The potential of the PS2 is breathtaking: broadband and high speed networked play, connectivity to digital cameras, MP3 players and the Web, a hard drive add-on, and maybe even digital surround sound games. But most of these possibilities are unrealized at launch. And let's face it, there are no guarantees that any or all of these possibilities ever will be realized. In the last few months, Sony has not impressed anyone as a corporation concerned with maintaining good will with its customers. It came in with only half the originally promised units. Yet the Sony and retail PR machines continued stoking a user demand these companies knew they could not fulfill on the launch date. Let's also recall that the original Playstation was hyped in part as a dumbed down living room PC, with a keyboard option and promised learning titles that would make it more versatile and appealing to parents. Sony has played this marketing game before – offering general but non-committal suggestions of their machine's future power. But as soon as Sony suspected there was no appreciable market in these segments (or there was more money to be made focusing on a specific demographic among gamers) all these plans became a distant memory. In my mind, the wonderful plugs on the PS2 and all the vague promises surrounding its future power are nothing to count on.

Worse, Sony itself did not seem especially focused on ensuring an out-of-box gaming experience that even approached its own hype. Only one Sony title was available last week, the pretty and fun fireworks game, Fantavision.

But Sony didn't even pack into the PS2 box a demo disk of available titles. And from the look of the launch titles, the company seems to have done little to make, or encourage anyone else to make, a dazzling game with broad appeal. What does that say about the company's regard both for the consumer and for third-party publishers? Is this Sony telling us that it made the box, sucked us into the initial buy, and now its work is done? You fellas go figure out what to do with this thing.

I'll have fun with my PS2, to be sure. But this coming week I am more drawn to playing through multiplay Quake3 on my Dreamcast (via modem), the beta of Final Fantasy IX on that decrepit old PS1, the new Zelda on my N64, and Red Alert 2 on the desktop. The PS2 is tasty, but it is obviously half-baked. And it remains to be seen whether Sony even has the heat necessary to finish this cookie.

Steve Smith
Contributing Editor