Console wars
This week’s been Elite launch week on Tech & Gadgets - and it’s quite nice to have a theme to write around once in a while - especially bearing in mind that I will be launching a dedicated gaming channel in the next couple of months.
Of course, the downside to doing anything that’s Microsoft is that I work for is essentially Microsoft so I’m inevitably going to come off as biased.
I suppose that’s par for the course and it’s something I’ve come to accept since I started here - but tomorrow sees my take on the Elite (loved it - took a good console and made it better) which means that the whole thing starts again.
I honestly adore the PlayStation 3 - and would even more if it had any games that were generally world class - but the Xbox DOES have those games, quite frankly, and the comparative lineups over the next few must have Sony quaking in their boots.
Everyone knows that Halo 3 has been held up as the likely ‘killer app’ for the Xbox 360 pretty much since its launch back in the late stages of 2005, but with Biochock out this week, PGR4 on its way and GTA 4 multi format the PS3 has its work cut out.
Do I think that an HD DVD drive should have been included? Actually, not really. Considering the detrimental effect the Blu-ray drive in the PS3 had and the continuing rows over the format wars, I think lumbering a console with one or the other of the formats is inviting the chance of putting a millstone round its neck.
I WOULD have liked two controllers with the Elite, and I WOULD have liked a game included - but they weren’t.
The fact is that the console wars are far from over but, in the meantime, the split audience is probably not good for the industry. At Leipzigs’s games convention Silicon Knights founder Denis Dyack said: “Nintendo has come out of the gate much faster than everyone anticipated, but how about longevity? The 360 is doing well in America, but not so well in Japan. The PS3 is off to a really slow start but they have a really good brand name… So the truth is, no one knows.
