……

The first day of the pre-show press conference was led by Sony.

In the morning, Ken Kutaragi continued to show off the PS2 concept machine, although it is a concept machine, but it already has certain functions.

Sony announced at the scene that the PS2 will have a polygon processing power of 75 million per second, which will be twice that of Sega DC.

When Ken Kutaragi shouted out this number, although everyone didn't know what the concept of 75 million per second was, [twice as much DC] was enough to make everyone on the scene excited.

Qing Zhiyuan sat in the audience, the corners of his mouth rose slightly, the director of the scene was very bad, often at this time, he would deliberately give the camera to Qing Zhiyuan's face, and give a big close-up, so the expression of Qing Zhiyuan on the secondary screen in the scene was fully seen by everyone.

Everyone was eager to see how Qing Zhiyuan responded to Sony's provocation.

Qing Zhiyuan just smiled indifferently, saying that he didn't care about what Kutara Mujian said at all.

He really has to admire that Sony's advertising deception and expectation management are really as brilliant as ever.

In fact, it was the same in the previous life, although it was claimed to have a processing capacity of 75 million polygons per second, but in fact, the PS2 was far from reaching this level after its release.

It's just that by the time players reacted, Sega DC had long since ceased to exist, and PS2 was the dominant player in the market, and you had no second choice, and there seemed to be no better way to be deceived.

Fortunately, this time there is Qing Zhiyuan, and Sega's DC game console is playing very beautifully.

After showing the performance parameters of the PS2, Sony went on to show several new games.

PS's game lineup is still at its peak, and this time Sony showcased several first-party games with great appeal.

They also created a racing game tailored to the PS2: a demo version of the PS2 version of Gran Turismo.

Although it is no longer possible to strengthen the screen, the [three times the content of the previous work] promoted by Ken Kutaragi is still very exciting.

From the perspective of the current racing game market, it can be roughly divided into three types:

The first is Pokémon Kart by Pokeni and Mario Kart by Rentendo, which focuses on a light-hearted, family-friendly series.

The second is EA's Need for Speed series, which features a real-life luxury car that allows you to drive millions of dollars in the game, and provides an adrenaline-pumping thrill.

Sony's GT cars basically belong to this category, but the rules will be more free.

The third is that Formula 1 focuses on a world-class racing that mimics the real world, which allows players to feel the thrill that they cannot experience in life, and the style of the car is very different from the average family sports car.

Each racing game genre has its own fixed audience, but in terms of user base, the market for family fun like Pokémon and Mario Kart is larger.

Naturally, the coverage will be wider.

After introducing several games, Ken Kutaragi said:

"The PS2 is still in the trial stage, but it shouldn't be too far from being released, and we expect to be able to meet you in the early 2000s."

"As for the PS2 launch price," Ken Kutaragi smiled mysteriously, and then said into the microphone, "$299!" ”

Hearing this price, countless people at the scene stood up and applauded and cheered.

……

"Sony's moves faster than we thought." Sega Vice President Shoichiro Iriko said in Aojiwon's ear, and the whole person looked a little worried.

It was announced last year that the development of PS2 will be released, and then it will be released next year, which is really fast enough.

However, Qing Zhiyuan does not suspect that there is a problem with the development cycle of PS2, Sony can actually iterate on PS2 a long time ago, but there is no sense of crisis before, and the sales volume of PS has not yet reached the expectations of Sony's top management, in the absence of external threats, of course, it is necessary to postpone the iteration as much as possible and let PS serve for a longer period of time.

In other words, if there is no Sega DC, it is not certain that the PS2 will not come out until 2001.

Two years to develop a game console is actually enough.

And according to Qing Zhiyuan's assessment, the main reason why Sony's side will not go on sale until next year is likely to be that PS2 is not the same as the PS2 in the previous life, and it is likely to be an evolved version of the original PS2.

Even if it can't surpass DC, but at least it must be on par with DC in terms of performance and performance, it can only be said that after Qingzhiyuan let Nvidia join, it improved DC's competitiveness at the same time, but also forced Sony into a desperate situation.

