TO YOUR STATIONS SONY UNVEILS REVOLUTIONARY NEW VIDEO-GAME SYSTEM.

Byline: David Bloom Staff Writer

With graphics 10 times sharper than the previous version, PlayStation 2, the most highly anticipated videogame console ever, arrives in stores Thursday (for those of you who preordered).

But Sony isn't just playing games. By knitting together the videogaming business, the Internet, computing, music CDs and DVD movies in one package for a price of about $300, the electronic giant hopes to take control of America's living rooms and entertainment centers.

``That is really going to be the driving force in further expanding the category of what we're terming computer entertainment,'' said Kazuo Hirai, president and chief operating officer of Sony Computer Entertainment of America.

The PS2, with its graphics power and industry-standard computer ports (both USB and Firewire/IEEE 1394 connections are included), can function a lot like a computer as well as a videogame machine, given the right add-on components, such as a planned hard-drive/network card device that will plug into the U.S. version of the machine.

And Sony is marketing the new machine to a broader group of creative, entertainment-minded people - well beyond the hard-core gaming crowd - that senior vice president Andrew House calls ``the imaginators.''

``We see the PlayStation as owning a broader entertainment message than videogame consoles have in the past,'' House said. That interest, Sony says, extends to the people creating titles for the new machine, too.

``There's interest from all over the entertainment business, from film, music, the Internet and edutainment companies,'' said House, though neither he nor other Sony officials were willing to talk in even the most general terms about what any of those companies is actually interested in creating for the PlayStation 2.

Hirai said Sony has gotten ``lots of interest from companies that were never traditionally involved in videogames. I think that adds an additional dimension to the PlayStation 2. They bring a different perspective.''

But what those companies may eventually create is likely to be as boundary-stretching as some of what was created for the original PlayStation, Hirai said.

``Even when you look at the original PlayStation, and look at some of the titles, we were able to break into a lot of new genres, like Parappa the Rapper,'' said Hirai. ``Given the power of the PlayStation 2, we're going to be able to expand that and develop more new genres. I think what we're offering, we're able to give the content creators the widest number of colors on their palette, so when they go into the studio, they have the widest range of options available to them. There are going to be titles we never imagined would ever be possible.''

The U.S. version of the PS2 is slightly different from the one that debuted in Japan, where 3 million consoles have been sold. It comes with an expansion bay that will hold a separate hard-disk drive and network card, to allow Internet access and the storage of large amounts of information.

Also, Sony built in DVD playback capabilities onto the machine's hardware, instead of relying on a software solution that required a user to plug in an included memory card in the Japanese version. The U.S. version results in better DVD playback quality, but you won't get the memory card, which you'll need if you want to save high scores, customized characters and settings.

The new machine requires far more work for developers, Yoshida said. One example: Gran Turismo 3, the sequel to a pair of best-selling PS1 racing simulations, draws a car onscreen with 4,000 polygons. Gran Turismo 2 from last year would draw the same car with only 400 polygons. And what took a day and a half to create for last year's game now takes two to two and a half weeks for the PS2.

The results can be breathtaking. Not only are the GT3 cars great to look at, with light moving across their surfaces as they whip by, but the computer competition comes with an attitude.

``Now, each car will react emotionally to what you do,'' said Susan Nourai, a GT3 product marketing manager. ``If you pass them or cut them off, they'll tailgate you, come after you, try to cut you off.''

And during the replay mode, which creates a TV-like replay using shots from virtual cameras along the race route, ``I don't think you could tell the difference from a live broadcast,'' Nourai said. ``It's pretty remarkable.''

Sony expects to sell 10 million PS2s worldwide in the next year, including 3 million in North America along with 4.6 million games. In all, the company expects to rake in $1.5 billion from the PS2 by the end of its fiscal year March 31.

Sony will have plenty of competition trying to make itself the dominant player in American living rooms.

Sega rolled out its Dreamcast console last year, to a warm if not walloping reception, selling about 2 million machines to play a well-regarded library of games. The company also just rolled out SegaNet, its online gaming network that connects every Dreamcast for head-to-head play over the Internet, a first for console gaming. But Sega has struggled to draw the kind of interest from outside game developers that Sony has received.

``Sony's got a lot of muscle,'' said Tom Russo, editor in chief of Next Gen, a magazine that covers the electronic gaming business. ``We're doing a PS2 feature for the launch, and there are 200 games in the works for that system. Already at launch, we know of more games available than Sega had after six months.''

Perhaps more of a challenge, though, is next year's arrival of Nintendo's next-generation machine, the GAMECUBE, and Microsoft's entry into the business with the much-awaited Xbox, which is stuffed with remarkable technology and backed by the world's biggest software company.

Sony officials say they aren't worried, though.

``We welcome the competition from Microsoft, but we think that software support determines the health of a platform,'' said Jack Tretton, a Sony executive vice president.

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5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover color) The Future IS NOW

Sony's revolutionary PlayStation 2 is here - if you can get it

(2 -- 5) These video captures, right, of various PlayStation 2 games demonstrate the variety and realistic feel of the system, especially the boxing game Ready2Rumble, below.