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Eurospeak:
Pre-ECTS Tension It was rumoured for months, but now it's a harsh reality that European gamers will have to face: the release of the Playstation 2 has been delayed from October 26 until November 26. It seems like a repeat of last year's Dreamcast debacle, when Sega Europe delayed the launch of the Dreamcast by three weeks to "boost" its Internet software - yet someone has to point out to Sega's upper echelon that the majority of Europe is still without any Internet connection possibilities with their Dreamcasts. Not exactly what Sega's "Up to 6 billion players" promise implied… The parallels with the Dreamcast launch continued with the pricing of the console. Playstation 2's US price of $299 translates to £299 in the UK and, due to the current state of the Euro, the European price is is equal to about $450, which is a rather hefty difference. To SCEE's merit, £299 is the same price that the original Playstation launched at in1995, and the current state of the Euro is hardly Sony's fault. The delay, while met with bitter disappointment from SCEE's various distributors and consumers, doesn't seem to have made people any more inclined to shell out for another console. Hence, all things considered, the delay is a golden opportunity for Sega to at least try and do something about the lagging sales and get proper online games like Quake 3 running. Despite SCEE's strong position in the global Sony organisation due to their larger installed user base of Playstation owners in Europe when compared to the US, Europeans still got the worst deal since it's doubtful that a considerably larger amount of units will be made available to Europe after the extra four weeks of waiting. The few PlayStation 2 titles in development for the European launch, like Psygnosis Formula One 2000 (rumoured to have slipped to 2001), might beneift from a little more time to hone their product. The other benefit is that the release of the PSOne in September will be further removed from the PS2 launch, which gives time for SCEE to make sure the consumers know the difference between the two machines. Then again, anticipation for the Playstation 2 is tremendous - never has a console launch been anticipated in such a way in Europe. A good indication of this is that many European SCEE distributors have planned huge launch events for the Playstation 2 in numerous countries, something that had previously been done only in major markets like the UK and Germany. The market knows that while the Dreamcast managed to generate queues in London upon its launch, the Playstation 2 will surely cause much more havoc because of the furious pre-ordering. Many of the upcoming Playstation 2 games like Gran Turismo 2000 are beginning to look far more promising than they did at E3. SCEE's own internal titles such as Formula One 2000 and Wipeout Fusion are looking a better than simply high-res, perspective-corrected Playstation products. Certainly spirits amongst the PS2 development community are higher than they were at the beginning of the year at Sony's European PS2 development conference, where nobody seemed to be getting good results on the machine. Slowly but surely Euro coders used to Assembly coding are getting their heads around the console. ECTS Still Going Strong ECTS, Europe's premiere game industry tradeshow, is right around the cormer, bringing along memories of hard drinking and embarrassing moments for many. While for the past few years the show's been thought by many to be "in the business of going out of business," it's still looking as strong as ever this September, largely because of upcoming console wars. ECTS has managed to distance itself from being an E3 replica in the last few years, and its relaxed, less loud, and business-like focus makes it possible to get some actual business done…well, at least before the Sony party. Earlier, heavy-hitters Sony and Konami were planning not to attend the event; the no-show from Sony would have had a marked effect on the show, as an entire section of the London Olympia conference centre has been rented by SCEE the past few years. With the Playstation 2 launch closing in, one would think Sony would be foolish to skip the show, but the original plan was to do something similair and effective to what Sega did so effectivly last year. Together SCEE and Konami (which is the biggest PS2 supporter besides EA) would have held a separate event, a guaranteed media blow-out that nobody could have missed. During the summer, however, Konami decided to host a media event at Cannes demonstrating it's laudable commitment to not only the Playstation 2, but to Europe as well. Fact remains that both companies are again present at this years ECTS show floor, with SCEE opting for a large theatre within it's cavernous area where footage from upcoming first and third party titles will be shown. Microsoft and X-Box's involvement isn't entirely clear at this point. As for Sega and Electronic Arts, they again have chosen not to be present on the show floor and will instead hold a press conference on Sunday evening right after the first day of the show. Its not yet clear what Sega will be announcing, but it's not difficult to come up with a few likely subjects. A much requested Dreamcast price-cut that many UK retailers have already put into effect might be a good bet. The company is bound to come under fire once again for opting not to have presence on the show floor, but perhaps this is a wise move considering the kind of media blitz SCEE will generate. Sega of Europe would be hard-pressed to match the superlative show put on by Sega of America at E3. Electronic Arts' no-show is not a surprise, however. A day prior to ECTS, EA is holding a must-attend press event where its Playstation 2 and PC line-up will be unveiled. A trend that the ETCS organisers encourage is having more and more developers privately showing their projects. This year, the gallery level of the National Hall is a Developers Area, with companies like Pure Entertainment, Creative Labs and Kalisto present. Solidifying ( no pun intended ) the importance of the show, Metal Gear Solid creator, Hideo Kojima is set to make an appearance. New footage of Metal Gear Solid 2 is promised, though it's doubtful that in the past few months after E3 that much new work can be demonstrated nor would Kojima want to reveal too much. Kojima-san's other highly-anticipated product will also be playable for the first time ever (last year the N64 Castlevania sequel made it's world premiere at the same show). Konami's first Playstation 2 soccer game ISS 2000 (just released in Japan as Live World Soccer 2000, based on the Nintendo 64 ISS 2000 game) will be presented in finished form. Beyond this, many fans must be hoping that Konami will confirm that the team behind the brilliant ISS Pro Evolution is working on a proper PS2 update. Another major draw will be Codemasters, who will hopefully be presenting many Playstation 2 games. Likewise, Interplay will surely be rolling out Confounding Factor's Galleon. Many developers, like Rage Software, are rumoured to show Gameboy Advance titles behind closed doors -or maybe even in public if Nintendo decides to do the same. As featured in the previous instalment of Eurospeak, cellular gaming and WAP will have a strong presence. Europe Still Loves Pokemon The failure of The Pokemon 2000 Movie to generate as much box-office revenue in the US as its predecessor did sends a clear signal that the craze might be nearing its end. There are no such worries for Nintendo in Europe. According to ELSPA/Chart Track figures, Pokemon Yellow has sold over 300,000 copies and the UK market is up 20% on the corresponding week last year, despite unit sales being lower. Keeping with the charts, Hasbro's much-anticipated Grand Prix 3 from veteran-coder Geoff Crammond is still commanding the number one slot on the Home Computer charts, and the game is expected to sell over 3 million copies worldwide, which is a massive number for a PC only title. Encouragingly for SCEE, the much-publicized adventure game In Cold Blood from Charles Cecil's Revolution Studios is still holding strong at the number three position on the Playstation charts and 13 on the All Format charts. The previous SCEE released games have done less than stellar on the charts but usually have had long-term success, like Medieval, which In Cold Blood looks to repeat. Thomas Puha works for a Finnish cable games/music television channel as a producer/writer of console/PC games programs and writes the European games column for Gamefan magazine, while trying to maintain. He can be reached at thomas@moontv.fi. |
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