Equip: The future of PS2.

[PuPPeT]

Ok please do not post in here till I have posted the whole thing 6 posts in all




Online console gaming. Sega saw it as the USP destined to fend off the competition when the Dreamcast arrived on the scene back in 1998. The company's Dreamarena would provide Net access to millions of gamers for the price of a local call, while the machine's 32K modem gave owners a taste of online gaming that had previously only been the enclave of the PC fraternity.

Or so the dream went. In reality the machine simply didn't do the numbers, while the 32K modem – which was actually (surprise, surprise) a 56K modem in disguise – still couldn't handle the demands placed upon it by the likes of Quake III Arena. The result? The console quickly faded in a cloud of rival brand loyalty and PS2 stole the limelight. What Dreamcast's birth/death agonies did achieve was to sow the concept of an online console in the minds of a gaming public hungry for innovation. Which wasn't such a shoddy an epitaph, after all.

From the start, then, Sony had to be seen to make promises about online connectivity to keep the faithful on side. Sega had upped the ante, but its leading competitor stacked its chips higher by attaching the magic word 'broadband' to its project. High-speed connection that would rule out plodding framerates, curb the frustration of repeatedly being kicked off servers, and bring about the advent of streamed video feeds, pay-per-play demos and episodic game releases. Another dream, but surely if anyone could make this vision of a working, global, console-based network a reality, it was Sony.

Then came the waiting. Three E3s passed, and three times SCEA president Kaz Hirai took the stage at Sony's press events pointing at the back of the PS2 or holding the US Dualband Modem aloft like some homecoming hero from a football match. And every time he did, something happened in a territory other than Europe.

Online Fantasies
In Japan, Square and its PlayOnline servers led the way with Final Fantasy XI, the most ambitious instalment of the Final Fantasy series ever. Mirroring the technology behind such PC titles as Ultimate Online and EverQuest, the Japanese developers bought in a stack of Hewlett Packard Net servers but chose not to provide a targeted broadband modem from the off. Instead Square, and Sony, relied on the popularity of the triple-A franchise to spur gamers into organising USB ethernet connections. Ultimately, it was a move that would irrevocably damage sales of the title and stall the adoption of network console gaming in Japan. When a broadband modem did finally arrive it came as an integrated part of Sony's HDD package, the cost of which effectively turned all but the truly devoted off to the idea of getting involved. To date, only around 130,000 copies of the massively multiplayer RPG have been sold in Japan with a meagre

15-30,000 gamers logging on to play daily. All that may well be set to change, though, as Sony moves its new, non-HDD specific Broadband Navigator away from online distribution via its Japanese Web site and out on to the high street.

[PuPPeT]

Sony gets started
So the first, faltering steps in Sony's online plans were taken. Yes, adoption was, and still is, slow, with a market hobbled by cost and hardware availability. But it was a start, nonetheless.

Another E3, another proud pointy finger from Hirai and – shazam – America launches its Dualband Modem in August 2002. An altogether more orchestrated affair, it displayed a greater confidence on the part of Sony and, importantly, a selection of HDD-free launch titles – NFL2K3, NFL GameDay 2003, Madden NFL 2003, SOCOM: US Navy Seals and Twisted Metal Black Online. All of which were quickly followed by ATV Offroad Fury 2, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, NBA Live 2003, Tribes Aerial Assault and, most recently, EverQuest Online Adventures. It was a prestigious output in such a short period, certainly, but how have US gamers adapted to the new online world streaming into the back of their PS2s? Equip catches up with leading US PlayStation2 journo Eric Bratcher to find out if the same teething problems that plagued Japanese users had been duplicated Stateside.

"Things are definitely coming on strong in the US, despite a few notable hiccups," he explains. "The Dualband Modem is selling well – approximately 650,000 units so far – although it was hampered early on by short supplies and the need for a few extra solid games. As for actual connection issues, the device is working surprisingly well out of the box, although a number of gamers are being forced to buy routers so that they can connect both PS2 and PCs simultaneously. Also, the inclusion of narrowband has led to a few gamers dragging the odd deathmatch to a grinding halt. For the most part, though, it's clear that PlayStation2 is ready and able to embrace online gaming."

A powerful start, then, for the US model, and one soon to be bolstered by the arrival of online party title My Street and the musical head-to-head licks of Sony's Amplitude. Even Square is in the process of beta testing FFXI on PC, which has again renewed speculation about an imminent announcement concerning the US version of the HDD. So, for UK gamers with import machines and an existing broadband connection, the revolution has already started. But what of the rest of those out there with their PAL PS2s?

