Not really. That was just a Gamecube that also played DVD's (similar to the current PS2/Xbox model). It didn't have DVR capabilities, a hard drive, or any of that. I don't think it was ever even released in the U.S.

it will be alot more than $299 or $400, my guess is $799, just a 120 gb harddrive costs $100 alone, sony's dvd recorder that is coming which this is based on is $800, so actually this will probably be more
$180 ps2
$300 "tivo"
$800 dvd recorder
$100 harddrive

no way this will be less than $799, if so I will be damned, and it would be a stupid move on Sony's part because there new dvd recorder would not sell at all then.

Actually I think your calculations are off a bit. I see it more as:
$120 PS2 (their cost for making one)
$150 Tivo/Harddrive (basically software + storage)
$200 DVD-RW (their cost again)

Add in a subscription fee to help subsidise the costs and you have a $300-400 all-in-wonder machine. Keep in mind this isn't going to use their new blu-ray technology for recording DVD's. These numbers are all guess-timates of course.

The panasonic gamecube (The "Q" I believe it's called) didnt' really dissappear. It was just only release in Japan and it was a fairly small release as they probably figured (rightly so) that people weren't going to be a lot more for a machine that just looked better and played DVDs.

Good thinking. The PS3 will probably be very similar to this device, with more functionality and next-gen console graphics. They probably want to get this out there not so much to make money, but to get a heads-up on any potential issues with PS3.

I don't think this thing will sell a lot of units. There aren't really any compelling features, outside of the possibility of consilidating your devices. It will be a different story if they go this route with PS3, though. People will buy the unit for the games, but they'll be bringing a trojan horse into their homes. Imagine the nefarious possibilities: it only burns Sony-brand DVD-Rs, it only works with Sony's TIVO service, and has some gee-whiz connection features with the PSP.

i'm sticking w/ the $299 price also. consumer electronics, if it wants to be ubiquitous, needs to be around that price.

in a couple of years:
120GB hard drive less than $50
tivo-like system less than $100
dvd-rw around $100

so, here's sony's salvo into controlling your entertainment future. it's an exciting time and i wonder what microsoft's response will be.

Why all the effort when the PS2 as a game system is in the early stages of becoming dated.

Is the PS3 really that far away?

Wow I like the look so much better than my PS2. If the price is right I may pick one up. I would rather however have a firmware update for my X box.

This looks like another smart move from Sony.

PSX appears to target the upscale HT crowd with a simple, functional device that will fit in aesthetically with a lot of HT components.

I can't wait to see what PS3 and PSP turn out to be.

It'll be interesting to find out what this unit costs. I definitely like the look of it.

the Franchise, yeah but Sony is touted their new dvd recorder that will record on all formats except dvd-ram, as the only dvd recorder needed and that is $799, why would they give you that functionaity for $299, it doesn't make sense, again, why would they give you a tivo at this price, when that is the stand alone tivo price, but we will see next year

Ummm..... Where do the memory cards go (for those of us that don't want to lose our previous game saves)? I mean I know there's a hard drive and all but what if I was playing [insert RPG title here] and had maybe 40+ hours invested in the game and am far from finished, I wouldn't want to have to start all over from scratch if I were to play [insert RPG title here] on the PSX.

Now that I think about it - this product will probably be very expensive... This is not an SCE product... it's being made by Sony's Electronics division (which is one of their divisions that is bleeding money). They can't afford to sell this item at a loss. They won't be making any royalties off of software - this is SCE doing them a favor more or less.

PS2 only recently reached the BEP - as recent as last Jan or Feb, the hardware costs was still pretty close to 200 bucks (heard this from an SCE employee). Now - factoring the costs to manufacture this device you can basically take their price points for each individual unit and cut it in half (except for the PS2 which we can safely guess currently costs 120 bucks). Then you have to factor in a big unknown which is the cost of design. Sony Electronics spent plenty of money designing this you can bet - plus the costs to develop a completely new Operating System. I don't want to do the math, and I'm sure they don't want to do it either... If the thing only costs 300 bucks in Japan, then it'll certainly be a big hit - but that's just a stupid move to charge less than it costs to make. SCE can do it, but without the prospect of software royalties, Sony Electronics would just be digging their own grave.

To figure out the price, they have to try to predict how many people will buy it at whatever price - see, enough people have to purchase it to absorb the cost to develop the software and design the hardware which was just a big chunk of money rather than something that can be calculated for each unit like the cost of manufacturing.

So there you go - there's no chance in hell that this thing sells for anywhere near 300 bucks I don't think. A friend of mine working in the industry figured it would end up costing $1000 at retail. He might be right.

just like I said

You could get the Panasonic Cube in the US... I didn't say it was the same thing, I just said it's similar... this is a company licensing their console hardware technology to another company so they can make a wonder-unit and sell it for a much higher price as a luxury item rather than just a game machine. It just so happens that in this case, both companies are under the same umbrella. This will just be a niche item that will be quite expensive and not many people will buy it I don't think... much like the Panasonic Cube (although I don't know the numbers on that item - if it didn't come to the US as you say, the numbers couldn't have been that great). I doubt this Sony unit will make it to the US - well, it may launch here next year as the article states, but it won't be here long.

Don't get me wrong - I'd like to have one, but I wouldn't spend more than 300 bucks on it and surely it'll cost 3 times that at least.

How many people would actually buy this at $800-1000 a pop plus subscription fee to use the Tivo functionality?

For argument's sake - I will.

But then, I'd be lying.


