Where is that PSX? BBCi Collective's Daniel Etherington looks at what you will be playing with in years to come. So, what do gamers want next from hardware? What do you want from that machine in your living room or pocket? While I am asking questions, where has the PSX got to?
 Where is it now? |
It came out in Japan on 13 December 2003 and it is now down for a European release in the 2004 to 2005 financial year. Is this a PlayStation fan's dream come true? Time will tell.
We do know what some of the functions originally mooted for this PS2-with-bells-on device have been dropped such as MP3 playback.
It still boasts a slew of features, notably a broadband connection, DVD and TV recording, and USB connection to a Sony digital camera, as well as PSOne and PS2 backwards compatibility.
All-singing, all-dancing?
Sony seem to be being playing PSX and PS3 pretty close to their chest at the moment, but then Microsoft is not exactly being forthcoming about the Xbox 2, or whatever they are calling it - Xbox Next, Codename Xenon.
One thing is for sure about upcoming hardware. Sony will be entering the handheld arena, with its widescreen, streamline, USB-port proffering, memory-stick toting, 1.8Gb optical-disc spinning PSP, due here next Christmas.
 |  Maybe a pared down, tweaked version of Media Center in a console would be the way forward in making a more diverse multimedia device from your traditional games machine  |
And as for Nintendo? What about the GameCube 2, which is not being referred to as Codename Dolphin 2 as far as I know. Will Nintendo defiantly stick to their concept of handheld/console connectivity, or will they go the route of creating an all-singing, all-dancing home entertainment device like the competitors seem set on?
Either way, it may well be the first of the true next generation consoles out, with Nintendo allegedly looking for a spring 2005 release.
I am still not entirely won over by the notion of making consoles more into home media centres.
Exciting times
This is a viable proposition for home computers as the interface of a keyboard and monitor is a lot more versatile than that of a joy pad and TV. Sure, my Dreamcast had a keyboard, but it spent most of its active life, er, inactive.
A Windows operating system already manages multimedia activities, even more so as Microsoft have their Windows XP Home Media Center, a variant on XP Professional aimed at home entertainment.
It integrates standard Windows functionality, TV, gaming, home video and digital photography.
 Way forward for a diverse multimedia device? |
Maybe a pared down, tweaked version of Media Center in a console would be the way forward in making a more diverse multimedia device from your traditional games machine. Whether such a thing will actually appear in Xbox 2, or if PS3 or GameCube 2 are to offer something comparable, will have to stay conjectural until credible info drips down from the corporate powers that be.
As for PSP, it does not look like Sony will make the mistakes of Nokia, whose N-Gage remains a frankly less than compelling proposition for this particular gamer.
The hybridisation of mobile phone and games console does not look so comfortable yet, so the PSP is going to be a high-spec games machine.
The hybridisation of DVD player, broadband communications device and games machine, on the other hand, has been vindicated by Xbox and PS2 and naturalised into console culture.
Whatever the next few years bring, it is an exciting time to be a gamer.
As long as the importance of gameplay does not get subsumed into the enthusiasm about that old chestnut "convergence".
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