[PuPPeT]

ENA in the UK
SCEE's official statement of October 31, 2002 confirmed that its launch package would mirror that of the US. As a result, it will contain the Ethernet Network Adaptor (ENA), a disc that will include an unspecified number of online demos – the US version had two – along with a detailed step-by-step user guide. The whole package will retail for around £40 and the UK will be the first country in Europe to test the waters of PS2 networked gaming, with Germany following a close second. The question is: how will we contend with the numerous obstacles that obviously stand in our way?

Use any existing narrowband connection, log on to the technical support forums for EverQuest Online Adventures and you'll be faced with questions about connection problems, port triggering and server dropouts to name but a few. It's a far cry from the plug-and-play responsiveness that most console gamers have come to expect. In fact, the more forums you read, the more PC everything becomes. Arguments about the decapitations in Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven fall away and you find yourself in the ninth circle of tech hell alongside broken IT managers and stacks of out-of-date Dilbert calanders. It's a worrying realisation that instantly provokes a host of concerns. Are UK gamers likely to suffer from a graduation of server support depending on who develops the game they're currently playing? Would it really be a good idea to invest in a router if you've already got a PC? In the absence of a browser, how will non-computer-owning gamers learn valuable information from support sites? And what of the future of broadband? Are we really on the brink of that non-stop data-streaming dream we mentioned earlier? Questions, questions, questions… When faced with so many, the only real option is to shine up those apples, visit the proverbial horse's mouth, and see if it'll bite.

Shiny apples
Can we find anywhere selling apples between Paddington and Soho Square, the location of SCEE's HQ? No. What we can find, though, is the vice president of business development, Nainan Shah, ready to chat about all things networked and PS2 shaped. Equip opens by asking him about how Sony had dealt with the technological issues, both inside and outside the company.

"Our approach on the whole, and in the network area especially, is very open," he begins. "We haven't got all the answers internally and we're not trying to tell the development community how to attack this area. What we're trying to ensure is that there's a core of technology for our internal studios, and that this is also available for external developers who don't want to get into low-level development. A good example of this is our SCRT middleware for network gaming – a basic suite of enabling technologies. If an external company wants a ready-made solution, then this is available for them to use."

The current situation in the US is that each PS2 online title has its own dedicated server, meaning you effectively have a different identity and password every time you log on. What Equip wants to know from Shah is whether the same would be true of the UK network. "Our open philosophy once again applies to the server and community technologies and to hosting solutions as well," Shah elaborates. "We have our own infrastructure, but it's perfectly open for developers and publishers to create their own solutions. In the US the model has been that the publisher of the product has taken responsibility for the actual server management."

[PuPPeT]

No Xbox Live
So it appears that, unlike Xbox, there won't be one central gateway through which you'll play online. Which is ironic, really, as the model Sony is favouring is one that has already been successfully implemented within the PC community. It's a thought that opens questions about the mass appeal of the ENA. Does Shah expect the device to be adopted quickly by PS2 users? Or will it end up being the preserve of a tech-savvy minority?

"If you'd asked me the same question about PSone at the time of it's launch I'd have to say that both cases were true," he says. "Gaming was niche but it was destined to become massmarket. I think the same is true of network gaming. We have to accept that it isn't something every man in the street goes home and does. At the moment, we see it more as an enhancement. As a greater number of people touch and feel the additional experiences that online gaming offers, we think it will become more common for people to decide it will be worthwhile to connect consoles up to their networks."

Again that use of the word 'experiences', echoing SCEE president Chris Deering's comments in an official press release from October 2002 when he said he planned "to provide consumers with the broadest selection of new online experiences and entertainment from a variety of sources." So what are we talking here? A shift in paradigm? The birth of new genres?

"There'll be new experiences for consumers that they've never been able to have on a console before," reckons Shah. "And, to some extent, they will also take a very different form from those on PC. Things like the team aspect of SOCOM. It's the start of a whole notion of collaborating with a group of people that you can't see but can speak to. It's an area that will obviously evolve as people get better and better at collaborating and will want to do this in more complex and challenging ways. As for applications outside gaming you need to look at the PS2 itself. It does a lot of things. It won't make you a cup of tea in the morning but it will play your DVDs – many people also forget that it's a rather good CD player. As the PS2 evolves, and as a new generation of consoles come in the future, we'll see the suite of things you can do on top of playing games increase." Shah goes on to briefly mention the distribution of music and films via broadband before incorporating both these ideas into the notion of gaming itself evolving towards the peripheries of the media: "Take music products that incorporate elements of mixing. The downloading of tracks is something that's very popular already. Which, in itself, brings about issues of security – something that consoles are very capable of providing. Then, if we move over to look at what's happening in Japan, we can see that the 200,000 owners of the Broadband Navigator and HDD are able to operate movie channels and get involved with photo editing and management activities."

