Thursday, April 28, 2005
Xbox 360
The first 6th generation* console to come out is going to be Microsoft's sucessor to the fairly successful Xbox platform, which has been confirmed to be dubbed Xbox 360. This new console unit will feature ATI video technology and an Intel processor, probably in the 2.5+ ghz range but I haven't seen firm specs on that yet. There is supposed to be a $300 base model and then a "deluxe" version for $400ish, that's also rumor and I don't know what the difference will be. The pictures that have been released so far are of a thinner, smaller, silver rectangular unit that is concave on top and bottom. Here is an image of the Xbox 360 on top of an Xbox for a size and appearance comparison. One thing that is exciting is that there are rumors that the Xbox 360 will launch with wireless controller technology as the default, so no more dragging cords all over the living room!
As mentioned in that blog entry, the Xbox 360 most likely will not be backwards compatible with the Xbox games you have today. That's kind of a real bummer in my opinion, but I can live with it. However, if the device were backwards compatible I would definitely be pre-ordering it and having my grubby little hands on it on day 1. But if not, it all just depends on the launch titles and whether or not any of them sound worth buying a system for.
As for Sony and Nintendo, they both have consoles in the works, but we're looking at late 2006 before we see those, at least in the US. Microsoft has a great opportunity here to gain momentum before the juggernaut Sony comes on the scene. Lets hope they do a better job than Sega did with the Dreamcast which was in a similar position in 1999.
* Here's the breakdown of console generations based on my own ideas.
1st generation - Atari 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 4800, others.
2nd generation - Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Sega Master System
3rd generation - Super NES, Sega Genesis, Sega 32x, Sega CD, Turbo Gfx16
4th generation - Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, Sony Playstation
5th generation - Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox
6th generation - Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Revolution
As mentioned in that blog entry, the Xbox 360 most likely will not be backwards compatible with the Xbox games you have today. That's kind of a real bummer in my opinion, but I can live with it. However, if the device were backwards compatible I would definitely be pre-ordering it and having my grubby little hands on it on day 1. But if not, it all just depends on the launch titles and whether or not any of them sound worth buying a system for.
As for Sony and Nintendo, they both have consoles in the works, but we're looking at late 2006 before we see those, at least in the US. Microsoft has a great opportunity here to gain momentum before the juggernaut Sony comes on the scene. Lets hope they do a better job than Sega did with the Dreamcast which was in a similar position in 1999.
* Here's the breakdown of console generations based on my own ideas.
1st generation - Atari 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 4800, others.
2nd generation - Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Sega Master System
3rd generation - Super NES, Sega Genesis, Sega 32x, Sega CD, Turbo Gfx16
4th generation - Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, Sony Playstation
5th generation - Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox
6th generation - Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Revolution
