Eurospeak "Pre-ECTS Tension and Playstation 2 Anxiety"
By Thomas Puha
Gamasutra
August 28, 2000
URL: http://www.gamasutra.com/newswire/eurospeak/20000828/index.htm

It was rumoured for months, but now it's a harsh reality that the 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 Fall'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" monicker was supposed to mean…

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. The problem here is that due to the current state of the Euro, the European price is about 450 in dollars, 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 the 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 during the extra four weeks. For the few PlayStation 2 titles in development for the European launch like Psygnosis Formula One 2000 (rumoured to have slipped to 2001), it does give a little more time for the developers to hone their product. The other benefit is that the release of the PSOne in September will be farther apart, 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 various countries and it's something that hasn't been done before with the exception of the 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 have begun to look far more promising than they did at E3 along with SCEE's own internal titles such as Formula One 2000 and Wipeout Fusion as they are looking a lot more than 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 on strong

The premiere European industry tradeshow ECTS is coming up in four short weeks, bringing along memories of hard drinking and embarrassing moments for many. While for the past few years the show's been "in the business of going out of business," it's still looking as strong as ever this September 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 show like appearance 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 had been rented by SCEE during 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 last year. Together SCEE and Konami (which is the biggest PS2 supporter besides EA) would have held a separate event which would have been a guaranteed media blow-out as nobody could have missed the event. 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 importantly 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 the confines of it's cavernous area. 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 at the show floo and will instead hold a press conference on Sunday evening right after the first day of the show. As to what Sega will be announcing is not yet known, but it's not difficult to come up with the likely matter, a much requested Dreamcast price-cut that many UK retailers have already put into effect. The company is bound to come under fire again for opting not to have presence on the show floor, which would seem crucial at this point, but perhaps this is a wise move: considering the kind of media blitz SCEE will generate, SOE 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 shall be unveiled. At the same time,
Nintendo will be holding a press conference revealing information about the Dolphin and the GBA.

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. Also 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-sans other highly-anticipated product ZOE 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. Besides this many fans must be hoping that Konami would confirm that the team behind the brilliant ISS Pro Evolution is working on a proper PS2 update. Another major pull factor 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 got love for Pokemon

The Pokemon 2000 movie, failing to generate as much box-office as its predecessor in the US, sends a clear signal that the craze is perhaps nearing its end, but 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 the games 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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