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...

[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...