony should sell the PS2 with a hard drive and internet access as standard... but there is a cost and so it should be put off until the cost can be buffered i.e. £300 for the lot or less.
But I believe it is a necessity otherwise these things wont be popular.
As for PS2 viruses, does anyone hate Sony enough to create one???
But I believe it is a necessity otherwise these things wont be popular.
As for PS2 viruses, does anyone hate Sony enough to create one???
New Jimmy wrote:
However I believe that a modem for the Playstation2
> should be well supported. I also believe that when its released
> every new Playstation2 sold should either come with the add on or
> have it built in, in order to make sure the modem is used in as many
> games as possible.
It also means Sony can sell the PS2 for 280 and then charge peeps an extra 100 or so for the hard drive upgrade?
In the end the Xbox will take the fullest advantage of
> the internet and a harddrive as these will be standard for that
> machine. If this means new and better games than Microsoft will be
> onto a winner, if it means full PC virus compatability then were
> doomed :-(
Won't excatly the same thing happen to PS2 owners with HD and net access?
However I believe that a modem for the Playstation2
> should be well supported. I also believe that when its released
> every new Playstation2 sold should either come with the add on or
> have it built in, in order to make sure the modem is used in as many
> games as possible.
It also means Sony can sell the PS2 for 280 and then charge peeps an extra 100 or so for the hard drive upgrade?
In the end the Xbox will take the fullest advantage of
> the internet and a harddrive as these will be standard for that
> machine. If this means new and better games than Microsoft will be
> onto a winner, if it means full PC virus compatability then were
> doomed :-(
Won't excatly the same thing happen to PS2 owners with HD and net access?
I believe that new peripherals are a necessity in order for gaming to evolve to the next level. Its true that all these add ons will cost however if you want new innovative games then the price is worth it.
As for the Playstation2 having a DVD movie player, well why shouldnt it?? It probably only cost Sony an extra £10 to make the PS2 play DVD movies.
As for online gaming, well Im looking forward to it I think its the way forward.
What I dont like to see with consoles is peripherals that arent supported by games. Its well known that many peripherals just arent well supported, I have a Playstation mouse, I should know! Thats what we dont want to see, after all people dont mind paying a little for something new aslong as it offers them a new gaming experience.
However I believe that a modem for the Playstation2 should be well supported. I also believe that when its released every new Playstation2 sold should either come with the add on or have it built in, in order to make sure the modem is used in as many games as possible.
Peripherals have to be forced on the public, otherwise they can become one game wonders... and this benefits nobody.
As for a Playstation2 harddrive well that could be a good idea, but in my opinion its only really needed if online gaming takes off, It will be great to be able to download playable demos of games. However because of this it should ideally be sold with a modem!
In the end the Xbox will take the fullest advantage of the internet and a harddrive as these will be standard for that machine. If this means new and better games than Microsoft will be onto a winner, if it means full PC virus compatability then were doomed :-(
As for the Playstation2 having a DVD movie player, well why shouldnt it?? It probably only cost Sony an extra £10 to make the PS2 play DVD movies.
As for online gaming, well Im looking forward to it I think its the way forward.
What I dont like to see with consoles is peripherals that arent supported by games. Its well known that many peripherals just arent well supported, I have a Playstation mouse, I should know! Thats what we dont want to see, after all people dont mind paying a little for something new aslong as it offers them a new gaming experience.
However I believe that a modem for the Playstation2 should be well supported. I also believe that when its released every new Playstation2 sold should either come with the add on or have it built in, in order to make sure the modem is used in as many games as possible.
Peripherals have to be forced on the public, otherwise they can become one game wonders... and this benefits nobody.
As for a Playstation2 harddrive well that could be a good idea, but in my opinion its only really needed if online gaming takes off, It will be great to be able to download playable demos of games. However because of this it should ideally be sold with a modem!
In the end the Xbox will take the fullest advantage of the internet and a harddrive as these will be standard for that machine. If this means new and better games than Microsoft will be onto a winner, if it means full PC virus compatability then were doomed :-(
Eh?
Turbonutter wrote:
> Urgh...
The PS2 has a DVD drive. This is so it can use DVD-ROMs.
> The DVD drive was solely for the purposes of media storage. Now,
> Sony wanted to be able to play proper FMV movies without puttin a
> strain on the processor, so they put an MPEG-2 decoder into the
> Emotion Engine, just so it can decode MPEG-2 movies. Seeing as this
> is also the format of a DVD video, they thought "Why not have
> DVD playback facility?" and so they did.
That's the stroy of
> why the PS2 plays DVD without making it cost extra.
of course it is... and MMX stands for MultiMedia eXtentsions :)
> Urgh...
The PS2 has a DVD drive. This is so it can use DVD-ROMs.
> The DVD drive was solely for the purposes of media storage. Now,
> Sony wanted to be able to play proper FMV movies without puttin a
> strain on the processor, so they put an MPEG-2 decoder into the
> Emotion Engine, just so it can decode MPEG-2 movies. Seeing as this
> is also the format of a DVD video, they thought "Why not have
> DVD playback facility?" and so they did.
That's the stroy of
> why the PS2 plays DVD without making it cost extra.
of course it is... and MMX stands for MultiMedia eXtentsions :)
Thanks DJ.
Well done.
I like your style of writing, pb.
Urgh...
The PS2 has a DVD drive. This is so it can use DVD-ROMs. The DVD drive was solely for the purposes of media storage. Now, Sony wanted to be able to play proper FMV movies without puttin a strain on the processor, so they put an MPEG-2 decoder into the Emotion Engine, just so it can decode MPEG-2 movies. Seeing as this is also the format of a DVD video, they thought "Why not have DVD playback facility?" and so they did.
That's the stroy of why the PS2 plays DVD without making it cost extra.
The PS2 has a DVD drive. This is so it can use DVD-ROMs. The DVD drive was solely for the purposes of media storage. Now, Sony wanted to be able to play proper FMV movies without puttin a strain on the processor, so they put an MPEG-2 decoder into the Emotion Engine, just so it can decode MPEG-2 movies. Seeing as this is also the format of a DVD video, they thought "Why not have DVD playback facility?" and so they did.
That's the stroy of why the PS2 plays DVD without making it cost extra.
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