what the "F" is up with the PS2 online adaptor????

[wberdan]

seriously- is this vaporware or what???
i cant get this anywhere in the state- is this on backorder like crazy, or is maine just a backass state where we dont get a "f"-ing thing?????@!??? !!!
has anyone used this mystical piece of hardware??? does it work good?>>>>
>>>??????

willie

[udisi]

I'm pretty sure is't a nationwide shortage...My friend who works at a game store only got 5 of the 20 he ordered.....

[kevincure]

They made 250,000 for the launch - all were sold out long before it came out from preorders. It's still backed up incredibly; I would say they'll be hard to find until after Xmas.

kevin

[Tempest]

I won't need one until FF XI comes out so I can wait. :)

Tempest

[briskbc]

Just out of curiousity, what is the US retail on this item?

[udisi]

Not to freak anyone out, but I heard sony is having problems establishing a network capable for running FFXl in the states. The point of this being that I heard rumors of them cancelling plans to bring it to the states.....

[kevincure]

Retail is 40$ including twisted metal black online.

Currently on ebay, though, you're looking at 70 or so.

[Sylentwulf]

Correct, they're most likely NOT bringing FFXI out in the states.

I picked up an adapter on launch day no problem. I went to best buy and they had 5 or 6 of em. I didn't think they would be too popular, otherwise I DEFINITELY would have bought them all (Kicks self)

[ashbourn]

why would they not bring FFXI out in the states it is so populor

[ashbourn]

u can get one at amazon.com for $65

[Sylentwulf]

Because they found out that:

A. a lot of people aren't going to buy the network adapter, game, AND hard drive just to play one game

B. People Are Going To Cheat. And they can't keep up with the patches.

C. Most importantly - they don't have a server based established and it's going to cost too much to get one going. Son'ys biggest online downfall.

[leonk]

WOW! Are you serious!?

Looks like for once MS did something right! They made the XBOX from the ground up networkable.. (not to count the huge msn.net that they can use as a backbone for the network).

At this rate, in a couple of years, every one is going to want:

1 - XBOX for christmas
2 - MOD chip for XBOX
3 - DVD burner

Wow.. some things never change with Miicrosoft.. :)

LK

[Sylentwulf]

heh, I wouldn't go THAT far :)

[geelw]

well, a couple of reasons the network adapter is tough to find:

1) sony obviously didn't want to drop all 250,000 units (or more) in shops at once- imagine the massive server crash if 3/4 of those lucky folks went online at the same time! it seems they're using early adopters as guinea pigs to see what demand is going to be and such. yeah, they beta tested the thing a few months before, but how thorough a test can you get with so few testers? i think the whole thing was rushed too much, especially with microsoft's better online strategy...

2) also, consider the dreamcast bb adaptor. that didn't sell all that well, and i know sony doesn't want to make two or three million of these and have them sitting unsold as the service fades into the ether. you have to also remember the ps2 "shortage" around the system's launch- all of a sudden, they started appearing in stores after time passed- we couldn't get any for about 2 months, then one day, our main didtributor got a huge shipment of systems! and when they showed up, the 24 we got had the big stickers on the side of the case that said: MUST be in store by 9/3", or whatever the launch date was. hmmmm...

3) i'm sure they KNOW a lot of their ps2 owners still hav dialup/can't afford or get/are reluctant to switch to broadband. yes, it's faster and all that, but they should have made a standard modem as well for those who are s.o.l. with broadband. microsoft won't have as bad a problem as the system is set to go- getting folks to jump onboard and pay will be interesting after the initial rush of the first few weeks.

sony should have waited a year, tighented up things and THEN put out the adapter and at least 10-15 online games.

as for ff 11- i KNEW it was a big mistake on square's part the day i heard it was online (broadband) only- they're losing what, 40 to 50 percent of their core ff audience for a game that you have to buy an expensive add-on, install like a pc game and pay to create a character before you can sit down and actually see if you like it? AND it's got no single player feature? uh huh. at least sega stuck one in ps online (as paltry as it was, it was at least a bit of fun). well, we'll see what happens should square make an official announcement. all those ff suicidal fans leaping into coastal waters will cause flooding in certain states... :roll:

[jaybird]

There's at least 20 on the shelves at my Best Buy here in Arkansas. Didn't know they were in short demand, but I just can't get into this periphial game Sony is playing.

Buy a PS2 for $300 (at launch)! Buy a network adaptor for $40! Buy a hard drive for $100! Buy a memory card for $20!

After all that I can then take my PS2 online reliably. No thanks.

[geelw]

:wink: well, hell, at least you guys have them! buy them all and sell 'em on e-beg, for a profit if you're a true capitalist... :wink:

[Kid Ice]

I predicted a couple years back that this online thing was not going to work, and so far I've been absolutely correct. Dreamcast tanked. Sony and MS are taking forever to get their online up and going. Now Sony is having all these problems. It's just like I said; whenever someone tries to get consoles to do more than just play games, it doesn't work (how many big PS2 DVD fans out there?). No wonder Nintendo could seem to care less about online.

the kid

I'm not saying it will NEVER work, but it's not going to work now (on the scale that Sony and MS want it to).

