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Hints at the Future of the Xbox 360 Emerge
CES has brought out quite a bit of news, for subjects across the tech industry. The future of the Xbox 360 seems to a subject Microsoft can't talk enough about. Gates' keynote touched on new media partnerships for Live Marketplace, like the collaboration with Disney/ABC. A post-keynote email to several games writers noted that 2008 will be the company's year to capitalize on strong hardware and software sales from the holiday season, and that several as-yet-unannounced exclusive 360 titles are in the works. Fans of the platform might still have some anxiety this year; a rumour on the 1up site indicates Microsoft is already working on a game for the next-next-gen console to bear the Xbox name.
Gates plans to market the XBox 360 as an alternative to the OLPC. While the price is not $188 yet, his CEO voodoo math has predicted that by 2010 it will be $188. It will have two straps added to it so that it can be worn like a backpack and come with heads-up display helmets which he bought at reduced cost from Lucas after all of his scenes with clones in Star Wars. Freakish looking shock troopers will poor forth from 3rd world countries and create waves of ultra intelligent Xbox live users chanting for more NASCAR and looking to 'kick some ass.'
No longer concerned with rice and potable water, they will demand badges and strive to be atop a point ranking system. Several dictators will realize that equipping the outfits with actual weapons and removing the heads up helmets make them perfect mindless warriors with twitch movements that would put Ali to shame.
All hippie wii players will be destroyed in the great cleansing while PS3 players will live it out safely, unknowingly in their basements.
After that, the XBox 360 will be useless. Used and marketed in more ways than a Singapore whore, the XBox 360 will shave its head in a desperate cry for attention. Then it will start dropping babies all over the place and release an album with the title track ripping into Gates.
The XBox 360 will then spend the rest of eternity in the old consoles home with the NeoGeo, TurboGrafix 16 and Jaguar 32 playing pong and solitaire. Visiting hours will be from noon to 5pm Monday-Friday.
My work here is dung.
Please tell me we aren't going to start using the term "next-next-gen".
Can't we just start calling the current consoles "current gen"?
Microsoft is going to try to continue to market the xbox 360? And write games for it? As well as collaborate with other companies to enhance it's live features?
This is truly remarkable news.
Wrong! As Sony has informed us previously, next-gen doesn't begin until Sony says so!
The 360 would benefit a bit from filling in gaps that other consoles currently do. Sure, it can't release a "Wii Sports" kind of title but there are certain genres in which it's quite weak and doesn't have to be.
One is fighting games. These are really popular despite not really having "progressed" much in something like a decade (even more for some subgenres). Don't give fans a sub-par Guilty Gear and a Dead or Alive and leave it at that. Give folks a *solid* 2D fighter. A Smash Bros competitor couldn't hurt, either, since as fantastic as that series is, it's all too easy to improve on.
Another is JRPGs. Even Americans play these, believe it or not (duh, PS2 RPGs sell brilliantly here after all), and you don't need to be a Japanese developer to whip these up. You just need good art direction and the rest will fall into place assuming the combat system isn't a total disaster. One shoddy attempt with Dragonball Z character design doesn't cut it.
Thirdly, where are the platformers? We got Kameo early on, but that's it! I know Rare can't be bothered to make many games anymore, but there are certainly other developers that can be asked to do the job.
The way things are now are good enough for the 360, but I would rather see less of a total saturation of shooters and rubbish racing games and a bit more diversity in the upcoming game lineup.
I like basketball!!1!
"Fans of the platform might still have some anxiety this year; a rumour on the 1up site indicates Microsoft is already working on a game for the next-next-gen console to bear the Xbox name." You do know it takes years to develop new hardware right? They don't just produce it overnight. Of course MS as well as Sony and Nintendo are working on their next generation of consoles. It would be stupid of them not to be. Didn't Sony mention working on the PS4 before the PS3 was even released?
The low sales of Crysis are troubling. Doom 3 sold very well, and it was equally a system-killer. There is legitimate concern that PC game piracy is reaching epic proportions, enough to actually make game development unprofitable.
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
Morons might have some anxiety over this. High profile games take years to develop, particularly when they're trying to meet a tentative launch date of a console that doesn't even have firm hardware specs in place.
The original Xbox was cut short because 1) it was a money losing platform for Microsoft and 2) because Microsoft saw launching before the PS3 as crucial to their success. While Microsoft is still having trouble making the 360 profitable, it's doing significantly better than the original Xbox was. As for #2, Microsoft is in no hurry to beat out the other two machines, which are only a year old right now and probably won't be replaced for at least another 4 years, at which point the 360 would be 6 years old.
You can practically guarantee that the 360 has, at the very least, 3 more years of life before Microsoft decides to replace it.
Bah! I think my Atari 2600 still works, even though it is in my attic. You kids and your realistic graphics, bah. In my time, we had ET and... well honestly, we hated it. Bah again.
In God we trust, all others require data.
I think you're leaving out some very important information about the lack of sales when compared to doom 3:
first off, it had been like 10 years since the release of doom 2, which as we all know doom to be a very popular old time favorite for many of us. on the other hand, far cry was never as popular, and even though it was pretty fun, had nothing new to bring to plate that we hadn't already seen in the likes of halflife and whatnot
second, most people's PCs can run crysis, but at the Low settings. the low settings make the game look exactly like farcry, so whats the point.
third, there's just nothing else notable about crysis besides the graphics (if you have the hardware for it). And even there its only for the effects, take a look at call of duty 4: sure the graphics aren't near crysis, but the presentation is tremendously powerful and makes it work.
fourth, the single player in crysis was fun, kinda, but really really short. combine that with a poorly designed multiplayer and you have a game with no longevity. in essence you have a 50 dollar sink hole for anyone except those who have a powerful new computer.
I thought the same thing, and then my launch 360 failed this week. I've only ever used it in completely open spaces, and it is currently sitting all by itself on top of a glass shelf. It's been suggested that the failure rate is as high as 33%, and I believe it given how easy it was to place the RMA.
You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. - Winston Churchill