Introduction
?Begun this console war has!?, Yoda would say after hearing the comments by both Microsoft Corp CEO Steve Ballmer, who proclaimed, ?I am betting we can take Sony in the next generation,? and Ken Kutaragi, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, who promised a playable PlayStation 3 for E3 2005. Let?s not forget Nintendo?s Revolution and their European Managing Director slamming Microsoft.
As consoles? life cycles approach their end, we start hearing news about the next generation of systems, with all the marketing strategies each company is known for. Sony is talking about its Cell processor, a microchip that is supposed to be years ahead of anything available on the market. We know Sony is all about ?teraflops?, ?Toy Story graphics in real-time? and the ?Emotion Engine? when it comes its PlayStation. Nintendo doesn?t talk about hardware; they simply don?t discuss technology at all. For Nintendo, it is all about creativity toward gameplay design.
In regards to the Xbox, the Redmond giant initially emphasized its superior hardware? for the simple reason it was coming a year after the PlayStation 2. But now that the Xbox is an established player in the videogame industry, Microsoft is determined to have the next wave of console wars take place in their own backyard.
Microsoft is trying to convince us that software is what matters. After all, that has been the company motto for the last two decades. Following that trend, Xbox evangelists have only talked about next-generation software, a.k.a. XNA, and they have stated there won?t be any hardware discussion this year. But even those efforts can?t stop the ?buzz? that is stirring from a handful of official announcements talking about ?future Xbox products?, licensing agreements, and top-secret deals. Oh, and we can?t forget about those supposed leaked and rumored specs.
Being that without hardware there is no place to run software, today we begin our two part look at Microsoft?s next-generation console, the Xbox successor. While Microsoft continues to play the ?no comment? card, there is plenty of substantial information that helps us draw a picture of what the Xbox 2 (Xenon, or whatever you?d like to call it) will be like. Let?s begin.
