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Sony will ship 400,000 online adaptors by end of 2002.

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Sony will ship 400,000 online adaptors by end of 2002.

Old 08-19-02, 05:46 PM
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Sony will ship 400,000 online adaptors by end of 2002.

Portion of a story from the today's L.A. Times:

Sony plans to ship just 400,000 adapters this year in North America. That means Sony expects just 3% of PS2 owners to buy the device.

Kazuo "Kaz" Hirai, the 41-year-old head of Sony's Play- Station business in North America, discussed the future of the console market as Sony envisions it.

Question: You've set a target of shipping 400,000 adapters in the United States by the end of the year. Are those numbers really indicative of a mainstream technology?

Answer: Against an install base of 11 million PS2 units, 400,000 doesn't sound like very much. But the largest online game community in the United States is "Everquest" with 425,000 subscribers. The numbers may seem small, but it's a very large community by online standards. Is that mainstream? I don't think it is. But you need to start somewhere.

Seems like an awfully small shipment size to me. For instance, 5% of NA Xbox owners signed up for the Xbox Live Beta test. That's without any major advertising.

If Sony has the same percentage of response out of their user base, 150,000 people will be S.O.L. If Sony advertises on a national level, they better be ready for angry Ps2 owners who can't find an online adaptor.

If it does create a huge demand, they better be ready to ramp up production and increase servers/bandwidth for 1st and 3rd party games.

I may preorder an extra one to sell on Ebay around Christmas time.
Old 08-19-02, 05:49 PM
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They'll make more if they run out. I don't see this selling out though. I don't see alot of interest in their online plan. There's interest sure enough, but I don't think there's all that much. Besides - 5% of Xbox owners is alot fewer people than 3% of PS2 owners. I'd say that 3% is optimistic.
Old 08-19-02, 05:56 PM
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When you signed up for the Xbox Live beta, what kind of guarantee did you have to give that you'd pay if you were selected?
Old 08-19-02, 06:02 PM
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Originally posted by Aghama
When you signed up for the Xbox Live beta, what kind of guarantee did you have to give that you'd pay if you were selected?
When you signed up for the XL Beta, you had to agree to pay for the online kit. If you get picked for the Beta, they will take your credit card number that day and set up your account for when Nov. 15th rolls around. Of course, you get to play for free during the Beta up until launch. Then the subscription starts.

So yes. You do give a guarantee that you want to pay for XBox Live when it starts. In other words, 5% of XBox owners basically said "I'll pay for the starter kit."
Old 08-19-02, 09:20 PM
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Originally posted by Flay


When you signed up for the XL Beta, you had to agree to pay for the online kit. If you get picked for the Beta, they will take your credit card number that day and set up your account for when Nov. 15th rolls around. Of course, you get to play for free during the Beta up until launch. Then the subscription starts.

So yes. You do give a guarantee that you want to pay for XBox Live when it starts. In other words, 5% of XBox owners basically said "I'll pay for the starter kit."
so roughly 150,000 people signed up for the XBox live Beta and then a percentage of those were selected- I would be surprised if XBox live got much more than 150000 total signed up by the end of the year. I think Sony is shipping units based on the most optimistic numbers of players. I will be shocked if they sell half of those units.


Online play is a small category of gaming and maybe in time it will grow however until I see it I will just not believe it myself.

I really do not think large numbers of people will pay for online play in the console world. I guess we will know in a few months.
Old 08-21-02, 02:27 PM
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I know people that signed up for the beta test just to sign up for it. I continued through the process even after I sold my xbox. I have to believe that there are others like me.
Old 08-21-02, 03:02 PM
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Re: Sony will ship 400,000 online adaptors by end of 2002.

Originally posted by Flay
If Sony has the same percentage of response out of their user base, 150,000 people will be S.O.L. If Sony advertises on a national level, they better be ready for angry Ps2 owners who can't find an online adaptor.

or they can just buy a USB Network Adapter and get online before the PS2 adapter even comes out. They do the same exact thing.
Old 08-21-02, 03:14 PM
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Well I think there are several reasons that there was so much interest in Xbox Live Beta Testing:

1. Xbox owners are generally more savvy to online gaming (many are old school PC gamers as well).

2. Microsoft is the only console maker to be doing this the right way (one fee allows you to play any game).

I don't think interest will be as high for the PS2, and even less for the GCN...for obvious reasons.
Old 08-21-02, 03:24 PM
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Originally posted by spankyj
I know people that signed up for the beta test just to sign up for it. I continued through the process even after I sold my xbox. I have to believe that there are others like me.
Yeah, I signed up even though I didn't have an Xbox at the time - I figured I'd just refuse if I didn't have an XBox and got picked.
Old 08-21-02, 04:42 PM
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Originally posted by Groucho

2. Microsoft is the only console maker to be doing this the right way (one fee allows you to play any game).

Haven't there been reports that some games (Knights of the Old Republic, Everquest) may require an additional fee to play online?
Old 08-21-02, 05:04 PM
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Ebgames.com has sold out of their first shipment of network adapters. The next shipment goes out in mid September.

For those who are wondering, the first shipment to all of North America is 250,000. The other 150,000 will be shipped in the last 4 months of 2002.
Old 08-21-02, 05:09 PM
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I pre-ordered the network adapter at ebgames and I'll be picking it up next wednesday!
Old 08-22-02, 11:36 PM
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Re: Re: Sony will ship 400,000 online adaptors by end of 2002.

Originally posted by TaTTooD

or they can just buy a USB Network Adapter and get online before the PS2 adapter even comes out. They do the same exact thing.
Can you explain this further? Sorry I've been out of the loop on the ps2 stuff, but this online gaming has renewed me interest and now I'm probably planning on buying the ps2 network adapter.

Are you saying you can use any USB network adapter and it will do the same thing as the sony one? Thanks!
Old 08-22-02, 11:42 PM
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Re: Re: Re: Sony will ship 400,000 online adaptors by end of 2002.

Originally posted by actyper


Can you explain this further? Sorry I've been out of the loop on the ps2 stuff, but this online gaming has renewed me interest and now I'm probably planning on buying the ps2 network adapter.

Are you saying you can use any USB network adapter and it will do the same thing as the sony one? Thanks!
Support for the adapter would have to be written into the software, not every USB adapter would work for every game. Now that the official Sony adapter is (soon to be) out I don't see any reason developers would include support for other adapters.
Old 08-23-02, 01:09 AM
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this one works now: http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=26&prid=126


i'm at work now and dont have the link to the instructions with how to get online and the list of other adapters but if i cant find it...i'll just post it when i get home. its got a complete walkthrough on how to get online.



ok..found it all:


here's a link to which adapters work: http://www.neversoft.com/online_guid...ware.htm#modem


here's a link to a walkthrough to get online with madden: http://www.maddenwarriors.com/PS2online.htm

Last edited by TaTTooD; 08-23-02 at 01:58 AM.
Old 08-23-02, 02:09 AM
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For the initial sign up for XBox Live beta test, there wasn't any mention of needing to pay. Sign ups started as early as E3 and people were signing up at the show with not a single mention of needing to pay for the kit. I wouldn't be surprised if the initial 100,000 people had no idea that you'd have to pay.

Also paying for $50 for XBox Live does not guarentee you can play everything. Some games will have additional fees. Also if you live in a family, if each person wants their own record, you'll need to pay for another account. It's not like EQ where you can make a character and then your brother can make a character and you can each play on your own time but not together. None of that here. XBox Live has a lot of cool things going for it, but it also has some negative aspects to it. The same applies for Sony's plans. They both have issues. Combine both Sony's and MS's plans and then you have something that really is good.

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