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Discount Store News, Feb 6, 1995 by Pete Hisey

LAS VEGAS -- The video game industry is starting to look like the Nike commercial in which Dennis Hopper imagines he's being stalked by the Steelers' Rod Woodson. Picture Sega, Nintendo, 3DO and even personal computer makers as the twitching, sweating, paranoid Hopper ... and Sony's Play Station in the Woodson role.

Few have actually seen the machine, which will debut at E3 in May and go on-shelf in September, but at CES this year a basic outline appeared. With 16 mb of RAM, 8 mb of video RAM and 4 mb of audio RAM, Play Station will outpower all but the most advanced PCs. Its proprietary chip will process about a half-billion instructions per second (MIPS), compared to 66 million MIPS for an average Pentium chip, making it the fastest technology on the market by a factor of nearly 10. According to some Sony executives, Play Station will virtually eliminate the lag time that haunts most computer games.

All that power and speed, plus some unique authoring tools, cut game development from an industry average of about 18 months to six months from concept to shrinkwrap. Software developers love that. It may cost a bit more upfront, but the shorter development cycle cuts risk, allows developers much more flexibility to take advantage of emerging trends while they're hot and, of course, allows them to create more titles without adding staff.

The only issue remaining is price. Play Station cost about $449 when it was introduced in Japan on Dec. 1. Sony hopes to market it at well under $400 here, and perhaps even under $300, although that would probably preclude bundling games with the system.

Competing systems aren't standing still. 3DO will introduce an upgrade based on the Power PC chip this fall, and Panasonic, which along with Goldstar manufactures 3DO hardware, announced at CES that Wal-Mart will add the technology to all of its 2,300 stores, following a limited test this past fall. That brings 3DO's storefront total to about 9,000, the same total that broke Sega as a mass market product. Vice president of marketing Janet Strauss added that the dispute between 3DO and its software licensees over royalty rates and development of titles like Station Invasion by 3DO has been smoothed over.

Goldstar's entry into the market in late 1994 also gave 3DO a boost. Goldstar will introduce a bundled version this spring that will include two of the hottest games in the market: Shockwave and the amazing FIFA Soccer, the most realistic sports game ever. An MPEG video add-on, priced at under $200, will be bundled with Total Recall to stimulate use of the 3DO deck as a digital VCR. A price cut is also on the horizon, although prices held through Christmas, and Goldstar has opened its own software development division, in association with Crystal Dynamics, that will introduce at least five "A" titles this year.

Philips' CD-i is also aiming at VCRs, flooding the market with hit movie titles that can be played on its MPEG upgrade. The company also announced that following the success of its hit Burn:Cycle title, it will concentrate more on advanced games aimed at the hardcore gamer.

Sega will debut its long-awaited 64-bit Saturn product at E3 in May, and the company reported that it outsold Play Station during its Japanese introduction in December. Of course, Sony only had 100,000 units available and reportedly has 400,000 back orders to fill.

Also, Ultra 64 from Nintendo, the company's greatest gamble ever, is due at E3. The company's Peter Main said that delivery and price (under $250) are both on schedule. The risk is that consumers may be tiring of cartridge games and that the price ($60 or so, comparable to 16-bit carts) will be too high, as CD titles, which don't need a chip, drop to the $30 range. However, early examples of the unit's capabilities were very impressive, offering seamless play, the most realistic sprites ever and almost unlimited game depth. The lead title on introduction will be Top Gun: A New Adventure, a cinematic air combat game.

Nintendo kept a low profile at this show, as did most video game systems, but did introduce a new technology called Virtual Boy: a portable system linking a game deck and a 3-D visor. Virtual Boy delivers games several steps up from its Game Boy platform, although they're available in only one color, a neon red. Two titles will debut with the deck this June, with the price expected to be about $200, including games and battery pack.

PC's rally

The real action at this CES, though, centered on the PC. After five years of mergers and joint ventures and codevelopment agreements among and between movie studios, content owners, interactive technology developers, telephone and cable companies and so on, some substance is finally reaching the market.

GTE Interactive, showing for the first time at CES, introduced a lineup of some of the most exciting and technically satisfying games on the market. The standout, due by Christmas, is Tank Girl, based on the comic book and upcoming movie starring Keifer Sutherland. Violent, hilarious and at times obscene, Tank Girl is not for everyone, but it looks like a guaranteed hit. Rapid Assault, due this spring, was described as "Doom on wheels," and featured explosive action.