Sony's New Online Strategy: Ingenious Or Idiotic?

   It's great that online gaming will supposedly come to fruition on the 
PlayStation 2 this fall, but this still doesn't change the reality Sony has 
done one of the stupidest things it could have possibly done.  It has 
separated the PS2's network adapter from its hard drive, deciding to sell 
the devices as two separate add-ons rather than one big add-on.  Talk about 
fragmenting your user-base...
   It's disappointing enough that Sony refused from Day One to do what 
Microsoft has done, which is doing whatever it takes to make sure that a 
hard drive and network adapter are built-in to every system sold.  Now that 
the PS2, its network adapter, and its hard drive are all going to be sold 
separately, Sony has taken this one step further.  PlayStation 2 developers 
who may be interested in creating online games will now have to say all of 
the following things to themselves:

"Some of my game's potential customers have a PS2 and a network adapter, but 
not a hard drive."

"Some of my game's potential customers have a PS2 and a hard drive, but not 
a network adapter."

"Some of my game's potential customers have a PS2, a hard drive, and a 
network adapter."

"Some of my game's potential customers have a PS2, but not a hard drive or 
a network adapter."

   That's four variables!  History has proven time and time again that with 
the typically atrocious sales of console add-ons, a video game system cannot
successfully support two variables like this, much less four.  If you're a 
third-party developer, it makes a lot more sense to make a game for a single,
unified Xbox market than it does to make a game for four separate, 
fragmented PS2 markets.  It's no wonder that a lot of third-party publishers
(including Sega) appear to be placing a much heavier emphasis on the Xbox 
than they are on the PS2.
   It hasn't been announced how much the PS2's hard drive is going to cost, 
but at an exorbitant 40 GB, it sure as hell isn't going to be cheap.  Also, 
how did Sony's online prospects transform almost overnight from an 
unofficial "nowhere near ready, expect it in 2002 at the earliest" to the 
current status of "it will be up and running this November"?
   Something else that makes me skeptical is Sony's partnership with America
Online, the proud providers of the world's slowest, least reliable, and most
spam-infested Internet access.  If you tell a bunch of your friends about the
PS2-AOL partnership, it's a safe bet that you'll get a lot more groans of 
dismay than you will positive reactions.
   Overall, I would have to say that Sony's online strategy is just as 
screwed up today as it was a week ago, even with the announced November 
launch date.  The Xbox's online gaming network won't be up and running until
next year, but when it is eventually launched, it will have a universal level
of developer support that is only made possible by having all of the 
necessary hardware built-in to every single console sold.

Send your thoughts on this editorial to ivan@mastergamer.com

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