Playstation II to push broadband to consumers

Playstation II, due for release in Europe in autumn 2000, will accelerate broadband adoption in homes, according to its creator Sony.

"It will give consumers the opportunity to enjoy a complete digital entertainment experience through broadband," commented Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainments America. "It will be a fusion of games, music and movies".

Hirai said that Playstation II will provide the ultimate in home entertainment through CD and DVD Roms as well as through 'e-distribution' via broadband.

Sony demonstrated the power of Playstation II by showing how it can display glass and reflections in real-time, something that today's high end workstations can't yet achieve.

It also gave a glimpse of two games that are being developed for the console - fantasy game Dark Cloud and driving game Gran Tourismo 2000. The latter was so realistic that you could actually see heat haze coming off the cars as they zoomed around the track.

Phil Harrison, vice president of research and development for Sony, also confirmed that it is working on an emotion engine for the Playstation II that can simulate the way objects actually think, act and behave in real time. He showed off a flock of birds flying around a courtyard on the new console.

"You could run this for a billion years and it would not repeat itself," he said.