Welcome to AsiaBizTech Web Site

 
Top Page
Site Map
News at a Glance Member Services AsiaBizTech Resources



Advanced Search


(Nikkei BP Group)



(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)

















  • Sony Unit to Outline Next-Generation PlayStation Soon
  • November 17, 1998 (TOKYO) -- Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) may outline its next-generation PlayStation as early as late November, informed sources told Nikkei Electronics.
    PlayStation is Japan's most popular 32-bit video game machine.

    The company sees November as a critical month, because rival Sega Enterprises Ltd. plans to begin selling its new-generation game machine, Dreamcast, in the Japanese market on Nov. 27, the sources explained.

    Nikkei Electronics anticipates that following the release of details scheduled for late November, SCE will put the PlayStation on sale at the end of 1999.

    "The new machine will feature a function to receive data, such as music, via the Internet," said an executive of a company that is joining forces with SCE on a data delivery service for the machine.

    SCE will also make public a microprocessor for digital signal processing and a RISC-type microcontroller for video game machines, both of which SCE is jointly developing with Toshiba Corp., next February at a meeting of the International Solid State Circuits Conference in the United States. Nikkei Electronics assumes that these chips will be used in the next-generation PlayStation machine.

    The digital signal processor can decode MPEG2 data. Therefore, some industry analysts believe that a DVD-ROM drive will be incorporated into the new PlayStation.

    Related stories:
    � Sega Unveils Prepaid Internet Access Service for Dreamcast
    � Sega to Introduce Dreamcast Video Game Machine on Nov. 27
    � Sony to Sell Small Game Machine Similar to PlayStation

    (Nikkei Electronics)



    <Visit News Center for more Asian news.>



    Copyright © 1997-98
    Nikkei BP BizTech, Inc.
    All Rights Reserved.
    Updated: Mon Nov 16 17:47:51 1998 PDT