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Sony Changes the Playstation 2 for the USA: What It Means For You
by Jeremy Horwitz for Gamers Today
It's truly rare for a Japanese game console maker to make significant changes to a machine before American release. Nintendo did it with the NES, removing the Japanese Famicom's built-in controller-based microphone input, modifying the electronics of the cartridge slot, and dramatically changing the exterior of the machine. Since then, the only changes that Japanese consoles have endured before coming to the United States have been purely cosmetic and relatively minor, at that.
Sony is changing all that with the American release of the PlayStation 2, adding some major features to the machine in response to a rapidly changing game console market. (See Gamers Today's previous PS2 article for more details on the Japanese PS2 hardware.) But Sony's distinctive jet black box will remain cosmetically near-identical to the Japanese model, possessing two controller ports, two memory card ports, a front-loading disc mechanism and the ability to position the machine horizontally or vertically. It will also include one Dual Shock 2 controller, power and video cords.
Five changes may surprise U.S. PlayStation 2 purchasers. First, the machine will not include one of the 8 megabyte memory cards that shipped as a standard component of the Japanese console. These will be sold separately (for $35) at the machine's launch, and will be an almost necessary accessory. Why almost necessary? The second change is a major one - the Japanese PlayStation 2 literally required a memory card in order to play DVD movies, because the machine did not have built-in DVD drivers on a ROM chip. DVD drivers came pre-loaded on the included memory card, and could be updated or refreshed by a load from an included (or subsequently updated) utility disc. The American PlayStation 2 will have a built-in Flash ROM chip to preserve the DVD drivers and update them as necessary.
The third change is strategically important. Months ago, Sega announced that it was going to prioritize development of modem-based software and really push "narrowband" online gaming - so much so that it would give away Dreamcast consoles in order to develop a gaming network. When Sony shipped the PlayStation 2 in Japan, the machine contained no specific modem or network hardware; now Sony has announced that it would take a major step towards competing with Sega by including a specific networking port on the machine, presumably replacing the PC card slot present on the Japanese PS2. This doesn't mean that the PS2 is network-ready or capable of going online out of the box; rather, Sony will be selling a broadband networking accessory for the machine at some point in the future.
The fourth change to the PS2 is of a similar nature - the U.S. machine will have a large docking port for an internal hard disk drive, which is intended to compete with Microsoft's X-Box console. Again, the drive will be sold separately, and the details aren't public yet as to the number of gigabytes or pricing of the device. Notably, Sony has released photographs and a prototype of an external hard disk for the Japanese PS2, which features an Ethernet connection jack (but no cable modem or DSL hardware of its own for actual connectivity).
The biggest change is the price -- the American PS2 will sell for $299 - less than its Japanese brother, and include more functionality, besides. Could American consumers be in any better shape come Fall? Let's just hope Sony can conquer their biggest Japanese release problem - getting enough machines into stores to meet demand. If they can pull this one off, the PS2 will be on its way to being a serious contender in the American video game market.
