XBox 360 Redefining the Console?

Game Girl Advance has up an editorial arguing that, in effect, Microsoft has already won the next round in the console wars by shifting the battlefield. Looking at Gamasutra's rundown on the 360's multimedia and Live components, its easy to see why jane says that the 360 isn't really a console anymore. From the article: "Xbox 360 does not compete with Sony or Nintendo. It is not a gaming console. It is a powerful device to deliver content online and over WiFi. Microsoft's real competition is Apple, Yahoo, and Google. Apple's movie-download service. Yahoo's retail channels. Google's - well, everything. Heck, throw Comcast and TiVo in there for good measure. The games are merely a means to an end - an 'instant-on revenue to support an exponential expansion into the living room,' as Eric put it over an IM chat we had."

Comments

Console Wars Just Heating Up

[Benedick]

How can they think that because XBox360 has those types of capabilities that the console wars are no more? Do you think Sony isn't going to reply in kind? And who has more potential multi-media content that can be instantly brought to the console? Last I knew, Microsoft did not own a movie studio and a music label.

Nintendo will continue to go their own (very different) way, but I think this console war between MS and Sony is just getting interesting. MS was fighting at a huge disadvantage with the XBox. Too little consumer electronics experience. This time around, they start on equal footing.

The war rages on. And we're winning. That is, those of us who use and enjoy game consoles are the winners. The more slick stuff the console does, the better for us.

Re:Looks great

[timford]

Actually the WiFi won't be built in, it will be an addon which you'll have to purchase separately.

And MS hasn't said whether it will be backward-compatible with Xbox, but it's not likely. The vastly different platforms means it would be a significant technological achievement for them to put in backward compatibility, and if this capability was in the plans I'm pretty sure they would have announced it.

Re:Wasn't this said about the PSP?

[Anonymous Coward]

The NES was only labelled an "entertainment system" to distance it from the previous gaming systems (which led to the video game crash).

"and TiVo in there for good measure" - Um, no.

[PRES_00]

It won't have tv recording capabilities.Although it is being rumored to send hd programming through the service - neither economical nor convenient (my bandwidth ain't big enough).

heck YEAH

[interiot]

Heck YEAH we're moving towards revoluationary. To summarize:

• XBox Media Center - can decode 480p
• mini iMac - can decode 780p, but no surround sound output
• XBox 360 + XBox Media Center = maybe decode 1080i, with surround sound output, plus it's smaller to boot, and includes WiFi by default

Eventually, geeks are going to have some very hackable off-the-shelf device that serves as their Media Center, and is powerful enough to decode whatever codec they desire. A mass-produced appliance will simply be smaller and cheaper than something you can build yourself. If XBox 360 fulfills this role, then that's something worth celebrating.

Re:No they havn't

[FatRatBastard]

Not true. Some of the Jaguar's chips were indeed 64 bit. The GPU was 32 bit. It even had a 16 bit 68000 in it. A bit of a hodge podge to say the least, but the "Jag = 2*32 bit chips" is an old wives tale.

http://www.retro-games.co.uk/atari/Jaguar/jaguar.h tm

Re:Nintendo Revolution?

[still_sick]

This has been confirmed as fake.

The Google-Translated version of the original Message Board - shows the creater of the vid.

Also, there's an IGN claiming it's a hoax that I can't seem to find ATM. But it doesn't give any reasoning, just says "it's fake".