PS2 Slimline Slimline

[tongue_of_colicab]

A new PS2 with a built-in Eye toy would be a great move.

What is the added value over a ps2 + lose eyetoy? not the mention the awsome offer in eyetoy games. Besides, wouldnt a build in eyetoy require you to place your ps2 on your tv?

 

[Teasy]

Funny, I could have sworn that Wii is a living example of an old console regenerated.

Its obvious that Rangers meant that you can't take an old console and just start selling it again with a new controller. Which is what's being suggested for PS2 here. Wii may use updated GC parts (as well as some extra's like RAM ect) but that's irrelivant to consumers. To them its an entirely new console.

 

[Teasy]

When has any console had the chance to be regenerated like this? Wii is in essence a GC with a waggle controller. If you can turn a PS2 into a PS2 with Waggle, why can't that work?

Because Wii is a new console with some internal similarities to its predesesor that most consumers have little idea about. While PS2 is... a PS2, the same console people have been hearing about and playing on for the last 7 years. You can't honestly believe that because Wii has similar internal hardware to GC that logically means a PS2 with a new controller could do just as well...

The main reason is software support. Unlike the Wii where waggle is intrinsic, PS2 is mostly not about waggle and the back-catalogue is non-waggle. But if it gets all the Wii ports, which it would, software's no longer a problem. What other limiting factors would there then be?

No, it wouldn't... Not unless this addon sold at an incredibly rapid pace. Even then it would likely get a trickle of poor ports and die a slow death.

 

[almighty]

No pictures yet?

 

[rabidrabbit]

No pictures yet?

It looks the same externally. The changes are inside.

 

[Zaphod]

Because Wii is a new console with some internal similarities to its predesesor that most consumers have little idea about. While PS2 is... a PS2, the same console people have been hearing about and playing on for the last 7 years.

Well, I guess they could attempt to rebrand the thing. Give a PSWii a white cover or some other easily distinguishing feature and market it as "compatible with all PS2 games (additional controller needed)" or whatever. Not that I think they will, though...

 

[archangelmorph]

Well, I guess they could attempt to rebrand the thing. Give a PSWii a white cover or some other easily distinguishing feature and market it as "compatible with all PS2 games (additional controller needed)" or whatever. Not that I think they will, though...

That's an idea but to be honest I don't think they'd need to.. I think in order for such an idea to work Sony would have to invent into marketing the peripheral in a different way..

Sure the Ps2 has been around for a while but there's no reason Sony has to create a wagglewand image that couldn't be decoupled from a single platform altogether..

As I stated before the PS3's backwards compatibility provides a secondary suitable platform once the PS2 loses it's legs eventually and should the peripheral sell well in the early stages, developer's could almost naturally progress providing new HD games for the device which don't have to worry about legacy support for the PS2 by then..

I think the key is not trying to succeed a device off the back of an established console "brand" but to create an entirely new brand altogether.. Similar to the way Sony did with the Eyetoy, but in a much more ubiquitous fashion.. This way the success of the platform would depend entirely on upon it's own brand strength (waggle gaming a la Wii) and the success or decline of a single supported hardware platform would then have little effect..

EDIT: Sony could even take it one step further and actually establish a maximum hardware specification that games are built to AND create a sort of virtual machine of which the games would launch from (think shockwave flash).. In this way Sony could in theory support as many hardware platforms as they deem fit with only the requirement of developing the software-based emulators for each platform (extending to PC, Mac etc..) Just a thought I guess..

 

[Fafalada]

Wii may use updated GC parts (as well as some extra's like RAM ect) but
that's irrelivant to consumers. To them its an entirely new console.

Exactly - a new case + marketing push.
IMO the problem with PS2 is not people buying this new item, it's spending a massive marketing budget and diverting development resources to a budget priced machine when your "main" console is struggling with price-tag and adoption rate.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Or putting it another way, take the PS2 with this new hardware shrink, put it in a Apple-esque white box, sell it as PlayStation Waggle and announce it also has complete BC with PS2 as well! For development, a lot of titles could be rushed out, such as Katamari. Just map it to motion instead of analogue sticks, and you've got a Wii-esque game. Similarly that stunt racing thing PS2/PSP had that's a PS3 download. If there's enough re-engineered PS2 titles mapped to motion, Sony would only need to provide a few key 1st party titles along the lines of Play and Sports to offer the same multiplayer motion experience as Wii at less money. As the replacement for PS2, you'll still sell a few hundred thousand a month without any greater uptake than PS2 has now. Offer a peripheral to add the functions to the existing PS2 userbase, and getting a few million users shouldn't be too hard, by which point it'll be a viable cross-platform machine for Wii titles.

If Sony had a mind to implement it, it seems to me they could.

 

[cthellis42]

I don't know what other word to use off the top of my head, but can we get away from "waggle?" It sounds twice as dippy as "Wii."