If it is released later, the DC game console will already occupy the market in this vacuum time, but if it is released earlier, the technical level will not be reached.

It just happened to be a bug stuck by Qing Zhiyuan, which is called an uncomfortable one.

Put it on sale in 2000,It's already the limit of what Sony can do.,According to Qing Zhiyuan's estimates,It's not sure that there will be any problems because of the rush.。

"Don't be in such a hurry, I wish they could have made the PS2 out sooner." Qing Zhiyuan said with a smile.

"Huh?" Shoichiro Iriko looked at the president a little strangely, "Shouldn't we hope that they will be released as late as possible?" Now that there is no opponent in the market, it is just the time for us to exert our strength. ”

"Well, it's all about how well the PS2 is performing." Qing Zhiyuan smiled.

PS2 has not been playing, players will have expectations for it, but once it is actually sold, it may be punctured, so that players can clearly compare and perceive that the original PS2 is nothing more than that, and it is not even as good as DC's performance, then it will be troublesome.

If you don't have the strength, you can fight the mouth cannon, and if you have the strength, of course, you have to attack head-on, Qing Zhiyuan doesn't want to fight the mouth cannon anymore, so I wish PS2 was released as soon as possible.

"President, what do you mean ......?"

Qing Zhiyuan smiled and said nothing, but Shoichiro Iriko immediately understood.

Damn it!

Sony is engaged in false propaganda again!

……

The Sony PS2 will be sold in the West for $299, while the Neon will be priced at $39,800 in China, which is still slightly more expensive than the Sega DC.

Sega DC's consoles cost $249 and ¥29,800 respectively, which is a cut cheaper than Sony's PS2.

Therefore, although the atmosphere in the scene was warm, it still caused some players to be dissatisfied and complain.

"Huh? Sony's price seems to be a bit more expensive, and I thought they would push it down a little bit lower than the Sega DC. ”

"That's right, although 299 sounds like a 2, it's actually not much different from $300, on the other hand, the price of Sega DC249 is a lot cheaper all of a sudden."

"Maybe Sony is more confident in the performance of its consoles? Didn't you hear what Ken Kutaragi said? In terms of polygon processing power, the Sony PS2 is twice as powerful as the Sega DC. ”

"Hmm...... If it's true, it seems that 299 is nothing unacceptable. ”

"You don't understand, right?,Actually, this is related to performance.,But the relationship is not particularly big.,The most critical point is that the current game console market is the world of PS.,PS2If it's compatible with PS games,In fact, it's equivalent to inheriting the market opened up by PS in one go.,It's not necessary to lower the price.。

"In the case of an advantage, there is really no need to fight a price war."

……

In addition, another mascot "Spyro the Dragon", which SCE has focused on cultivating, also exhibited its latest sequel.

Although the lineup of PS games on this E3 is huge, it is basically the world of sequels.

After Ken Kutaragi's speech, everyone at the scene gave a standing ovation.

However, players always feel as if they are lonely.

Aside from being able to know exactly the price and approximate date of Sony's PS2 release, there don't seem to be too many surprises.

Ace Final Fantasy 8 was used up last year, and there are only a bunch of sequels that lack enough freshness to make players feel a little tasteless.

"It's good that PS2 is going to be released, but we're going to see a game, a game!"

"That's right, why don't there be any eye-catching games on PS this year.,It's all fried cold rice.,I'm actually more hopeful to see Sony make some new things come out.。

"Don't worry, I don't know if I'll leave it to the third-party game provider for release."

……

In fact, as players expected, after the Sony press conference, Square Enix's side followed with a set of combination punches.

This time, Masashi Miyamoto is still bringing Final Fantasy 8, but it's not the same as everyone expected-

This is a game released on PlayStation, not on PS2.

"Final Fantasy 8" was already on sale on PS in February this year, and due to the extremely high popularity of last year, FF8 achieved amazing results as soon as it was released, and the sales volume in Neon exceeded 3 million copies in the first month, and so far, global sales have reached a terrible 8 million.

