It's all in the game

"There's a very real opportunity to ... link video gaming into a home network," Mr. Schmidt says. He offers the example of refrigerators sending information to homeowners, telling them they need service or are low on ice.

The "intelligent home" of the future, then, could give Sony or a different company another product boon - direct compatibility with home appliances.

Microsoft chases the new market

The prospect of media and home-appliance dominance has at least one competitor, Microsoft, pouring millions into developing a video-game business of its own. The computer-software behemoth's X-Box video-game console, replete with DVD and Internet access, is set to debut next year. It's Microsoft's second venture into convergence, after its WebTV enterprise only drew sparse interest.

"Microsoft wants to get into the living room," says Ms. Costello. "They've given up on the idea that people need a PC in the living room and they're afraid that Sony will have incredible control of networking...."

The great unknown for both companies is whether consumers, particularly parents, want a video-game machine at the center of family activities.

Paul Pollock, a dedicated gamer from South Boston, is planning to put his first X-Box at the center of his living room. "It'll sit right in the middle in front of a nice piece of [window] glass," he says. "I like having all the media things in one."

But not all video-game companies think buyers will respond like Mr. Pollock. Nintendo, whose focus remains cartoonish character games like Pokemon and Mario Brothers, argues that most game players just want one machine with one function.

"Nintendo believes the success of the video-game industry is that games get people excited," says Costello. "They don't think PlayStation 2 [as an expanded-purpose machine] will generate fun with game enthusiasts."

And Sega, whose Dreamcast is the only console that now offers Internet gaming, hasn't announced any plans to follow in Sony's footsteps, either.

"It depends on what people feel comfortable using," says Mr. Lowenstein. "I know people who have tried using the Internet access on their cellphones and stopped using it because they just didn't like it. The same may be true for e-mailing on a video-game system."

Deanna Loud, from Winthrop, Mass., owns a PlayStation and plans to upgrade to the PS2 this month. She says she'll use it to watch movies and play music, but she's not ready to abandon all her old-media machines.

"I'll most likely e-mail on my computer until there's a good write up about e-mailing on [the PS2]," she says. "I don't want it to crash on me."

For consumers like Ms. Loud, though, the bottom line of all the competition is more choices. Reports from Japan, where the PS2 premiered earlier this year, showed a 40 percent jump in DVD movie and music rentals immediately after its release.

Other players may prefer a more traditional game box. Either way, analysts say new products will lower prices. "The pattern in the industry is that these come out at a fairly steep price and drop down to around $100 after a period of years," says Paul DiSenso, senior consultant at SRIC, a technology consulting firm in Menlo Park, Calif.

Other factors are certain to affect gaming's growth. Manufacturers have come under fire for marketing violent games. "One of the great misunderstandings is that this industry is dominated by violence," says Lowenstein. "But those games are a relatively small part of its sales."

Sony quickly sold each of the 1 million units of PS2 set for its first shipment Oct. 26, and, though the 1 million has since been cut in half because of technical problems, there is little doubt sales of the PS2 will soar during the holidays.

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society

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