HOME ENTERTAINMENT : Sony’s PlayStation Joins the Rich Video Game Party
The war for the hearts, minds and money of American video game players kicked into high gear with the national launch this weekend of Sony PlayStation, a 32-bit, disc-based system that delivers one of the richest gaming experiences available and promises to shake up an industry long dominated by Nintendo and Sega.
For players, Sony’s system is a welcome newcomer to the party. With blazing game play and a solid line of initial titles, PlayStation is typical Sony quality. And at a base price of $300, it costs less than Sega’s comparable Saturn system.
While no one doubts the technical beauty of the system, the big question is whether neophyte Sony can compete over time with Nintendo and Sega, which have spent the past decade learning the fickle tastes of their largely male, largely adolescent audience.
For its part, Sony is said to be spending as much as $50 million marketing PlayStation to prove that it’s in the game for the long haul. Already, more than a million units have been sold in Japan, and Sony expects to sell as many as 700,000 here before Christmas. Sony has reported sales of 100,000 since the launch.
Buyers will not be disappointed. Those used to 16-bit gaming on Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis will be downright dazzled. PlayStation, like competitors 3DO and Saturn, employs CD-ROM technology and 32-bit processors to pump out sizzling graphics and stereo sound.
A bit is the basic unit of computing data. Simply put, the more bits, the more powerful a system is, enabling it to display and manipulate more complicated games. In PlayStation, that translates to the ability to run 360,000 polygons per second for smooth animations and 24 channels of audio for sound as clear as any compact disc.
Consequently, games like Battle Arena Toshinden are awesome. With a constantly panning view and lush backgrounds, Toshinden is destined to be a classic in the fighting-game genre. Already, Sony is exploiting the game by using one of its characters, Sofia, to hawk PlayStation.
Television ads taunt viewers with images of Sofia--a whip-wielding, leather-wearing martial arts expert with inhuman cleavage--and the words: “Like to be humiliated by women? Here’s your dream date. Worship me.” Hype for another game, Total Eclipse Turbo, promises gleefully that “the more you kill, the better you feel!”
Such ads point up the strategy of the next-generation game manufacturers, who are trying to lure an older audience--twenty- and thirtysomethings who grew up with video games--back into the electronic fold. These more affluent buyers are critical to jump-starting the sluggish video game industry as even the cheapest 32-bit systems are triple the price of older machines like Genesis and Super Nintendo.
But as the folks at Sony like to say: “It’s the games, stupid!” Not even the most elegant system will survive without a strong library of titles. This is where many suspect Sony will fall short. But already almost 200 developers are designing games for PlayStation and Sony has its vast entertainment resources to draw from for content. As shown by the dominance of the film “Mortal Kombat,” the connection between movies and video games can be very strong indeed.
Many of the 15 or so initial games for PlayStation have a universal appeal. Ridge Racer from Namco, for instance, is a beautiful auto racing game that parents might enjoy more than kids. And to make it even easier for Dad to justify the purchase, PGA Tour ’96 continues the trend toward more titles that appeal to adults. For hard-core players, though, there are games like Toshinden and Kileak--the DNA Imperative.
Although many of the games follow familiar themes, they feel new and different on PlayStation. The quality of every element is unsurpassed.
PlayStation--along with Saturn and 3DO--quite frankly prove that there is life left in the video game industry. For all the hoopla about the personal computer supplanting game machines, it remains a fact that games are difficult to run and play on PCs and don’t always live up to the hype.
Game machines, on the other hand, deliver ease of use and game play that is almost always years ahead of the PC. So far, PlayStation is the system to beat this Christmas. Let’s just hope it doesn’t end up going the way of the Betamax.
Times staff writer Aaron Curtiss can be reached via e-mail atcurtiss@news.latimes.com.
