There are many who know very well what overseas companies are attempting to accomplish. The dawning of a new era in consoles is about to occur. Even though the current selection of Playstation, N64 and Dreamcast games keep people occupied, there is much to be considered with the next few systems.

The Playstation 2 is one of the highest anticipated game systems that will be appearing soon. Not only will die-hard Playstation owners be selling their kidneys for the console, but the casual gamer might also pick one up. As for competition, the other two systems to appear alongside Sega's Dreamcast will be the Nintendo Dolphin and Microsoft's X-Box.

Playstation 2 will receive support from many companies, including Electronic Arts, Namco, Capcom, Midway, Eidos, Squaresoft, Acclaim and Konami. Developers have one thing to say about PS2's success: Only, and only if Sony delivers what it promises, can the machine succeed.

For the competition, here's how things might end up:

a. The Sega Dreamcast has already been developed for and taken in by the gaming community. Third party support (the game developers) will gradually slow down by the time the PS2 has made its debut. Once their Internet network is perfected, there might be a perk in interest. If this doesn't work out, did someone say "Saturn?"

b. When the Nintendo Dolphin is launched, there will be an incredible flux in sales due to Pokemon and Mario; unfortunately they won't have the third party support they really need. Just like Sega, they will have to rely upon their internal development teams to get anywhere. This will probably end up like the N64, very profitable, but still not the top console.

c. There is little known about the X-Box, but it is undoubtedly the most powerful of the four machines. There is one thing working against Microsoft: time. The X-Box will be the last of the four consoles released. The PS2 will have about a year ahead on the X-Box, and the Dolphin will have a few months.