DailyTech - Sony Stops Manufacturing PSone; Emulates Games on PSP

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Gadgets Sony Stops Manufacturing PSone; Emulates Games on PSP
Sven Olsen (Blog) - March 25, 2006 3:08 AM

18 comment(s) - last by Johnmcl7.. on Mar 26 at 7:05 PM

Sony's Updated PlayStation Console, PSone

Sony has called it quits on the 1st-gen PlayStation console and will add PSone game support to PSP

As reported on GameSpot.com, Sony has stopped manufacturing the PSone game console after an 11 year run as the dominant CD-based gaming system of its generation. The PSone had the same guts as the original PlayStation but an updated facade to appeal to the changing times/consumer.

Sony has also announced that it will be providing updates to the PlayStation Portable handheld game console to emulate PSone games. Sony says the games will be made available online but has not released any other details.

The end of production of the PSone console looks to be a move to make room for production of the new PlayStation 3 game console which is expected to launch later this year.

Competition-wise, Sega's Dreamcast was the only other gaming console on the market in the PSone class, however Dreamcast could not hold up in US competition because of the quick and strong adoption of the PlayStation2 console by the public.

Sony also assures that PSone consoles will still be available in limited supply for those wanted to grab a package for one last hurrah. This looks like it may be a good move by Sony to accommodate production of the PS3 console to avoid shortages we experienced during the Xbox 360 launch by Microsoft late last year.

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Agreed, article is flawed

By Saist on 3/25/2006 12:33:55 PM , Rating: 3

I'm not even sure where to start on this particular article.

The fact that the Dreamcast was a competitor with Playstation 2, GameCube, and Xbox, and not a competitor with PS1.

The fact that SegaCD and Sega32X were replacements intended to combat SNES and Jaguar respectively.

The fact that the Saturn was released and competed against the PSX alongside the N64.

The fact that the article does not address or recall Sony's Purchase of Connectix Virtual Game Station.

The fact that the Dreamcast failed due to Sony ordering developers to cancel projects or Sony would withhold licenses for the Playstation2 entertainment system, confirmed with the cancellation of Half-Life: Blue Shift, as well as by several former EA employees.

I'm also half tempted to touch on how the PS1 production is ending to make room for PS3 production. Slight problems with that. The PS1 is still a terrific seller outside of the Japanese, American, and UK markets, and often outsells the original Xbox in all considered minor markets. PS1 production has not been a consideration for literal years in the 3 major markets and the termination of the project has little, if any impact, on the status of the Playstation3. It also needs to be noted that the manufacturing facilities are not even geographically located near each other. Ergo? The demise of PS1 construction is not related to PS3 construction.

Seriously, I think this has got to be the worst news story ever on Anandtech/DailyTech. I get the feeling Sven didn't even bother to research any of the subject matter.

RE: Agreed, article is flawed

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 3/25/2006 1:36:26 PM , Rating: 2

OK i'll bite.

The Dreamcast was available for a year before the PS2 (two years before gamecube, one year before xbox). Sega ended production of the unit 3 months after PS2 was launched. Like it or not, the system only realistically competed with the PS1 in the US.

quote:

I'm also half tempted to touch on how the PS1 production is ending to make room for PS3 production. Slight problems with that. The PS1 is still a terrific seller outside of the Japanese, American, and UK markets, and often outsells the original Xbox in all considered minor markets.

Promotional, development, support, etc. The actual factory is 1/1000th of the overhead for actually supporting a platform.

Kristopher

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RE: Agreed, article is flawed

By frostedambassador on 3/25/2006 8:20:11 PM , Rating: 2

Regardless of which systems were available at the same time, the Dreamcast was marketed and generally considered the first of the "next generation" systems (at least in the US in 1999). If you wanted a "new" system, one would never consider the choice between the PSX, N64, and Dreamcast - Dreamcast was the first of the next gen systems. Many decided to wait for the PS2 - waiting to jump on the next gen bandwagon. In any case, the general conception of the Dreamcast in 1999 was that it was the first of the next gen systems.

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RE: Agreed, article is flawed

By CZroe on 3/26/2006 4:40:47 AM , Rating: 2

Kris! You actually think the Gamecube came out a year after the XBOX? You seem to have flaws of your own. ;) The XBOX and GCN were released nearly simultaneously in 2001. A last-second delay put the GCN about a week after the XBOX but Nintendo encouraged retailers to put them out as soon as stock arrived (some did days early).

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RE: Agreed, article is flawed

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 3/26/2006 7:15:19 AM , Rating: 2

Hmm youre right. I don't know why I wrote that. Dreamcast was available for two years before GCN and Xbox.

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RE: Agreed, article is flawed

By Janooo on 3/26/2006 4:19:41 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
The Dreamcast was available for a year before the PS2 (two years before gamecube, one year before xbox)...

Are you saying that PS2 and xbox where released at the same time?

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RE: Agreed, article is flawed

By Johnmcl7 on 3/26/2006 7:05:44 PM , Rating: 2

C'mon, be serious. That's like saying the Austin Mini competed with the Rolls Royce because they were both sold at the same time...

