Past, Present, and Future of the 360

1up has a piece talking with Peter Moore about the past and future of the Xbox 360. Launch challenges, futures plans, and potential roadblocks are all discussed. From the article: "EGM: You really didn't need a Halo to launch the Xbox 360, did you? PM: No, I don't think we did. It was never really in the plans. Clearly, when you're shipping Halo 2 the year before the launch of a new platform, to expect [developer] Bungie to then immediately move on to a brand-new architecture and bring out a third iteration of a franchise worthy of being one of the greatest franchises in videogame history, it's unreasonable. So, we didn't believe we needed it."

Comments

Halo strengths and weaknesses.

[Inoshiro]

"Is it the weapons?"
Yes. The weapons are satisfying (especially in Halo 2 with the sword), and you have a realistic amount of them on you (2 max with a half-dozen grenades) when fully loaded.

The melee combat is not bad also. It's very satisfying to crack skulls.

"The controls?"
The controls do allow for fun head-to-head, as well as a good feel in general. You know what you're doing at any time.

"The plot?"
The plot is one of the better points; the novelizations are good. The novel that connects Halo 1 and Halo 2's story is well thought out, and enjoyable.

Bungie made Marathon. They know what they're doing with story.

"The visials?
The visuals are about what you'd expect from a Geforce 2.5. Not as good as the new fancy Unreal engine or Half-Life 2, but certainly better everything released up until 2001 simply because the framerate tends to be steadier.

Most of the stuff I saw out on the PC in 2002/2003 didn't take advantage of bump mapping like Halo 1 did. Halo 2's a bit updated, but you can tell they were pushing the hardware to its limit.

"The levels?"
No, Halo's level design is pretty much the biggest pile of crap. The levels are the worst part. If they could get good level design, they would have the best console FPS on their hands.

4 Months On

[MBCook]

I saw numbers somewhere (Kotaku? Gizmodo?) about how many units various consoles had sold 4 months after their launches (which is where we are on the 360).

The 360 has sold 600k. The DS sold 1,200k. The Dreamcast sold 1,800k.

Launch numbers aren't great.

Yeah, this is probably due to shortages. Just something I thought I'd point out as I found it interesting and I figured you guys would too.

Re:The score so far

[Thag]

The thing is, they really coudn't wait, because they were losing money on every original XBox they shipped, with no end in sight.

They're probably still losing money on the 360 at launch, but they should be able to break even and get into the black in the long run. The PS3 is not likely to be able to undercut them on price like the PS2 could, because it is coming out a year after the 360, and because it has more expensive components like the blue-ray drive in it.

The Revolution is going to be cheaper, but it may not really compete with the 360, because it's so non-traditional in its design. It seems more likely to go its own way and complement the other two consoles.

Jon Acheson