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"Sony admit: 'PS2 is not a video games player'"

News just in. Sony are having a row with our very own HM Customs and Excise department over the classification of what a PS2 really is. The Customs say it is a videogames player because it is 'not all that different from the Playstation which Sony launched in 1995'. (I am quoting directly here.) Sony, on the other hand, are slightly miffed by this to say the least. They say that with its 128-bit microprocessor and DVD capability it should be classed as a computer, not as a videogames player.
Now, as gamers, we all know exactly what the PS2 is. A games console, right? Then what are Sony playing at?
The truth has dawned. If the PS2 is classed as a videogames player, Sony will have to bear the brunt of an extra 2.2% tax to export it to the UK; if it is classed as a computer, they won't have to pay this extra money, which would add considerably to the losses that the Sony Corporation have already incurred over the launch of the PS2. This news, whichever way you look at it, is bad for gamers. Although Sony won't pass on the extra 2.2% to us gamers by hiking the price of the console, they will eventually find a way of clawing this lost revenue back. But, worst of all, all of us gamers know full well that there is a distinct difference between computers and game consoles, and the PS2 is definitely the latter variety of machine, so are Sony betraying us on the quiet by insisting it's a computer on the one hand and marketing it to us as a games machine on the other? Looks like it to me.

Remember it's not a computer or anything else. Consoles have been for games only until now.
Was the NES ever made for cooking an egg? NO, it was specially for games ONLY.
But mind the DVD's and CD players, we don't need it, all we need is cheap, powerful games consoles, with cheap games and good quality games, whether or not they want to put in DVD players, it just rams up the price!

Now consoles have been made for gaming for years not too play your CD's on. That's what brought the likes of Final Fantasy up into Sony's arms, after Nintendo's Cartridge dilemma. If only it used discs it would of been good, bu it wouldn't been made for CD's just some quality games.
What's wrong with the DC? Suffering from the PS2's hype and just because it has the internet, CD player and DVD.
Why? The games are coming what's wrong?

There were some problems in Japan mind, with the offish DVD playback.

Perhaps... I don't know. Somethings happened, anyway.

Mmm... dunno. Surely that would affect all machines? I'd have thought a few dodgy mechanisms would be more likely.

Didn't they change it from software to hardware? That might be the problem...

> The DVD not working is true though.

Indeed it is. Odd, though, that the problem doesn't seem to have surfaced on Jap units. Different drive mechanism, perhaps?

Not wound up at all - just clarifying with Grix what I originally meant, as he'd obviously taken my comments the wrong way.

Thanks for clearing that up. :)


Now even more PS2 news. DVD drives aren't working on some machines in America, and returns are being made. So Sony are slowing down production to make sure they all work. I think.

The DVD not working is true though.

You get wound up so easily!
Whenever someone writes a message that you disagree with, you end up going through every point.

There's really no need to do it every time

> I'm sorry to say this Babylonian, but aren't you being a tad bit
> biased now?

I didn't think so.


> I mean, what FantasyMeister says does make sense, and I don't
> think he is biased towards PS2, and was certainly not in his post.


I agree. I think you've mis-interpreted the tone of my post. I didn't mean the "of course" part in the tone of "of course it's a computer, you idiot" - I just meant that, logically speaking, it is a computer; it makes millions of calculations (or computations) per second. A pocket calculator is also - strictly speaking - a computer. That's all I meant.


> "Of course, logically, it is a computer - any microprocessor
> is a computer."
>
> Oh come on. The PS2 is a GAMES CONSOLE, it plays games, and it can
> also play CDs, and DVDs.

So does my PC, but does that mean it isn't a computer? Yes, PS2 may primarily be used for gaming, but it's also a serious piece of computer hardware. I use my PC primarily for games, but it isn't a games console because it *can* do so much more - just like PS2... and Dreamcast, and X-Box (not sure about GameCube).

> The Dreamcast plays CD's, but it wasn't
> marketed as a Home Entertainment System, it was marketed as a
> console.

That was Sega's choice. As you can use the net, connect a keyboard etc., they *could* have marketed it as more.


> "Where from?"
>
> I'm sure FanstasyMeister didn't just make that up on the spot, and
> I am equally sure he found the news from a relavant
news site.

So am I. I asked because I want to read the article! I am always dubious about snippets from articles. Last week, I read an article - I think on C|NET - which, from the quotes posted on another site, sounded very down on PS2. However, while the quotes were correct, the *full* article was very balanced and well-written.

My earlier post was not supposed to be a swipe at FantasyMeister's post in any way. If anything, it was a swipe at UK Customs. I apologise for any misunderstanding.

By the way SR don't award me for that, it was from daily radar! I'm no cheat.