Source: A post on the flash-game and movie site Razoric.com by way of Kotaku.

The official story: " The information below is pure rumor and speculation." --Sony spokesperson.

What we heard: By now, it' s pretty much common knowledge what Nintendo' s next-gen strategy will be. By the company' s own admission, the Revolution will be a cheaper alternative to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Current price estimates for the next-gen console range from $250 to as low as $150.

The Revolution will also be targeted at non-gamers, which it will lure in with intuitive gameplay. That will come courtesy of its " magic wand" controller, which will interpret a player' s real-world movements into in-game action.

Given that price estimates for the PS3 are going through the roof, it would seem that Sony doesn' t have anything to counter Nintendo' s novel approach. Not so, says Razoric, which posted an e-mail it received from an employee at Macromedia claiming to have inside knowledge of Sony' s counter-Revolution plans.

" Got some PS2 info if you’re interested," read the e-mail. " Sony intend to make it their ' Revolution Killer.' They' re working on tieing [sic] in Eyetoy and some kind of controller similar to the Revolution controller. With a 100M+ userbase, tens of thousands of mature and documented dev kits and the very low cost of producing Rev style games on the PS2 platform they’re expecting to mobilise [sic] another 50M units over the next 5 years precipitated by a $99 price point in 2007.”

Though from a less-than-reliable source, the outlined scheme seems like a pretty solid plan. With the new slimline PS2, Sony has both streamlined manufacturing costs and reduced form-factor size, facilitating increased shipping volume. Such measures make a $99 PS2 console feasible, if not profitable, from a hardware-cost standpoint.

Then there' s the question of the EyeToy, which has so far only been used for a line of moderately popular party games. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe pioneered the technology behind the motion-sensing device, and likely has a prototype of something akin to the Revolution' s controller tucked away in its R&D labs. If the Revolution proves popular, such a device might be put on the development fast-track--if it hasn' t been already. If it ever came to market, it would set up a showdown between the Revolution and the PS2--one that could be tipped by the latter' s massive installed base and low development costs.

If you' re asking yourself, why a Macromedia employee would have knowledge of Sony' s next-gen strategy, the grammatically challenged e-mailer has a good explanation. " Sony are [sic] prepping our new mobile ' Flash Lite' platform for PSP and PS3," s/he writes. " They intend to combat Xbox Live Arcade with downloadable flash games to your PS3 and PSP."

Besides adding to the theory that Sony is prepping a PSP with enough built-in memory to download games, the e-mailer' s theory makes business sense. " They understand the potential of Flash Lite since the development costs are low and we have a DRM [Digital Rights Management] solution in place so online content delivery is taken care of." Then there' s the fact that Sony has repeated time and time again that the PS2 platform will have a 10-year lifespan. A new, Revolution-style controller would help it draw out those last four years.

Maybe this...



...isn' t that funny afterall!

Did anyone actually think EyeToy was good?