[geelw]

it's NOT that online gaming will NEVER work, the problem is (and it's damn amazing that the companies haven't figured it out yet) that until there's a unified way of getting EVERYONE online with as little hassle and cost as possible, it's not gonna be feasible. the dc plan failed because sega simply never recovered from the way it screwed over saturn users, not because they had a bad online plan & poor games (not true at all). a LOT of folks never bought dc's because they just hated sega, period, and by the time they wised up, sega was bleeding to death financially.

as far as onlinr gaming: sure, there's that core group of a few thousand die-hards who have to be the first on the block, but what about joe-average user who could care less, a family on a budget with one phone line, or those who play one sort of game in a party atmosphere, or the lone gamer who just likes to eat devil dogs and pizza (at the same time) and jell out for three days by himself. that's like 50% of the market there, lol.

nintendo is sorta tiptoeing into the online marketplace VERY cautious-like. note how they're introducing BOTH 56k and bb connections for the cube? they KNOW their audience, plain as eggs. also, animal crossing is an online game that you don't need to go online to play, but many folks are doing just that (plug for animal x-ing board here) so perhaps they're seeing what sort of communities pop up based on that factor. if anything, phantasy star online just may do better on the gc, simply because nintendo has a particularly loyal following in most of the u.s....=^P

[Sylentwulf]

ALL of their problems (Sega, nintendo, x box, and sony) come down to: Lack of advertising.

I didn't know the DC was online for a long time. And I STILL don't know how to go online with it (Is it still even possible?) I didn't know if I needed to buy something else, how much it cost per month, NOTHING.

I knew nothing of how the dreamcast went online.


Flash forward. I haven't seen ONE SINGLE PIECE of media stating that the PS2 went online, no store displays, no commercials, BARELY even mentioned in any gaming magazines OR online.

Gamecube - I don't even know what year they're going online. (And I've had no desire to check) I know NOTHING of their plans. Lack of advertising.

X Box - Best online plan so far, the ONLY piece of credit I'll give microsoft's console. I actually saw one or 2 commercials for this one, and the have servers ready to go, they're not making the developers setup their own servers, and the broadband is built in. (Along with the hard drive)

[geelw]

actually, sega advertised all over the place...ONLINE, mostly! they had loads of print ads for the sports games, ps online 1 & 2, and chu chu rocket, but they were quite forgettable. i think there were tv spots as well, but again, nothing that would have convinced the skeptics...

as far as i can tell, nintendo wasn't sure they were even going to have an online setup ready this year- i think there's info on their website and in nintendo power, so if you're an n-head, you've got your info there. still, we'll see what happens next year with them.

microsoft "wins", simply because, as you said, it's all out of the box and complete but the games. the problem is, again, the folks without the ability to go online broadband feel left out or just don't care as long as the games they want to play are there offline. once you start going exclusively online and forget what the word "exclusive" means, you're setting youself up for a bit of a loss financially...

[kevincure]

Not to be one of the system-war type of guys, but I would say Sony wins over Microsoft since,

a) They have 2 AAA online titles in Madden and SOCOM

and
b) Microsoft has 0 titles, let alone system-selling ones, since they have no online service period.

[Sylentwulf]

Madden, Socom, Everquest, Tony Hawk 4, and Maybe Final Fantasy.

All are going to be HUGE sellers wether you're online or not. So in that respect, sony DEFINITELY has the advantage.

(Some of these games are available on the x-box, but who wants to play THPS on xbox controllers?) (Everquest might be a multiplayer only game, not sure?)

I imagine Sony is going to "surprise" us with an online Gran Turismo soon, Maybe a better Twisted Metal online as well?

Sony also has rights to Grand Theft Auto for a few years, imagine THAT online?! :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

[congobongo]

Has anyone here played online with a PS2 yet? I'd like to know what there impressions are. I've had XBox live beta now for a few days and I have to say that I underestimated the power of voice in online gaming. I wouldn't slag any service before trying it so it's quite possible PS2 service is great. BTW are they selling both network and 56K adapters for the PS2? I really have to wonder what the use of a 56K adapter is at this point.

[Raedon]

Online gaming is the realm of the Computer.. always will be.. The Xbox will be fine as it's just a PC.

[WiseSalesman]

Flash forward. I haven't seen ONE SINGLE PIECE of media stating that the PS2 went online, no store displays, no commercials, BARELY even mentioned in any gaming magazines OR online.


Are you serious? Have you seen this month's EGM? The COVER is about the PS2 going online, and that's like all OUSPSM has been talking about for the past several months.

[Sylentwulf]

I've used the adapter, but only to play frequency and I really didn't care for that game much. Seemed VERY buggy while I was trying to start a game. Played PERFECT, IF you could get the game going, always froze up while loading for me....

Haven't gotten socom, no other games interest me yet. Need to grab myself an extra USB Keyboard too.