The simple fact that the PS1 and Dreamcast were sold at the same time is absolutely meaningless - it was near the end of the PS1's lifespan and just the start for the Dreamcast. If people were considering buying a Dreamcast they weren't considering it against the PS1 (which they probably already had) instead it was the choice of the Dreamcast now or wait for the PS2. The Dreamcast was an attempt to pre-empt the PS2, not a late effort on the PS1 market, it was available for sale a good time after the PS2 launch. The PS1's were also sold for a long time into the PS2's launch but it wasn't competing with any of the next gen systems, it had its own market segment to offer a console at a much lower pricepoint where people could take advantage of the large games library.

I'm not one to bash Dailytech, I enjoy catching up with the headlines here daily but this sort of writing looks poor and to try and defend what is a blatant misunderstanding of the console market is even worse.

John

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Errum

By Plasmoid on 3/25/2006 7:11:42 AM , Rating: 2

Replace Dreamcast with Saturn and that paragraph makes more sense. Dreamcast was the PS2 competitor. And what about the N64. If your going to claim the Saturn was the only comptitor it would be to ingore the fact that the N64 had success, just not to the same degree.

It doesnt quite have the same guts either as the Original PS1, its a revised board with that useless port that only got used for cheat cartdtridges like GameShark, and was smaller... but most of if it was unchanged.

Sad to see them stop production, what with all those portable add-ons for it which never really worked on the much larger much more power hungry revised PS2.

RE: Errum

By RandomFool on 3/25/2006 10:33:50 AM , Rating: 2

I always thought of saturn as a snes competitor and Dreamcast as PS myself n64 however was a ps competitor.

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RE: Errum

By Etsp on 3/25/2006 11:18:23 AM , Rating: 2

Uhhh, the sega saturn was released only a few weeks before playstation 1, so I could hardly consider it to be more of a snes competitor instead of a ps1 competitor.... Also, the dreamcast was released 15 months prior to playstation 2, and was the closest thing ps2 had as far as competition goes for at least another year. dreamcast was WAY more powerful than the ps1, and was a really decent console, it simply wasnt popular enough because sega's name was now associated with the crappy system that was Sega Saturn.
I think dreamcast might have had better success if sega decided to make another nights game. but other than that, they were pretty much screwed.

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RE: Errum

By RandomFool on 3/25/2006 8:11:29 PM , Rating: 2

I never really paid attention to any of the sega consoles. All I know is my friend had a saturn not long after I got my SNES. and I didn't get a PS until probably 3 years after that. I guess I'm just slow when it comes to keeping up with consoles.

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RE: Errum

By boinkle on 3/25/2006 10:53:54 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
with that useless port that only got used for cheat cartdtridges like GameShark, and was smaller...

That parallel I/O port was actually for hooking 2 machines together, to play multiplayer Wipeout ;)

Admittedly, it didn't really take off...

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RE: Errum

By Etsp on 3/25/2006 11:31:41 AM , Rating: 2

I remember one game that I used it for, and that was Command and Conquer Red Alert: Retaliation. good times...good times...

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RE: Errum

By Fox5 on 3/25/2006 1:18:12 PM , Rating: 2

N64 was way more successful than Saturn, and almost went 1:1 with the PSX in the US. (but was blown away in other markets)

Maybe the writer of the article meant the PSX was the first successful cd-based console.

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R.I.P. Sega

By shaw on 3/26/2006 4:33:00 AM , Rating: 2

Dreamcast's problem was it came out at a horrible time and from its specs it was made to one the "64-bit" consoles. Problem was PS2 was on the horizion and developer pretty much just made games on the DC to make money while waiting for PS2 to come out.

Sega Saturn was PSX's competition, but Sega of America is horrible at marketing, I mean absolutely horrible. Saturn held it's own again PSX in Japan and was pretty successful, but bombed quickly in the USA because of SOA.

RE: R.I.P. Sega

By shaw on 3/26/2006 4:35:32 AM , Rating: 2

Also, common knowledge was that Saturn was built to be the ultimate 2D machine, but PSX sparked the 3D age in gaming and all developers wanted to make 3D games which Saturn was poor at (two processors wasn't fun to program for). Sega always gets the short end of the stick.

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RE: R.I.P. Sega

By Plasmoid on 3/26/2006 3:43:02 PM , Rating: 2

HA

I remember Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on the saturn, and let me tell you it was awfull. Sure it looked good but it froze whenever you morphed as shang tsung... horrible horrible horrible glaring faults.

It wasent bad on the 3d front, Nights was great, but from what i understand it was difficult to make any 3d games for it short of those using sprites, which looked awfull as the Ps1 advanced.

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Dreamcast

By luckypenguim on 3/25/2006 8:32:12 PM , Rating: 2

Dreamcast was a 128 Bit console you can't put PS1 on the same level i had a Dreamcast i bought only 3 months after arrived to europe and i can say was a very good machine excelent graphics an PS2 only had all the sucess because Sega made a big mistake putting GDROM who was very easy to make copies and piracy kill Dreamcast PS2 doesn't have better hardware then Dreamcast.