Among announcements at the recent Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft's general manager of the Home & Entertainment Division, Takashi Sensui, reinforced the company’s continued intention to make Xbox Live “the vision of a new business model for the games industry”.
Already boasting seven million members worldwide, that number is expected to increase to ten million as quickly as June 2008. Another mind-boggling statistic revealed that Xbox Live (XBL) users spent around 29 billion hours playing online, which is equal to around 332,000 years.
Figures like that are hard to ignore and with many people nowadays preferring to maintain all forms of media digitally, Microsoft (MS) will be happy to see this trend continue, making good on their promise to see XBL “connected and ever more expanding” in different areas of entertainment, as illustrated by additions of the video store and Xbox Originals for download. In contrast, the PS3's Home community remains languishing in the beta stage as Sony continue to make changes.
“Since we want this to be a worldwide service, our territories all have their own wishes for it and it's taking longer to develop”, said Sony Computer Entertainment President and Group CEO Kazuo Hirai at his Tokyo Game Show keynote.
While the success of XBL is a huge boon to MS's efforts to win the western console war, it remains all quiet on the eastern front as sales remain low, with most big guns like Halo 3 firing blanks (Japan typically embracing more anime-style RPGs than western favoured FPSs). But with titles such as Lost Odyssey and Ninja Gaiden 2 planned for release in 2008, MS remains relentless in its pursuit of the Japanese market.
Sensui stated: “We're prepared to do everything that's needed to make Xbox 360 a success around the world, including Japan.”
Submitted by Adam Lavis
General Information - Microsoft Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is arguably the newcomer on the console block. Since Microsoft’s first foray into the market with the original Xbox in 2001, it has established itself as a worthy adversary for the old guard giants of Nintendo and Sony. A combination of good timing, a strong library of games and a robust online service has allowed Microsoft to successfully develop their next generation incarnation, the Xbox 360, against already well-established competitors.
First released in 2005, the Xbox 360 comes in two flavours: the basic Core package that would set you back roughly $280 or the Premium (or Pro) package costing around $400 and containing a more advanced hybrid composite/component cable. The later release of the Elite package for $500, in sleek black rather than the classic white of the Premium/Core variants also contained a larger (120GB) detachable HDD and additional HDMI cable. More recently in October 2007 the Core system was rebranded as the Arcade package and contains the ‘Go Play’ set of five Xbox Live Arcade titles on a single disk. Technically, like the PS3, it has a pounding 3.2 GHz CPU under the hood and aesthetically, it appears more curvaceous and less angular than its predecessor. Additionally, the huge hand-cramping controllers of the past having disappeared in favour of their new wireless counterparts.
While the console’s previous incarnation had the capability to play DVDs straight out of the box, this new release required the purchase of an attachment and remote to actually operate the internal DVD player. The Xbox 360, while supporting HD-DVD, requires the purchase of additional hardware costing around $130. However, for those keeping track of the war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats, this might not be the wisest purchase after Toshiba’s announcement on February 22 2008 that they intend to discontinue manufacturing HD-DVD equipment entirely. Having long been a strong proponent for the format, the belief that this decision will be influential in the war cannot be overstated. By way of confirmation, two days after Toshiba’s announcement, Microsoft made a similar statement that they would no longer be producing the HD-DVD player. Two days after that, the cost of the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player fell from $130 to $50. ‘Nuff said.
In response to the aforementioned potential problems with ubiquity of the HD-DVD format, Microsoft’s online service, Xbox Live (XBL), has long been working towards providing a strong digital service, offering a host of ‘on-demand’ downloadable content including game add-ons, demos, trailers, arcade games, movies and TV shows. All of these are available with a Silver level of membership, which only requires an internet connection. To play games online, you are required to upgrade to a Gold membership for which a subscription fee is charged. Rather than being seen as just a console, Microsoft hopes to encourage the use of the Xbox 360 as a multimedia entertainment centre. In addition to watching TV shows and movies, the device can be connected to a LAN and used in conjunction with Windows Media Centre and used to view images and listen to music. It can also be used in the UK to download and display content from BT Vision.
Most newly released Xbox 360 games purchased from a store will cost around $50-$60, similar to the other seventh generation consoles. Xbox Live Arcade games can vary in price from 400 to 800 Microsoft Points, which amounts to around £3.50 to £7 in the UK. In addition to that, XBL also offers many of the classic Xbox titles of old such as the original Halo, Fable and Ninja Gaiden Black for download through the expanding Xbox Originals section. For those that prefer the hum of a disc in the machine, the Xbox 360 currently supports backward compatibility for over 450 Xbox titles.
It could be argued that the success of the Xbox 360 is in no small part due to it taking full advantage of Sony’s repeated delays in bringing the PS3 to market. However, a rushed production eventually lead to unexpected costs in the form of extended warranties and repair work on all units suffering from the now infamous critical hardware failures that still plague gamers today, known as “the red rings of death”. However, another reason for the success is the extensive games library available for the console, including titles like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Gears of War. With exclusive games already released and planned, including Mass Effect, Fable 2 and, of course, the ‘Giant Killer’ Halo 3, there is even more to look forward to in the future.