Re: EGM - I know, there was that. But I don't know how many people read EGM either. EGM is the only Videogame magazine I like personally. Not that I dislike any others, but this is the only one I subscribe to.

[Raedon]

Flash forward. I haven't seen ONE SINGLE PIECE of media stating that the PS2 went online, no store displays, no commercials, BARELY even mentioned in any gaming magazines OR online.


Are you serious? Have you seen this month's EGM? The COVER is about the PS2 going online, and that's like all OUSPSM has been talking about for the past several months.

I remember a N64 Disk drive being on the cover of several mags..

[jaybird]

Not to be one of the system-war type of guys, but I would say Sony wins over Microsoft since,

a) They have 2 AAA online titles in Madden and SOCOM

and
b) Microsoft has 0 titles, let alone system-selling ones, since they have no online service period.

It's really unfair to compare the PS2 online game lineup to the Xbox's right now, since Xbox Live won't officially launch until November.

It's just beta right now, so at least wait until then before declaring a winner.

[Raedon]

There is no winner here, all the console producers are just trying to cash in on the online gaming frenzy that was Everquest.. X-Box is the worst, making you pay a basic service is just lame. Microsoft is just looking for a quick and easy buck, otherwise Asteron's Call would have been a online launch title.. little work (p2p game server) + charge service=Xbox online..

the PS2 online will be ok, at least all you need to buy is a online adapter, buying pay to play games is optional.

There was a letter to the Editor in this months GI where the guy says he would rather pay $100+ for a game then pay a monthly fee is right on.. I played EQ for 3 years so I had to pay $360.00 just to play.. Now look at all the gotta pay console games.. play 4 on them and you'll need to shell out $500 a year easy. People don't realize that each of these online RPG's are going to cost you $10-12 a month, and if you don't pay then all your characters get deleted.. bye bye hard work..

[Tritoch]

Has anyone here played online with a PS2 yet? I'd like to know what there impressions are. I've had XBox live beta now for a few days and I have to say that I underestimated the power of voice in online gaming. I wouldn't slag any service before trying it so it's quite possible PS2 service is great. BTW are they selling both network and 56K adapters for the PS2? I really have to wonder what the use of a 56K adapter is at this point.

So far my experience with playing the PS2 online has been mixed - sometimes it's reliable, sometimes it's not. I think it'll always be that way unfortunately due to the set up. Voice does make a huge difference as well...I've been talking just because I can. :lol:

The network adapter has a 56k and broadband connection. It's everything in one.

[Captain Wrong]

The only game I'd wan to play on line is Twinkle Star Sprites, and there's LESS than a snowball's chance in hell of that ever happening! :lol:

Seriously though, I just hope all these companies don't forget that there's a lot of us (how many? I don't know.) who have little to no interest in getting on-line and playing games. I thought the Dreamcast hit a nice balance where there were lots of on-line games, but you didn't need to be on-line to enjoy most of them. I kind of think FF11 is going to be a huge mistake if it's online only, and broadband at that. But we shall see...

[punkoffgirl]

Can someone clarify for me.. Are any/all the systems going to be compatible for both dialup AND broadband connections? Reading through the above, I've gotten rather confused. I've heard some rumors...

[geelw]

SOME ps2 online games to date work on both dial-up & broadband, BUT you lose speed and features with dialup. some are broadband only. the network adapter is bb. if you have an dialup isp and connect through sony's service with that, expect a busy signal most of the time on the more popular titles. xbox is bb ONLY, no dialup, nintendo is coming out with both a dialup and broadband adapter (2 different units). hope that helps... :D

[punkoffgirl]

So.. Xbox is broadband access ONLY, while both the GC & PS2 will allow dialup or broadband. Interesting. I wonder how this will affect things.

[Raedon]

most hard core gamers have broadband already.

[geelw]

THAT'S just what sony & microsoft wanna hear, lol. but you're sorta missing the point: the people who want bb access and CAN'T get it for whatever reason are s.o.l. until there's a solution (other than dragging a console to the nearest backwoods/mountain LAN party, lol). those are the ones left out of that "most" in your post...

and, some folks could care less, from what i've been hearing lately- they just want good games that they don't have to pay to play once they get home... :wink:

[congobongo]

So far my experience with playing the PS2 online has been mixed - sometimes it's reliable, sometimes it's not.

I guess this is what you pay for with Live. Reliability. Online gaming for me is a bonus. A lot of my friends are scattered across the globe and to be able to hook up with them again and play like old times is a real bonus.

[ashbourn]

Another huge problem the companys have are thing not comming out that they got the system for look at the n64 never came out with the 64DD in the US and did not have the adapter to make game boy games play on it like a super gameboy for n64, sega waiting too long comming out with the BB for DC, sony and microsoft saying that the systems were internet ready and tons of peeps got halo just because of online play and had a hard ass time getting it to work. Nintendo is doing it again with gamecube that said it would have all this cool shit to work with GBA and there is not much out to do that if any. Why spend the few 100 u need to have a chance of getting online like claimed and not comming out with FFXI in the US will just push away fans.