Directly raised the PS again.

Although players found that the effect in the game was far less shocking than the video released by Square Enix last year, but it was interspersed with some high-quality CG, the game itself still seemed a little insufficient, at least it failed to achieve the promotional effect of Square Enix and Sony.

However, the game characters of FF8 are good enough, and they are almost the leading RPG level of the era, plus the exquisite CG interspersed in them, so that players can enjoy the sense of watching the movie while playing, so the reputation has not exploded.

Even if the graphics quality of the game does not meet the expectations of players, everyone will comfort themselves in their hearts-

This is the effect on the PS, not the PS2, and it would have been great if Square Enix hadn't been in such a hurry and had waited to be released on the PS2.

……

After the morning press conference, it was almost a one-sided situation where Sony hit hard, and players were more discussing Final Fantasy 8, which was just released this year, saying that the CG of the characters made in it was really good-looking.

Especially the heroine Rinoya, which is particularly in line with the aesthetics of the Orientals, is really cute.

……

In the afternoon, Konami will hold the press conference.

Producer Gozo Kitao exhibited their newly developed game at the scene.

Silent Hill

The game mainly tells the story of writer Harry Mason as he explores the small town of Silent Hill in search of his missing adopted daughter.

The protagonist is involved in a cult ritual that can awaken the gods on the way, and the things he encounters along the way are particularly terrifying, and it is an out-and-out horror game.

Many people at the scene were too scared to want to, and they didn't dare to demonstrate the process in the game at all.

The game will be released on PC and Sega DC.

After the demonstration, Kitao Gozo rubbed his hands together and smiled a little smugly.

"In the game, we used more advanced real-time light and shadow rendering technology, so you can see that when the heroine walks by, the surrounding objects actually have diffuse light effects.

The light accompanies the characters, constantly expanding their horizons, and it is precisely because of this real-time rendering effect that the horror atmosphere of the game can be achieved to the extreme. ”

From April to June, it's definitely too late to make a brand new full game.

However, Konami said that it does not need to be done, and this time the part used for live demonstrations and demos only needs to provide the initial scene content, which can be experienced by players for about 20 minutes.

And Silent Hill itself has already done most of it, and wants to release it through PC, and later when Sega DC gave the game engine and game library over, they were surprised to find that the porting between the two was too smooth, right?

Almost through the porting and conversion function that comes with the Pioneer Engine of P Society, the game can be imported into a usable version of Sega DC, and some small details need to be fine-tuned, but the workload is actually not too large.

And with the Trailblazer engine, the rendering effect is even better.

This time Konami made a very decisive and wise decision, saying that it was going to develop a new game on DC, and it really did it.

Seeing this, Qing Zhiyuan couldn't help but sigh.

Konami still has two brushes sometimes.

Although Capcom lost Resident Evil, it didn't seem to stop Konami from making Silent Hill.

The game of Silent Hill is handled quite cleverly.

The dim light and shadow obscure the fact that they are not competitive in game models, especially static models.

However, this feeling of low visibility and dim lighting enhances the sense of immersion in the game.

There were whispers at the scene:

"It's so scary, so excited, so weird, I obviously see my scalp tingling, and I don't even dare to look at the big screen, for fear that some monster will come out in front of me, but I really want to watch Mr. Kitao's demonstration again."

"I'm scared and want to play, right? Be virtuous with me. ”

"I'm afraid my heart can't stand it, and the horror game is too realistic, right? This real-time rendering of Silent Hill is also amazing. ”

……

Kutara Wood Ken has a mouthful of old blood.

He was still thinking about what kind of game would come out of pokeni tomorrow.,There's no bottom in his heart.,P Society's games are notoriously powerful.。

But I never thought that-

It was actually Konami who came to fight for DC.

And it was played quite beautifully.

The picture and atmosphere of Silent Hill, especially the viewing effect, are really amazing.

……

……

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I'm feeling better today, and I should be able to return to my normal update status tomorrow.

There is no update tonight

Thank you

See you tomorrow (end of chapter)