An anxious nation can now breath a sigh of relief.

Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. announced that its much-anticipated PlayStation 2 (PS2) gaming console will be available in America on Oct. 26. The company plans to release "only" one million units to its waiting North American public, with two million more units expected to hit the streets by March 31, 2001.

"To date, 1.8 million units have been sold in Japan," said Ken Kurtagi, president and chief executive officer, Sony Computer Entertainment. "The overwhelming success of the launch proves the market is ready for PlayStation 2."

The console will retail for $299 and features a bay for a 3.5-inch hard disc drive, USB, and ILink (IEEE 1394) interfaces, DVD-Video playback, and Internet functionality. While this feverishly anticipated console is backward-compatible with the first generationaand its library of more than 800 gamesaSony said PlayStation 2 will hit the streets with 50 new game titles and 220 more in development.

When PS2 was prereleased in Japan last February, the company's Web site had to be shut down after being flooded with 100,000 hits in the first few minutes of business. Given this gaping demand, concerns have arisen that one million units won't be enough to satisfy the American market.

Analysts disagreed. "Sony made 20 million PlayStation 1s last year, so they have the manufacturing capacity in place," said Gerry Kaufhold, an analyst with Cahner's In-Stat Group. "If we assume that the PlayStation 2 will be bigger than the Sega Dreamcast rollout, then Sony will probably ship two million units by the end of the Christmas season."

The announcement was made at the Electronic Entertainment Expo held in Los Angeles, where rival Sega of America Dreamcast Inc. announced its intentions to include voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) into its Dreamcast console, a first in the gaming industry.

Sega said last week that it will partner with San Jose-based InnoMedia Inc., incorporating its VoIP technology for Sega's DreamCall product. DreamCall allows gamers to speak to each other while playing games over the Internet. "Internet gamers already spend a lot of time with online text chatting, so voice over IP provides an important way to really enhance the experience," said Joseph Gagan, senior analyst with market-research firm The Yankee Group. "The Sega/InnoMedia partnership will undoubtedly create quite a stir in the industry."

But the VoIP functionality isn't exclusively for gamers. One can utilize the VoIP-enabled Dreamcast to place calls to any wireline or wireless telephone in more than 200 countries.

Once relegated to the arcade-faithful, the gaming console has become a shining example of the age of convergence: an Internet browser, a DVD-player, and now, a telephone as well. That's a long way off from the primitive pleasures of Atari's Combat.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Cahners Publishing Company
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group