Security measures
Security-sensitive consoles? We can see what he's getting at there. The PS2, even with its hard drive fitted, will probably not have a read/write option, making the ripping and burning of CDs problematic. Not impossible – the inclusion of digital output puts paid to that – but it will be something you'll have to work at to achieve. As for the potential of an online version of MTV Music Generator where you'd be able to trade samples and tracks live or, perhaps, a Dance Dance Revolution face-off to the ripped song of your choice… Well, it's enough to trigger a distracting sequence of rhythms and dance steps somewhere in the back of your mind. Pushing them aside, Equip scrambles to catch up with Shah to find him explaining why the UK version of the ENA will be broadband only: "There are issues that arise when a platform attempts to blend too many different access technologies. The reason why we've gone for broadband only in Europe is that narrowband is less entrenched here. We've been slower to adopt Net access than the US. As such, we think that broadband will be taken up a lot quicker. More fundamentally for us the exciting games, the things that are really going to turn people on and enhance the platform, are the broadband products. That's why we decided to take the plunge and look forward."

It's hard not to be impressed. It's a bold and risky move, especially when you consider the amount of obstacles even the most educated of gamers will have to overcome if they wish to get online. So, how is Sony planning to deal with this potential technical stumbling block?

"One of the key areas to address this is in the communication of solutions to the consumer," explains Shah. "We think the playstation.com site will be very important in explaining what the options are – and there are a lot of them – and what the best solution is. The other area is directly on the customer service side, to make sure the teams within our company have got a sufficient understanding of what's going to be required. Previously broadband was adopted by technologists, but now there'll be a reason for someone to go broadband without them being heavily into the Internet. So they'll need a level of support, and dare I say perhaps even a quality of support, that networks have not been used to providing."

It's still a long way from the 'out of the box' approach to online gaming a lot of PS2 owners were hoping for, isn't it?

"It's tricky. The primary area of activity will be in relation to routers and modems. You know there are a lot of other devices – laptops, PCs – that need to be connected in the modern home. A number of companies have already started to produce PlayStation solutions within their boxes and effective support from them is also important. So the consumer won't have an entirely plug-and-play solution. I wouldn't pretend that going on to a broadband network is the same as pulling something out of a box and plugging it in. They will need to turn to their suppliers for the answers. And that's really the focus of what we're doing by trying to change the mentality of some of the suppliers in the chain. We're still working on that one [laughs]."

[PuPPeT]

A changing Sony
Again, another well-executed sidestep. It's not for Sony to organise the servers, as that would interfere with the intellectual property of the developer. And it's not up to Sony to force solutions on consumers with the freedom to chose what type of broadband connection they want to their homes. It's the middle road of all middle roads… Perhaps it's a situation that's come about as a result of a learning curve triggered by a difficult Japanese launch.

"Sure, the whole organisation has needed to change its mentality," agrees Shah. From QA to development, even in marketing, working with new people in new ways. The volume and demand in the US has led us to be more confident. It's been a big surprise for the content community. I think now we can safely say that PS2 is the most successful broadband console ever. There's more of them connected worldwide than anything we've had before and we haven't even got going in Europe."

What of Xbox, though? Does Shah see Sony's alternative, perhaps more measured, approach being a worthy competitor to Microsoft's Live service?

"I wouldn't describe our approach as measured," he counters. "Although I think difference is always an advantage, and I think broadband isn't everything PS2 has to offer, nor is it everything the consumer wants. Yes, it's part of our future and it's part of PlayStation now but there's also a lot of other, different things we're making noise about. So the overall message, although it may appear diluted, is if you look at what we're doing in this area it's still very, very substantial."

