And The Oscar Goes to X-Box!

It's been a while since a Front Row, Sofa has appeared. I promise it won't be so long until the next one.

A lot has happened since the last Front Row, Sofa, and I'm going to try and cover the major points of it this week.

First off, a word about CES in Vegas. Wow. I'm still a little overwhelmed by the amount of things I saw there, and I've sent Jay some movies that do a better job of putting it into pictures than I think I could ever do with words. The problem is that each of the movies is pretty large, so I'm trying to cut the size down to something reasonable while still keeping at least some of the video quality. Otherwise, what's the point? Keep watching for those, I know we've been promising them for a while, but now they're done, it's just a matter of getting them into the right file format (feel free to email me if you have any suggestions which are better than Realmedia files).

In some really big news, Sony finally launched the Playstation 2 in Japan, and the launch was definitely big. 980,000 units sold in the first weekend, which is a little short of their goal. Sony claims that supply problems were to blame for the shortfall (which is about 20,000 units short), and there were reports of problems with some memory cards out of the gate. The launch was far from flawless, however. There are some minor problems with the first batch of Playstation 2s, and a few major ones as well. The major problems mainly had to the with the memory card problem above. Apparently some of the 8MB memory cards which were shipped with the Playstation 2 had a flaw which could cause the DVD playback function of the unit to stop working (the drivers for DVD playback are stored on the memory card). What was happening is that when a user would save a Ridge Racer V game onto the card, the drivers would become corrupted. The problem was easily corrected by reloading the DVD drivers from the supplied utilities CD, but of course the average consumer can't be expected to know this. Sony has been replacing the flawed memory cards.

Some users also reported playback problems with some DVD movies, although it's difficult to determine if those problems were related to the Playstation 2 or the mastering of the DVD itself. Several DVDs have had problems on different players in the past, especially more feature-intensive titles like The Matrix - which, ironically, plays back without a hitch. Apparently, playing back DVDs from different regions is as simple as holding down a few buttons while starting the DVD player, so Sony is also releasing a new version of their DVD movie drivers to fix this "problem". Don't expect North American Playstation 2s to operate very effectively as region-free DVD players, which is a shame.

The launch titles were less spectacular than expected, with most gamers complaining that they seemed to be only slightly better (graphically) than currently available Sega Dreamcast games. Sony blames this on a lack of experience with the hardware, since the current crop of games only use the main CPU in the unit, and don't really take advantage of the new features the system offers. It essentially comes down to programmers developing for the unit like they would with any other standard console (Playstation, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, etc.) and not really developing strictly for the new hardware. Time will tell if they're right.

Overall, though, the launch went off very well, and set a new record for number of units sold in a very short period of time. It'll be interesting to watch over the next few months and see if Sony can maintain the momentum of their launch. All the console units which have launched in Japan with a huge bang like this have had their launch followed by a precipitous drop-off. It's up to Sony to keep that from happening with the Playstation 2.

The North American launch for the Playstation 2 is still planned for sometime this fall. Expect Sony to get all the kinks worked out before they release it. Japanese consumers are very forgiving of first-generation bugs; North American consumers are not. Also, expect Sony to be pushing for some really big titles for the North American launch. Japanese gamers will buy a system with a small launch lineup, if the upcoming titles look promising. North American gamers prefer instant gratification.

Sony is expected to have a massive presence at E3, which is happening soon at the Los Angeles Convention Center. I would expect that they'll unveil some amazing AAA titles at the show.

On the Nintendo front, there's still no real information on their upcoming Dolphin game console (the successor to the Nintendo 64). The big "N" has officially announced that it won't be launched in North America this year (no big surprises there), although it may still be released in Japan before the end of the year (that probably depends on whether any games are ready in time). I will be doing at least one feature piece on the Dolphin as soon as some concrete information is available.

The other huge news in DVD gaming from the past few weeks is that Microsoft finally unveiled their answer to the Playstation 2 in the form of the X-Box. The X-Box has absolutely outstanding specifications, and looks to be a true contender in the upcoming console wars. The specifications are not final yet, but it is expected that the unit will be launched in the fall of 2001. I'll be doing an in-depth piece on this new console in next week's Front Row, Sofa, so be sure to watch for it (I'm hoping to finish the piece on Monday for publication on Monday night or Tuesday morning).

Finally, this Sunday represents the end-all be-all of movie awards shows, The Academy Awards. As usual, the Pierce household will be holding an Oscar party, and this year I'm going to attempt to set up a webcam so everyone can join in on the festivities. The usual tradition with our Oscar party is to invite about twenty people, and about three show up. Sadly, people watching on the web won't be able to partake in the gratuitous amounts of tasty snacks.

I predict no major upsets this year at the Oscars. I expect American Beauty to take most of the major prizes (Best Picture, Director, Actor), I suspect (and hope) Hilary Swank will win Best Actress for her role in Boys Don't Cry (a fantastic movie). The most interesting races this year are in the minor categories, screenplay, sound, effects, etc. After the year they've had trying to produce this year's show, it should be interesting to watch (the new venue wasn't ready in time, the ballots were lost, the Oscars were stolen...what next? An earthquake during the broadcast?)

There are going to be a lot of changes around here at DVDFuture.com in the next few months, so please be patient as we undergo a behind-the-scenes redesign which will make it easier for the contributors to submit their articles. Right now, they all have to be emailed to Jay who has to find the time to actually post them between stressing out over this bit of work or that.

It's been so long since I've written a Front Row, Sofa, that I honestly can't remember who answered the last quote of the week correctly (but I'll check it when I get home and print it next week if I still have the info.sorry, whoever you are). The quote was from (short pause as he checks the web site to see what the heck the quote WAS from.) American Pie, which is a very entertaining teenage sex comedy for those of you who haven't seen it (think of it as Porky's for the nineties).

This week's quote is from a lesser known title which is available on DVD, but was never released theatrically. This is a tough one, because technically speaking it's not a movie.

"My Daphne, kidnapped again!?"

If you recognize it, email me at ken@dvdfuture.com. Sadly, no prizes this week, because I'm still sorting out what I have left. I'll be adding some more prizes to the bunch fairly quickly here.