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"The return of add ons!"

Most people will know the history of add ons. Sega's 32X and Mega CD were made to exploit their lucrative 16bit console even though the industry was screaming for 32bit, and Nintendo's 64DD would allow extras for games and the ability to surf the net. All of these failed horribly.

So why, oh why are Sony trying to make people buy a modem and Hard drive add on to the PS2?

What my above examples have proved is that if a feature doesn't come with a console then games won't support it. If games don't support it, then gamers won't buy it, and so the cycle continues. Basically, if it ain't in the box when you buy the console it won't take off.

However, has the industry changed enough to make sure that Sony's add ons don't flop? After all, both of these things are aimed at internet gaming, which is seen by many to be the way into the future.

Not only that, but already it appears that Sony have some big-name games coming out that will support the modem- Final Fantasy 11 being the biggest.

But what about the hard drive? What will it actually do? It could save upgrades for games- but if people don't buy it then there won't be any games supporting it. It could save things from the internet... but why would people want to buy a whole new unit to do this?

Personally, I am still in the mind that manufacturers have to either provide features in the console when you buy it, OR make upgrades cheap and necissary for people to buy them.

The N64 expansion pack was bundled with games, and even required for some big titles. It was cheap, no hassel, and took off very well. Likewise, I can see the Xbox's cheap upgrade to allow it to play DVDs taking off big time- after all, for £30 you erradicate the need for a DVD player.

However, with the PS2 upgrades, things are different. The hard drive really does have no appeal to any non-hardcore gamers- it's simply too costly to warrant buying. The modem will probably take off in limitted numbers, but how many games developers will really support it to make casual gamers buy what is a fairly pricey piece of kit?

Sonnic

HelloHowAreYou wrote:
Des any1 know is Nintendo are using BITS or BYTES for their memory
> cards?

Bits I think. I know my friend didnt have a N64 so he got a ROM from the net of Goldeneye. It was 12 megabytes so times it by 8 and you get 96 megabits which is the size of the actual Goldeneye cartridge.

HelloHowAreYou wrote:
> POP!

Des any1 know is Nintendo are using BITS or BYTES for their memory
> cards?

No idea, but i wanna know!

Sonic

POP!

Des any1 know is Nintendo are using BITS or BYTES for their memory cards?

i dont know and personally i dont care ! :)

Indeed, the adaptor and memory card price is far too bit.. but are they using bytes or bits??

Sonic

Will someone please reply to my message?

Ninty are still probably using megaBits just so that it seems that they have more memory...

So which is it??? Please don't tell me that Ninty are still using MegaBITS, rather than MegaBYTES, to describe strorage capacities in an attempt to confuse the gamer.

Sonic

Sorry. That would be 512Kb, not 256.

Or 4Mbits which means 256kbytes...

I'm almost certain that's what the 59 page one is.

Or†ega wrote:
> They are 4Meg.

I'm assuming thats 4 Megabytes...

So, I was right all along