Okay, the next part, while I’m at it, last time we looked at the Wii, giving three reason why it might win or lose, now we’ll move onto the Xbox 360, it’s a different beast to the Wii, more expensive, way more powerful, and conciderable larger.
Why it might win
- HD Graphics
- 1 year head-start
- Xbox Live
Why it might lose
- Microsoft
- Reliability
- Japan
Continue reading for the lowdown.
Why it might Win
1. HD Graphics
HD Graphics are the next big thing, as PC owners know games look better in higher resolution. Now that TVs are capable of displaying much higher resolutions, and the Xbox 360 takes advantage of those TVs where you have one to display much nicer and crisper graphics, playing a game on my SD TV, then on my 20.1″ monitor the difference is astounding, and with more and more people replacing old TVs with new HDTVs the number of people who can take advantage of it are increasing and old SD entertainment wont cut it on a new HDTV. Of course the xbox also features a hardware scaler chip which means that developers dont have to target lower resolutions explicitly for those that haven’t made the HD jump yet.
2. 1 Year head-start
Don’t knock it, it worked (in part) for Sony last generation, the PS2 had a serious jump on the Xbox and Gamecube, which helped it build up a library of games before it’s competitors launched, and the same has happened with the Xbox 360, at the launch of the PS3 and Wii the Xbox 360 had two new games launch which showed the power of the 360 and the year spent with no competition helped the 360 build a library of good games (and not so good, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles) while the PS3 and Wii had to fight with only 1 killer game each on launch (Resistance and Zelda)
3. Xbox Live
Microsoft’s online service is completely integrated into the whole console, unlike the Xbox, where it was an addon, this time microsoft realised that online was a major feature and human opponents are far better than any computer AI can possibly be. Add to that the whole Marketplace, Live Arcade, Voice chat, Demos, Achievements, Unified Friends lists and even the Video Marketplace in the US and you have a service that no other console can compete with yet (if ever)
Why it might fail
1. Microsoft
Like it or not, Microsoft is the biggest problem with the Xbox 360, if you work in an office it’s likely that Windows is part of your daily life, and no matter how careful you are, you’ll have ended up seeing the Blue Screen of Death, or having to reboot your machine, or even worse having to reinstall Windows to fix some problem, Windows is frustrating, even XP which most people are using isn’t completely bug free. In Microsoft’s defence there are so many different configurations of PC, drivers, settings, plus the need for running legacy applications which severly limit the stability of Windows, even Vista still has to support lots of legacy applications. Sorry for the defence of Microsoft there, but you see if you use Windows a lot then you’re likely to curse Microsoft fairly regularly, this anti-Microsoft sentiment follows people home and so the fact the the 360 is made by Microsoft gives people the impression it’ll work as well as Windows does.
2. Reliability
Now while the software side of the Xbox is stable, the hardware isn’t as good, the Xbox 360 hardware has been plagued with problems since launch, the two most common are the freezes (the entire console freezes and has to be powered down/back up again) and the red ring of death (three red lights on the ring of light). The freezes are annoying (I know my machine occasionally gets them) the ring of death is fatal, there’s no recourse but to contacts Microsoft’s support line and have the console repaired/replaced. And if it’s replaced you then have the hassle that each downloaded XBLA game and marketplace item is linked to both your Xbox and Live account, if you want to play it from then on you have to be connected to Live (with the correct account) for it to work.
3. Japan
Japan is a massive market for gamers, second only to the US, and both the xbox and xbox 360 have failed miserably in Japan, the xbox 360 has so far sold just over 300,000 consoles in Japan in just over a year, the PS3 has already sold 670,000 and the Wii over 1.6 million in the past 3 months, admittedly the 360 is doing better than the xbox and is likely to outsell the original in japan, but that’s not saying much, and while it’s possible to be overall leader without taking Japan, it’s a lot easier if you’ve got Japan as well (just ask Nintendo and Sony about it)