3/8/00

Did Sony Drop the Ball?

Never in a million years would I have thought that Sony would, or could, screw up the launch of the much-ballyhooed Playstation2, but it looks like that’s exactly what happened. Man, it looks as if Sony may not be infallible, after all. Last Saturday, Sony released the Playstation2 to a ravenous Japanese public. People camped out for days in order to ensure their systems, and online preorders broke all records. However, when the PS2 finally hit the streets, it turned out to be a very mixed bag.

Sales-wise, last weekend was huge for Sony. Sony claims to have sold 980000 units over three days, which is just short of the 1 million unit goal that I laughed at last month. Oh, well. In reality, though, 720000 were actually sold in, due to 260000 online preorders that were not filled. Jeez, it looks like preordering stuff isn’t such a good idea in Japan. Anyway, I’m actually skeptical of the 720000-unit number, as most retailers reported only receiving 20 or so systems, and early reports indicated that only 300000 or so units would be available. Of course, Sony could have delivered a ton of systems at the last minute – anything is possible. Anyway, 1.4 million software units were also sold, which is very impressive. In the rosy afterglow of a record-breaking sales weekend, everything seemed perfect. That is, until the problems started appearing…

First, it turns out that most, if not all, of those fancy 8Mb memory cards are defective. One problem is that when you save Ridge Racer V data to a card, the DVD drivers become corrupted. You then have to re-load the drivers from a utility disc. This is not damning by itself, but it is annoying. More serious are the reports that save files, for pretty much all of the launch games, will become corrupted, or disappear entirely, for no apparent reason. Sony has issued an official recall for the cards, and replacements are said to be available in mid-March. This is eerily similar to those defective games that plagued the U.S. launch of the Dreamcast – it’s somewhat refreshing to see that Sega is not the only company susceptible to such difficulties.

Unfortunately, the problems did not end there. There are also reports of the DVD drive skipping during movie playback, and the system will freeze up during gameplay for unknown reasons. What’s really disturbing, however, are the reports of overheating during extended use. Sony is notorious for this – although they would never admit it, overheating has plagued the Playstation since day one. I myself have gone through two Playstations, and I know people who have gone through many more. I was really hoping that Sony would have learned a lesson here, but I guess that it was not meant to be. I’m personally a bit nervous about throwing $300-$400 down on a PS2 if it is going to have the same problems as the old one. Not good.

Another problem has come in form of the backwards-compatibility. It was originally thought that the PS2 would play all PS1 games, but the graphics and load times would not be improved. The reality is that texture filtering can now be employed, making games like Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo much prettier. Also, an option exists that allows you to speed up load times. Unfortunately, the cost of these features is that they tend to make many games lock up, and, even with all of the features turned off, many games are still not compatible with the PS2. Definitely a two-edged sword.

The gaming press has been surprisingly hard on the new system, considering that, just a couple of weeks ago, most were declaring it the Second Coming. Most have said that, although they like the design of the PS2, it is nothing even remotely revolutionary. The new Dual Shock2 controller is nothing special, and many have said that those analog buttons are more annoying than anything. Apparently, you have to practically smash the buttons in order to get "full power" from them. Everyone seems generally unimpressed with the launch library, as well. Ridge Racer 5 is, by far, the best game available, but even it has oodles of pop-up. Kessen and Street Fighter EX3 only turned out "okay", and the rest of the lineup consists of dance/rhythm games, a train simulator, and another recycled King’s Field (Eternal Ring). In fact, there are many of the opinion that, not only do the games not look significantly better than Dreamcast games, but, in fact, many of them look worse. That’s not exactly what I was expecting from an over-hyped machine that costs twice as much as the DC.

What I’m trying to figure out is: Why did Sony push out the PS2 before it was ready? True, the Playstation is really showing its age, but it’s still extremely popular, and it still has a lot of AAA product on the way. Sony could have easily waited a couple of months and ironed out all of the bugs. With Dreamcast sales relatively dismal in Japan, Sony could have delayed the launch without losing much market share. And, let’s face it, none of those PS2 games scream "Gotta have it!", so an extra month or two of waiting wouldn’t be that excruciating. Releasing the PS2 before it was ready just seems odd coming from a company known for its calculated decisions.

Now, now, Sony fanboy, don’t get your panties in a bunch; Sony is far from being in trouble. For one thing, Japanese launches have always sucked – I don’t know why, they just do. The Dreamcast launch library consisted of Pen Pen, Godzilla, July, and VF3 – that’s it. The Dreamcast launch in the States, however, consisted of over 20 titles, with many of them "must-owns". The PS1 launch in Japan consisted entirely of Ridge Racer and Toshinden, but over a dozen games were on hand for the U.S. launch. The Japanese N64 launch lineup was only two titles – Mario64 and Pilotwings, and the U.S. launch lineup was…Mario64 and Pilotwings. God, I hate Nintendo. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that Sony has plenty of time to work out the bugs in the hardware (hopefully) and to get a sizable library of titles for the American PS2 debut. In fact, there are supposedly 47 titles being prepped for launch, and at least a few of those have to be pretty good, right?

So, in the end, I am still optimistic about the future of the PS2. The system looks great (in my opinion), and everyone’s going nuts over that boot sequence and blue LED. The Dual Shock is still one of the best controllers around (except for Capcom fighting games), and being able to use most PS1 peripherals is a definite plus. Although the graphics are nothing special right now, I would imagine that they will improve drastically in the future. There are some good games on the way, too. Stuff like Armored Core 2, The Bouncer, Ninja Gaiden, R5, and Onimusha will ensure that a PS2 will be in my grubby little hands come launch day. Now that the PS2 is a reality, however, it seems obvious that it is not the Sega-killer that it was made out to be. Like I said, the graphics aren’t a drastic improvement over those of the Dreamcast, and the lineup of games for the next year or so is looking kinda sparse, so it looks like I’ll get plenty more use out of my happy little white box. In my opinion, Sega makes the best first-party games around, and there’s some groovy third-party stuff on the way, as well. Combine that with the DC’s lower price point and Internet capability (finally!), and it looks like good ‘ol Sega will be able to hold its own after all. Of course, it also seems obvious that Nintendo is REALLY in trouble now. But, that’s only common sense.

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