Console Wars - Xbox 360

The Cold War is Over

After several years of relative peace throughout the gaming galaxy, the console wars will be starting fresh this holiday season. Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft will wage an unprecedented all out war for the dollars of next generation gamers. The newest next-gen systems will most likely be backward compatible in order to retain an established customer base along with DVD and possibly even multimedia functionality. This year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), held each year in May, was all abuzz with the new consoles coming in the coming year. First out of the gate will be Microsoft with the release of the Xbox 360 possibly in November. As with all the systems details are sketchy, but one thing is for sure, "I've got to get me one of these."





Happy Holidays

Warning: The rest of the post is mostly conjecture and wishful thinking. Details about the system specs and features are sketchy at best. I will update as more info becomes available.

As if the end of the year doesn't bring enough celebration, there will be dancing in the street with the launch of Xbox 360 this holiday season. The projected release is sometime in November 2005. There is a lot of speculation as to what the 360 will and will not do/come with. As you may be able to tell from the picture, the console will be able to stand horizontally or vertically depending on the preference of the owner and available space. The controller will be wireless and will be able to control power to the 360, just like your TV remote does. The 360 is believed to ship with a removable hard drive for games saves (this may be an option), but it will also have two memory card slots that will allow you to take game saves to your friend's house. Rumors persist that the 360 will play DVD's and be backward compatible with original Xbox games. It is possible that you will be able to stream audio and video from your computer to the 360. There is a possible camera attachment that will be available early 2006. The camera could be used for video conferencing, game play or even to put yourself in a video game. Microsoft will wait until developers make use of the peripheral in five or six games before releasing it. Speaking of developers, they can make or break a system. As the Xbox gained a foothold here in America, more developers jumped on board, especially certain critical Japanese game makers. The 360 is getting heavy hitting backing from the beginning, which could mean good news for system and games sales here and abroad. The 360 will presumably launch with twenty-five to forty games or more. For those of us that have been waiting with baited breath, Bungie will not have Halo 3 available for launch. In fact, Bungie has gone out it's way to antagonize Sony, by saying it will release Halo 3 the same week as the Playstation 3. It may be a ploy to move up the Playstation 3 release before Sony is completely ready, but it seems like a bad idea to me, since I'm sure Microsoft would love to have as much time on the market as possible without directly competing with any other system. Nevertheless, there will be plenty of new games available, along with the extensive Xbox library of games. The 360 will contain a lot of power and memeory and has made it clear that it is trying to make it simple for developers to make games for and powerful enough for gamers to be impressed. Another item that will be overhauled is the Xbox Live gaming experience. Live may create a marketplace similar to Amazon and eBay that will allow gamers to sell content and merchandise to each other. Again, not very many details have been confirmed, but with Microsoft's deep pockets and penchant for innovation, you can bet the 360 will give gamers everything they are looking for in a new system.