Xbox 360 beating Sony to the punch?
It's not when you buy. It's when you sell!Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 console has the largest slate ever of new game titles ready for launch, eye-popping graphics and an online suite of gaming services – all available this coming week. That’s months before Sony’s PlayStation 3 console, which the company maintains will come to market in the spring of 2006.
While the devices today are used primarily to play video games, both Sony and Microsoft hope to broaden the consumer appeal of their consoles by turning them into the hub of the so-called digital home — the preferred device for accessing music, videos and other digital entertainment and data from the Internet and cable systems.
For Microsoft, the Xbox is part of a broader strategy to translate its dominance of the corporate software market into a leading footprint for software and online services used in consumers’ living room.
Microsoft is rolling out the new Xbox without a so-called high-definition DVD player and before the film industry and hardware manufacturers have solved a dispute over competing standards for the new technology. The two standards – namely Toshiba-backed HD DVD and Sony-backed Blu-Ray — have greater storage capacities for high-definition video playback in home theaters.
Microsoft collects royalties for every game published for the Xbox platform, so expanding its Xbox audience beyond hard-core gamers to more-casual players is key to making its gaming push a profitable one.
By mid next year, the Xbox 360 install base may grow past 5 million, giving video game publishers greater incentive to roll out new games, potentially smash hits. Among games which could make an impact next year are the next iterations of “Halo” from Microsoft, “Grand Theft Auto” from Take-Two Interactive Software Inc, as well as movie-based game “The Godfather” from Electronic Arts Inc.
