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Morning News

Sony's PlayStation2 Debuts in America

Aired October 26, 2000 - 9:17 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Lining up for the big game. And it has nothing to do with the World Series. Kids and parents trying to buy Sony's new PlayStation2 video game console. It went on sale at midnight across America last night. You have to have some pretty fast fingers not only to play the new game, but just to get your hands on one. Demand for the game is so high that Sony has already said it will not be able to meet the demand immediately. The eagerly anticipated PlayStation2 comes with 26 new game titles.

Technology correspondent Rick Lockridge has brought the fun and games for us this morning.

Good morning, Rick. How are you?

RICK LOCKRIDGE, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

HEMMER: Take us through this stuff real quick.

LOCKRIDGE: Well, it wasn't all fun and games for some parents in suburban Atlanta. You hear about that? Arrested for shoving and pushing in line to try to get one of these.

HEMMER: Oh, really?

LOCKRIDGE: I just looked on eBay. One of these units here just sold for $787 on eBay, somebody's reservation for it, actually, which is more than twice the $299 retail price you have to pay, if you can get one. Yes, that shortage could be a real problem as you get toward Christmas.

The games play on DVDs. This is one of the games here. We've got one in the box as well, but I'll hold this up here so you can get a look at that. So they're capable of holding a lot more information than the CDs...

HEMMER: Sure.

LOCKRIDGE: ... which play the old PlayStation games. So now I want to start it here and we'll take a look at the graphics. After all, that's what it's all about is the graphics processor.

HEMMER: OK, we loaded -- just to let our viewers -- we loaded a snowboarding game, because this is just...

LOCKRIDGE: Because you wanted to snowboard.

HEMMER: Give it a shot. And this is just one of how many? I mean, there's...

LOCKRIDGE: Twenty-six games available right now.

HEMMER: NFL is out there.

LOCKRIDGE: Yes.

HEMMER: What else is out there?

LOCKRIDGE: There's going to be 50 by Christmas and 270 games in the works overall for the PlayStation2.

HEMMER: All right, in the interest of fair play, I only had about five minutes of warmup time.

LOCKRIDGE: Yes, Bill really didn't have much time to practice.

HEMMER: I'm the guy in the middle, though.

LOCKRIDGE: Now you're off. And the thing to pay attention to, look at the fireworks there and how the marks on the snow go by. All of that...

HEMMER: How about the sound, Rick?

LOCKRIDGE: That too. All of it takes a tremendous amount of...

HEMMER: Whoa.

LOCKRIDGE: ... number crunching and processing speed. And that's what Sony's 128-bit smoking engine processor is all about.

HEMMER: Sorry about that guy. Who's my guy on the slopes here, by the way?

LOCKRIDGE: You're Mac.

HEMMER: I'm beating up Mac pretty well.

LOCKRIDGE: You're a 15-year-old kid here on the slopes. But...

HEMMER: You know, the other thing that people at home can't -- wow, sorry -- that can't pick up on right now is that when I hit these pylons or hit other obstacles...

LOCKRIDGE: You feel it, right.

HEMMER: Well, the control in my hand actually shakes and vibrates.

LOCKRIDGE: That's actually the only analog part of the PlayStation2, is the controller, and people are real fond of that.

HEMMER: You know, I will say, Rick, I have seen similar video games in, shall we say, drinking establishments.

LOCKRIDGE: Sure, the high-end -- right.

HEMMER: But these are enormous games. I mean, these are really big video games, whereas this is something that you showed can be done on CD-ROM.

LOCKRIDGE: You're doing a pretty good job of talking and snowboarding at the same time.

HEMMER: How about that.

LOCKRIDGE: Uh-oh, now you're outside the snow pen so you're in trouble.

HEMMER: I specialize in talking.

LOCKRIDGE: I no sooner compliment you than you get in trouble. Stay close to the fence here and you'll be able to get back on in a little bit.

HEMMER: OK. All right.

LOCKRIDGE: But the Emotion Engine processor is able to do 75 million polygons or little pictures of the pieces every second, and billions of pixels per second...

