The thread about the PS2 hard drive was interesting, but died, and I didn\'t want to bring a dead thread up in the main forum, so I decided to give it a go here. So, I apologize ahead of time if everyone is sick of talking about the HD, but I am personally curious about how Sony can make the HD a runaway success. I posted quite abit in that thread after it was dead, and it went right back down the list, so I don\'t think anyone read that (\'cept OGodly), and I don\'t feel like typing it all again, so I\'ll just copy and paste it, and edit out some of the parts where I was responding to previous comments made,etc.
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Add-ons fail. Every add-on has failed, the only actual "add-on" that has worked was the Nintendo RAM package and still, you sometimes see games that should of used it--but didn\'t, i.e, Conkers Bad Fur Day.
Sony can very easily sell the ethernet adapter. NO problem. People with broadband will pay for something like that. A hardrive is another thing in general. Microsoft knew this, that is why the are selling the Xbox with a hardrive, and it was a smart move. Sony cannot and I don\'t care how much marketing they do make the HD add-on a true success. At best it will have limited novel appeal for online game "bonus" (i.e, extra levels). Wait, I rephrase. If Sony can sell the add-on at $20-$50 dollars and have plenty of compelling reasons to own the HD, then they could make this a runaway success. But, guess what?
1: They can\'t sell it for such a cheap price. Lets face it folks, you don\'t get 40 gig hardrives that cheap.
2: There is no actual compelling reason to shell out the money.
And where does this leave developers? Developers have to look at how many people bought the add-on and then develop for that number, which makes it very confusing and risky for developers. Developers know for a fact that every Xbox machine sold has a HD that can be used. But, now they will have to look at sell stats to see how many PS2 HD\'s was sold and debate if it is worth the extra cost and development or if they should (1) move to project over to the XBox or (2) scale it down and make it for the PS2 without HD support. A mixed enviorment is never a good thing, and that is exactly what Sony is creating.
Moving back to the first point of add-ons failing at the consumer level, you can look at any add-on like Sega\'s 32x, Nintendo\'s 64DD and Atari\'s Jaguar CD or even the vaporware 3DO M2 and see that the past of add-ons is not good. Consumers do not like to purchase something like a console and then be told that if they want to feel the "full potenial" of the console they need to shell out even more cash. Then I see some of you mentioning Sony eventually making PS2 units with the HD built in.. This is a actually a good point, but a few problems..
1: As mentioned by someone else (Gohan, I believe) this is a direct slap in the face to those who stood out in the rain and cold for a PS2 on the launch. Sony does not need to upset so many gamers.
2: They could very likely knock the PS2 price down $100 and then make a bundle package that includes the HD for a total of the already common price of $300, but market confusion will still exist. The basic consumer isn\'t smart and if they see a PS2 that says $200 that is missing a HD and then they see one that is $300 that has this "device", they are most likely going to purchase the cheaper of the two, unless compelling titles exist that make them want to use the extra $100 for the add-on.
Overall, the add-on has a very grim fate.
I will eventually, maybe pick one up, not quite sure. I know I won\'t pick up a broabband adapter, as my satelite service doesn\'t allow online gaming , etc. And if the HD is only going to be used for extra things such as levels, there is no way I\'ll buy it. Come November, there will be two systems that I need to buy not an upgrade to a year old system that should still be holding its own games wise .
Lets see here, we will count add-ons that come to mind and add-ons that never even made it out of the development door for "unknown" reasons.
32X (Released) {failure}
Sega CD (released) {failure}
Jaguar CD (released) {failure }
64DD (released-Japan only) {massive failure}
M2 (not released) {3DO add-on }
Super CD (not released) {developed by Sony }
This is just the well known ones. If you do alittle research you can find more add-ons and it also depends on what you consider an add-on. Example; one could consider the RAM packages offered for the Saturn and Nintendo 64 as add-ons, and if so, you would need the sell stats for both the console and the amount of RAM packages sold. If the RAM packages do not at least meet HALF the console user base, then the RAM package would be considered a failure.
(And before someone mentions the DUAL SHOCK being an add-on. It wasn\'t. It was a controller. If you want to include it as an add-on, I will mention the ROBOT , POWER GLOVE, and many other obsecure 8-BIT controllers that did fail. But to be simple, it is not an add-on. It is a controller. Big difference.)
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So what do you guys think? What does Sony need to do to make the HD add-on a runaway success? Can they do it even? And how much are you willing to pay for it?
