violetdiatoms
01-13-2005, 09:04 PM
New year, new hardware. Welcome to 2005 – when things should get really interesting for the gaming industry.
2004 was a golden year for software. But this year, hardware takes center stage – and could hold the spotlight for the next two years. Sony got the ball rolling, kind of, on Wednesday, giving a few details about the U.S. launch of the PSP, its first entry in the handheld gaming space.
Developers have been working on games for the Xbox 2 (or Xbox Next or Xenon, depending on which codename you'd prefer) for over a year now. And the consensus amongst publishers and industry insiders is the machine will be on store shelves this holiday season. But Microsoft has been (and continues to be) stingy with details about the system.
The big questions, at present, revolve around whether Xbox 2 will a) be backwards compatible (in other words, will it be able to play current Xbox games?) and b) have a hard drive. Of course, the matter of price is at the top of people's minds as well.
Let's take these in reverse order.
Price: There's little doubt that gaming in the next cycle is going to be more expensive. At least one major publisher (Activision) has gone on record saying it plans to increase wholesale prices on its AAA games. Others will likely follow its lead. That will probably result in retail prices jumping $5 to $10 per title.
Will hardware prices follow that trend? At least one analyst believes so. Tony Gikas of Piper Jaffray said in a recent note he expects the Xbox 2 to break beyond the traditional launch price for new consoles, which has stood at $299.
"We think Microsoft will price its next generation system at or above $300 for the base model," wrote Gikas. "We also think there will be a model that includes accessories or network devices that could price as high as $350-$400/system."
So what about the hard drive? That's a little trickier. Many, at this point, believe Microsoft will opt for flash memory rather than the traditional hard drive found in the current Xbox, but things hardly seem nailed down. It's just as likely that the company will abandon any significant installed memory and will rely on the user's home network to store games.
Article (http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/06/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm?cnn=yes)
So, what improvements do you think that microsoft should make to the XBOX for this second version?
2004 was a golden year for software. But this year, hardware takes center stage – and could hold the spotlight for the next two years. Sony got the ball rolling, kind of, on Wednesday, giving a few details about the U.S. launch of the PSP, its first entry in the handheld gaming space.
Developers have been working on games for the Xbox 2 (or Xbox Next or Xenon, depending on which codename you'd prefer) for over a year now. And the consensus amongst publishers and industry insiders is the machine will be on store shelves this holiday season. But Microsoft has been (and continues to be) stingy with details about the system.
The big questions, at present, revolve around whether Xbox 2 will a) be backwards compatible (in other words, will it be able to play current Xbox games?) and b) have a hard drive. Of course, the matter of price is at the top of people's minds as well.
Let's take these in reverse order.
Price: There's little doubt that gaming in the next cycle is going to be more expensive. At least one major publisher (Activision) has gone on record saying it plans to increase wholesale prices on its AAA games. Others will likely follow its lead. That will probably result in retail prices jumping $5 to $10 per title.
Will hardware prices follow that trend? At least one analyst believes so. Tony Gikas of Piper Jaffray said in a recent note he expects the Xbox 2 to break beyond the traditional launch price for new consoles, which has stood at $299.
"We think Microsoft will price its next generation system at or above $300 for the base model," wrote Gikas. "We also think there will be a model that includes accessories or network devices that could price as high as $350-$400/system."
So what about the hard drive? That's a little trickier. Many, at this point, believe Microsoft will opt for flash memory rather than the traditional hard drive found in the current Xbox, but things hardly seem nailed down. It's just as likely that the company will abandon any significant installed memory and will rely on the user's home network to store games.
Article (http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/06/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm?cnn=yes)
So, what improvements do you think that microsoft should make to the XBOX for this second version?