HEMMER: There we go.

LOCKRIDGE: ... 6 billion gigaflops, if that means anything to you.

HEMMER: You know what I'm doing right now, Rick, I'm choking big time.

LOCKRIDGE: Oh, I think you're doing OK. I mean, you also have the capability within this game to push and shove your competitors...

HEMMER: Which I like.

LOCKRIDGE: ... if snowboarding isn't good enough for you. But, again, what it all comes down to here is the difference in the look of the graphics, owing to the tremendous increase in processor speed by the Emotion Engine processor.

Now, of course, I was talking about the shortage. That could be a big problem. They've already sold 3 million of these in Japan and they only expect to have about 1.3 million available in the U.S. by Christmas; 500,000 right now. That's down from the million that Sony originally hoped to have available on the line.

HEMMER: What place am I in, Rick, right now while you keep talking?

LOCKRIDGE: You're in third. You've got...

HEMMER: I'm in third?

LOCKRIDGE: Yes.

HEMMER: Come on.

LOCKRIDGE: Third out of six. And Sony's going to try to deliver 100,000 units a week between now and Christmas. For those of you parents who are worried about getting your hands on one of these, Sony tries -- is going to try to dribble them in, 100,000 a week between now and Christmas, a total of 1.3 million units by Christmas. And that could either be way short of what's needed or, you know, way beyond that. It could be very hard to find one of these units by Christmas if you don't already have one.

HEMMER: Quick question: This run right here, Rick, how long is it?

LOCKRIDGE: I think you're getting close to the end here.

HEMMER: Where am I going?

(SCREAMING)

LOCKRIDGE: OK, you stayed on your feet, though, or on your board.

HEMMER: Come on, baby, hang in there!

LOCKRIDGE: Now, you know the PlayStation2...

HEMMER: Air. I got air. I'm shredded.

LOCKRIDGE: ... you also have to go for style points if you really hope to finish first in this by doing trips -- tricks and flips. And, you know, any 8-year-old kid can come in and show us how to do this.

There you go, second place. That's not bad for your first full run.

And of course the PlayStation2...

HEMMER: That's super.

LOCKRIDGE: ... can play regular DVD movies in addition to the games.

HEMMER: Wow.

LOCKRIDGE: So if you don't have a DVD player, the thinking is that you might want to acquire it just as a DVD player or a CD player.

HEMMER: Yes, have there been any reports of glitches or anything with the system getting out there right now, about problems with the system computer-wise? LOCKRIDGE: Well, in the Japan launch in March this year, there were some complaints about anti-aliases (ph) and some jaggies (ph) on the screen.

HEMMER: Yes.

LOCKRIDGE: But I don't think you saw any there.

HEMMER: No, very clean.

LOCKRIDGE: Sony says that it's fixed that, and apparently it has.

HEMMER: And certainly there's going to be some others that jump on this. Major competition right now is where and with whom?

LOCKRIDGE: Well, the only 128-bit competitor right now is the Sega Dreamcast, and that's been out for a year. And it should be pointed out that those games are very good games, there just aren't as many of them available as there will ultimately be for the PlayStation2.

HEMMER: Here they are right here: Sega, Microsoft and...

LOCKRIDGE: And the Dreamcast also has the advantage of being available and being only $149. So that might be an alternative for parents as Christmas comes by.

Now, Microsoft and Nintendo will jump into this next year, late next year, Nintendo with its Dolphin, also called the GameCube, and Microsoft with its X-Box. But right now it's just the PlayStation2, if you can get one, and the Sega Dreamcast.

HEMMER: It's about 300 bucks, the price tag?

LOCKRIDGE: Yes, if you can get it for that.

(LAUGHTER)

I mean, I think a lot of parents are going to have to be checking eBay and places like that, otherwise they won't have another way to get one.

HEMMER: Thank you, Rick. Much appreciated.

LOCKRIDGE: Sure.

HEMMER: As we go to break, too, another look at the -- another look at this bad boy here: "Snowdream" on PlayStation2. Back with more after this. Our thanks to Rick Lockridge for the show and tell this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

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