If you cannot wait until 2005 to get your hands on a PlayStation 3, Sony could have the answer in the form of the recently-announced PlayStation X.
Launching in Japan at the end of the year, and elsewhere in 2004, it is the second new product to be unveiled by the company in two weeks. The Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld became one of the most anticipated and talked-about products at the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles.
However, unlike the announcement of the PSP, which focused mainly on PR rather than a visible product, Sony actually has something to show off this time.
Like Nintendo's revamping of the GBA with the GBA-SP, the PSX will have a sleeker, more aesthetically pleasing design than the current PS2. As well as that, it will include DVD playback, a TV tuner and a 120 gigabyte hard drive.
The move marks a concerted effort by Sony to assimilate some of its successful gaming technology into its sluggish electronics division, recently pinpointed as a chief contributor to the company's biggest quarterly net loss in more than eight years.
However, the announcement is also indicative of the current trend in console development, which is to create a more multimedia-friendly product, thus winning a share of the market that is not driven by just gaming requirements.
It seems that the days of a console being just a box under the television for playing games on are coming to an end. Sony's plans for both the PSX and the PS3 revolve around creating a system incorporating several different entertainment genres, including movies, music and games, to create a more set-top box feel.
This approach is mirrored by Microsoft, with the company recently announcing that, over the next year, its Xbox Live service will be updated to incorporate a variety of interactive gaming and entertainment features. Meanwhile, 70 of the humble PlayStation 2 have been harnessed by scientists to form a giant supercomputer, believed to be capable of half a trillion computing operations per second.
The supercomputing centre at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which is in charge of the project, has turned the army of PS2s into what is known as a "Beowulf Cluster" (named after the Scandinavian folk hero who was rumoured to have the power of many people).
This allows individual systems to be linked together, via the Linux operating system, to form one super-machine.
Although the Xbox might seem a console better suited to such an experiment, given its fast, PC-like underpinnings, greater memory and built-in hard drive, the fact that only the PS2 officially has Linux on board was the defining factor. It is, after all, unlikely that we will see an Xbox running a sanctioned, non-Microsoft operating system any time soon.
While the PS2 Beowulf cluster may not be one of the fastest supercomputers, it is undoubtedly one of the cheapest, costing around $50,000 (£30,000). The fact that it can even be used in such an experiment speaks volumes about the power and pace of current consumer technology.
"If you look at the economics of game platforms and the power of computing in toys, this is a long-term market and computing trend," Dan Reed, the supercomputing centre's director, told the New York Times.
"The economics are just amazing. This is going to drive the next big wave in high-performance computing."
Although scientists claim that the PS2 cluster will only be useful in a limited number of areas, the little black box that you might play Tekken 4 on is currently being used to calculate quantum chromodynamics - the theories surrounding nuclear physics.
If it can do that today, just imagine what it can do tomorrow.
Top ten games: all platforms (compiled by ELSPA)
1) Enter the Matrix (PS2, GC, XB, PC) Atari - £39.99
2) The Sims: Superstar (PC) Electronic Arts - £17.99
3) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PC, PS2) Take 2 - £29.99
4) Def Jam Vendetta (PS2, GC) Electronic Arts - £39.99
5) The Sims (PS2, PC, XB, GC) Electronic Arts- £37.99
6) Midnight Club II (PS2) Take 2 - £39.99
7) Silent Hill 3 (PS2) Konami - £39.99
8) Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (PS2, Xbox PC) Ubi Soft - £37.99
9) Return To Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War (XB) Activision - £39.99
10) Championship Manager 4 (PC) Eidos Interactive - £29.99
