|
SONY TID-BITS
February 21, 2001
Sony has teamed up with Namco and Sega to use an advanced
PS2 for broadband networked arcade gaming in arcades operated
by those companies. Sony will develop the new technology and
expects to release it in Japan nationwide some time next year,
with some availability later this year.
The company also plans to link the PSone to NTT DoCoMo's
i-mode cellular phones. The cables for this connection will
cost 3500 yen ($30.04) and will be available at the end of
next month. Games taking advantage of this capability will
first be released in April.
Additionally, despite downgrading estimates for the current
fiscal year's PS2 shipments by 1 million units, the company
seems optimistic for the future. Current shipments of the
system are 8.1 million, breaking down by territory as follows:
- Japan: 4.4 million
- North America: 2.1 million
- Europe/PAL: 1.6 million
Projections for the next year are an additional 11 million
over current year forecasts, which would bring cumulative
shipments to 20 million worldwide, with more than 550 games
available in Japan by the end of the next fiscal year (ending
March 31, 2002).
|
Navigation
menu