Just how substantial?
"We're bringing out between 40 to 50 titles in the next financial year, but I think the key issue is not the quantity, it's the genre mix, the variety. As far as the experience goes you've got different middlewares, different technologies emerging – with the best ones winning. But at one end you've got the experience of EverQuest with its commitment and subscription fees. You can lose your life to it. Then you've also got some more instantaneous gratification. You've got SOCOM with its voice recognition, communication, teams… But you don't lose your life [laughs]. And then you've got Hardware – even more instantaneous, where someone like me can enjoy it without getting shot in the first 15 seconds. And Destruction Derby, another great, very novel title. So, the range of different experiences means there should be something there for most people. It's something that will keep coming, keep building…"

[PuPPeT]

Price and release
There are many factors to mull over, then, and lots of issues for interested gamers still to resolve. As for an accurate cost and definitive release date, these things have become blurred by Sony's recently announced soft launch. As of the March 31 you'll be able to pick up an ENA from the official Web site (www.uk.playstation.com) for £40 plus £5 P&P – providing you own a PS2 and already have broadband connection to your home. In the Network Starter's Pack, alongside with the hardware, you'll receive an online-only copy of SOCOM US Navy Seals (you'll get the full version free of charge once it's released) plus a USB headset for use with the game. Which is good news for those lucky enough to be signed up for the trials. For everyone else, though, it means yet more waiting for a finalised launch line-up, a high street release date and further information on how the HDD will fit into this increasingly complex equation. What Equip can tell you now is that SOCOM has a confirmed UK release date of May 30, which, when coupled with Midnight Club 2's arrival by April 11, gives a reasonably tight launch window for things kicking off in the UK.

The future online
And so Equip comes away, sauntering back towards Paddington caught somewhere between excitement and a sense of disappointment that the out-of-the-box scenario is, ultimately, a fiction in these broadband-lean times. The incentive is still building with each newly confirmed online title, the ways and means on the cusp of being a reality. The only real hurdle Sony's online plans will face in the coming 12 months is how effectively this new way of doing things, what Shah calls this new 'mentality', is conveyed to the gamer casually thumbing a copy of Tribes Aerial Assault in HMV. It all centres around that Field of Dreams belief of 'build it and they will come'. And, inevitably, a proportion of the four million PS2 owners in the UK will.
See, it only takes a fraction of this massive installed base to be tempted by its burgeoning catalogue of online titles, to ensure the Ethernet seed falls on fertile ground. Initially what will grow from this conception won't be some illusory Eden, rather a barren, sparsely vegetated land that will require tools for cultivation – the ENA, the PC, the ADSL modem, the broadband cable guy's drill… But it will become fruitful, there is no doubt about that. And if all of this sounds like too much hard work, don't get involved. The early adopters will carry on regardless. They'll fill up the message boards with fault notifications and suggestions for improvement, while the boys in the back rooms perfect their craft and eventually bring about a new iteration of networked technology for the next generation of consoles. The ultimate question then in this struggle to get online is a personal one. How do you want to be remembered? As a frontiersman or a tourist?

Equip PS2, Edge's look at the future of PlayStation 2, is on sale now.

Got something to say about this story? Heard any top gaming news that we should know about? Then email gamesradar@futurenet.co.uk

[PuPPeT]

Ok done! :D It is very good if you can be assed to read it that is.


Ooops did not think maybe this would be better of fin the PS2 Online part. :(


Cheers

[Joeiss]

Good article... I don't really have any comments on it either that that it was a good article... lol.

[gekko]

Originally posted by PuPPeT
OOnline console gaming. Sega saw it as the USP destined to fend off the competition when the Dreamcast arrived on the scene back in 1998.

1999, actually.

The company's Dreamarena would provide Net access to millions of gamers for the price of a local call, while the machine's 32K modem gave owners a taste of online gaming that had previously only been the enclave of the PC fraternity.

I don't recall it being called a Dreamarena. And online gaming with consoles existed, it just wasn't popular.

Or so the dream went. In reality the machine simply didn't do the numbers, while the 32K modem ? which was actually (surprise, surprise) a 56K modem in disguise ? still couldn't handle the demands placed upon it by the likes of Quake III Arena.

It was 32K in Japan. Q3A supported the BBA. And this was still at a time when very very few people even knew what the hell ethernet was. It was bigger in Japan than it was here.

The result? The console quickly faded in a cloud of rival brand loyalty and PS2 stole the limelight.

I wouldn't say online gaming caused DC's death. I was there at the launch of DC, and there wasn't a word about PS2's online strategy. Online gaming still wasn't very popular, not for DC owners, and not for those waiting for PS2. Broadband has grown from next to nothing since 1999.

[bobcat]

Originally posted by PuPPeT
Ok done! :D It is very good if you can be assed to read it that is.


Ooops did not think maybe this would be better of fin the PS2 Online part. :(


Cheers


To be honest I can't. No matter how much I tried I couldn't bring myself to reading the whole thing :(