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alexsok
02-Jan-2003, 21:41
Taken from Evil Avatar:
From the 'analysts comment on videogame industry'-department comes this story at Yahoo in which a portable GC is mentioned as well as re-designed versions of the PS2 and Xbox. Some speculation related to the hardware of the PS3 (disk drive, ethernet, "easier architecture") can be found there as well.

The true next generation of hardware is pegged for a 2005 launch, with Microsoft planning Xbox Next and Sony planning PlayStation 3. But 2003 might see a portable take on GameCube and cheaper variations of Xbox and PlayStation 2 , Envisioneering analyst Richard Doherty predicted.
"A portable GameCube device would bring next-generation graphics to the portable market -- a market dominated by Nintendo with no competition from Sony or Microsoft," Doherty said.

Doherty expects an Xbox 1.5 that will be cheaper to manufacture and will be a smaller, lighter version of the current Xbox. He said it will retail from $129-$149. Microsoft also might introduce a new combination Xbox-digital video recorder for about $199.

Sony is on the third generation of PlayStation hardware, and the company is expected to ship its second incarnation of PS2 this year. "I believe you'll see the price of this PS2.5 drop as low as $99," Doherty said. And Sony is a TiVo investor, which leads Doherty and others to think there's a combination TiVo-PS2 device in the works -- possibly a $149 add-on to "fit into the back bay of the PS2," Doherty said.
What do you guys think?

zurich
02-Jan-2003, 22:35
Hey, I'm all for a SlimBox ;)

Qroach
02-Jan-2003, 23:35
Well, the smaller xbox was on MS plans right from the very start. They oinginally said it would happen next summer. They also said that year 2 or possibly year 3 is the year they would expand the market focus for xbox. Iin otherwords start to market towards a younger demographic. I'm pretty sure it was year 3.

zurich
02-Jan-2003, 23:40
It'll be interesting to see how MS can make SlimBox = CheaperBox... I mean, smaller Xbox means no standard size ATX motherboards, probably no desktop hard drives or DVD-roms (laptop drives?), rearranged/specialized board layout, etc.

Only possible cost savings I see off the bat are a clamshell DVD drive.

jvd
03-Jan-2003, 00:01
they can just use a micro ata board ?

archie4oz
03-Jan-2003, 00:13
I don't see why Sony would need to create a 'PS2.5' to do revisions or incarnations of the PS2. With the SCPH-3700x and 3900x machines it's already on it's V7 revision. I'd imagine an upcoming V8 revision would use the newer single-chip EE/GS to cut costs down even more, but that's just total speculation on my part. As for PVR functionality, they already did PVR demonstrations way back in '99 using the iLink port (most Japanese Hi-Vision sets and DBS receivers for the past 4-5 years have been coming with 1394 ports), and I'd imagine the Cocoon software is easily adaptable for the PS2 (dunno about TiVo though).

marconelly!
03-Jan-2003, 00:51
Writer of that article has been pulling so many thing out of his ass it's not even funny. It actually gives some perspective just how knowledgeable those 'analysts' really are.

03-Jan-2003, 10:09
I don't see why Sony would need to create a 'PS2.5' to do revisions or incarnations of the PS2.

PSTwo!!!!!!!!!!! :shock: Maybe they can secretly add hardware FSAA support. :P

archie4oz
03-Jan-2003, 20:32
Why add it? Technically it's already there...

Fafalada
03-Jan-2003, 20:43
How about... PSTwo with I-32 :shock: :shock: !!
Wouldn't it be neat to have a portable stove and a gameconsole in one neat tiny package? :D

Vince
03-Jan-2003, 23:49
How about... PSTwo with I-32 :shock: :shock: !!
Wouldn't it be neat to have a portable stove and a gameconsole in one neat tiny package? :D

HA! God I love this board.

On a more serious note in-line with this topic and coinciding with the ATi one - does anyone else see Sony and Simplex doing something along the lines of GSCube on a chip so to speak for their NGConsole?

I get the distinct feeling that we'll see something along those lines, whether using the I-32 or origional incarnation I'm not sure.