Unlike the Panasonic Gamecube - the PSX should actually have some feet to it. For those of us that bought a PS2 or Xbox - we certainly didn't do so for the great DVD playback capabilities. It was just a perk. Now the Panasonic Cube was just a Gamecube that played Dvd's. I'm not certain of the price difference b/w the Panasonic and a regular cube - but who'd really be willing to pay $50-$100 more for a cube with Dvd playback? Since a stand alone unit costs in the neighborhood of $50 anyways - I doubt very many. And that's being quite generous ($50) for the difference in price. More than likely it was $100. At that price - only a small percentage would be willing to consolidate their electronics.

Now the PSX is actually offering electronic devices that most of us don't already have in our homes. Although the unit will be pricey - this all-in-one will be cheaper than buying a tivo system, PS2 and DVD recording device seperately. Instead of marking all 3 units up - this all-in-one will have just one markup. And as was pointed out earlier, this also gives Sony the opportunity to play with price points to conduct research for future Playstation offerings. While it won't sell 50 million units - I do think it will be able to make a sizable splash.

OK, after reading everyone's arguments and reading a bit more about the console, I have 2 theories:

1) This things will cost an assload of money and do everything you can dream of and more. Since it isn't an SCEA device (true?) I think it will be aimed at the high-end user who wants something to show-off to his/her friends. I mean if the colored PS2's cost ~$300 then this beast will be at least $500. In limited release they can ensure that they test the waters for this sort of a device and don't endanger PS3's market-share in the next year. Wouldn't it be a massive suprise if this WAS the PS3 and they weren't telling anyone?

2) It will be aimed as mass-market device and sold in the HT section of stores. It will have a subscription and be cheap. Sony will aim it as a Trojan horse ie. you buy it for cheap but then you can only access Sony intellectual property through it like their music and movies. I see this being a logical progression of Apples iTunes. Also the multifunction nature of it will get the PS2 in more people's hands than before and hence sell more games. Basically Sony is struggling in their other divisions and is reaching out to the Games division to boost the company.

First I want to give Francise props for the links. Without those I would have had to search just to find out that this thing wasn't a Tivo with an original Playstation chip in it.

IMO this thing will sink. I try to be optimistic but as a home theater buff I have to say that only a small percentage of people who spend $3000 to $6000 (or more) on a HDTV are the type of people who would turn around and buy an all in one unit like this. It is something I would consider but the whole PS1/PS2 would be a complete NON factor. If I'm buying a DVD burner or a Tivo then I could really care less about games. Do you think a guy that has $1000 to burn on a DVD burner/Tivo is going to really give a crap about the PSX logo? The only reason he will buy this over another brand is if the actual burner and Tivo are better and/or cheaper than the competitors. If it is the best DVD burner on the market then they will sell plenty but it won't be because the PS1/PS2 tie in.

This is why I'm also split about how the next generation of game systems will be marketed. If they want to throw a bunch of extra crap in there that does NOT help the gaming at all then fine but they had better be ready to take more losses on hardware. Some may say that MS already did this but IMO MS didn't do this with the Xbox because everything in the Xbox can and IS used to make games better. The PS3 and Xbox2 may be a different story.

It was never released over here. You could just buy modded, imported japanese systems. There's no version made for the U.S. that will play U.S. games right out of the box.

I agree 100% on this, and there's no way it will be the best burner/tivo on the market. Integrated stuff is never (to this point) of as high a quality as stand alone equipment. The DVD playback on the PS2 and X-box suck compared to even middle of the pack DVD Players. The audio and video quality of those DVD Player/Receiver combos can't compare with decent standalone equipment.

To make an integrated machine that worked as well as dedicated standalone stuff would likely be an expensive undertaking and would end up selling for more than comparable stand alone components that could do the same thing. It's just not a feasible business idea right now. These integrated machines are best suited as cheap ways to get into home theater for people that aren't audio and videophiles and don't want to spend a ton of money.

Sometimes you surprise me at your great logic considering the other times when I'm surprised at the lack of logic. Well said on this one.

Will this thing be hackable? I own a Sony Tivo unit with a second drive I installed myself. The fact that Tivo makes this process so easy, it has the ports all there, is what makes the unit so great. If Sony tries to become end end all unti without allowing for expansion through hacking, that is a bad move. XBox is moving units on the fact that you can rip games to the HD, play MAME games, etc. Josh is right on the money, if this thing is not prog scan, DTS, etc. for DVD, I'll never use it. As for DVD-R, if you have a Tivo, what is the point of this? If they want to combine components, great, but please use top of the line technology. With all the exclusive elements of this thing, it won't fly. THe hacks will always win...just look what happened to iTunes this week.

Actually, I'd greatly prefer a machine with Tivo technology that used DVD-R instead of hard drives.

Unilimited space and the ability to have permanent digital copies of things without having to record it to the tivo and then tranfer it to a DVD-R.

I had a 14 hour Tivo a couple years ago, but the modem got fried and I never bothered replacing it since they wanted $99 to fix it. I had won it in a contests and didn't use it enough to justify the $99, or really even enough to justify the $10 a month fee I was paying. So I just tossed it and plan on waiting for a DVD-R thing with Tivo like technology to come out and drop to a reasonable price (so I'll probably be waiting a good while ).

Although it will probably be too much for my taste - I still think this will work.

You'll have a 120gig hd to save things from television, while having a dvd recordable drive there to put it into a permanent format. Many television series in circulation now aren't on DVD (Seinfeld and Northern Exposure come to mind), but with this machine - you'll have the ability to transform them into your personal dvd collection for viewing pleasure. Add in the abilities to play some Playstation games, and with a decent price point - looks like a real winner to me.