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Columns > LongShot > #104: Key Next Gen Comparisons
A look at the hardware tech driving next gen.  Now that Microsoft's Xbox 360 has shipped and is slowly finding its way to customers worldwide, the first of the next generation consoles has begun the race to number one in overall sales for the next round of consoles. We know enough about the entries from Sony and Nintendo to put together the key selling points of each of the systems, even if Nintendo claims there's even more to learn about their unique control method for Revolution. To help you understand the major differences in the hardware experiences you'll get next gen, without going into detail on potential software variety, here's a look at the kinds of things you can use to help you determine which one will be best suited to you. The next gen battle can be whittled down to three key technologies that go beyond pure graphic display and gameplay. For Xbox 360, you've got Xbox Live. That's the big core change from last generation that totally affects the gaming experience. High Definition graphics have an early hold on the most talked about feature, but I think with time and the release of PlayStation 3, that will become much less of a selling point and leave Live as the number one feature of Microsoft's next generation sales drive. PlayStation 3 on the other hand, has the Blu-Ray disc as its major new selling point. Sure, the system will be more powerful than PS2 and yeah, Sony has already said dumb stuff like 1080p is "true High Definition" but that all goes back to the reason HD is not a big deal with Microsoft except for early on. If both companies have it, it's no longer a key selling point. Blu-Ray will be the big one because Sony has already shown a strong capability to turn movie-playing into a selling feature before, with PS2 in Japan and with PSP here in the US. Nintendo's key technology can be summed up with two words, The Controller. Expanding a bit, it's easy to see that Sony and Microsoft are pushing key technologies that rely on extra purchases for you to get maximum enjoyment out of your new console purchase. Both are assuming you want HDTV and you all probably do. The problem there is that HDTVs, decent ones, are expensive and definitely not down into the price range of the average consumer. Assuming that HDTV adoption speeds up over the next three to four years, this might not be an issue. However, if we're sitting here in 2008 and people still mostly have regular old TV sets in their house, HD becomes a moot point.
 If that happens, Sony will be affected the most. Blu-Ray as a key selling point means Sony is expecting you to pair your PS3 with a brand new HDTV from their line of consumer electronics. If people really are willing to move up to HD for movie watching, then the PlayStation 3 has a major advantage in the next generation. It will help drive HDTV adoption and make the PS3 the number one must have system for a lot of people. This will be especially true if Blu-Ray DVD players are nearly as expensive as the PlayStation 3 itself. That's hard to foresee at this time. Sony may very well be on the verge of releasing a console that comes close to the old 3DO in price. Developers will also be hard pressed to fill up those Blu-Ray discs and their cavernous storage. Those game makers will be dueling with Sony's new Cell processor at the same time. Costs will be up considerably and it's likely only the safest games will make it to market. That's veering into the software discussion though, so we'll save that for another time. With 360, Xbox Live is obviously the key technology for Microsoft this time. It's integrated heavily into the entire 360 experience. Everyone can see how much of a game you've played, how well you've played it and then match up with people like you to play online. There's also the ability to download lots of extra content through the service, some of it paid for, some of it free and some of it totally unrelated to gaming. If you don't connect your Xbox 360 to your home network, you're definitely missing out on the biggest game related feature of the system. Once again, HD is right now a big deal, but when PS3 hits it won't be so big anymore. What's interesting about the HD amazement among console gamers is that most of the games in HD look about the same as current PC games. Clearly people aren't playing PC games so much these days if they can be so easily wowed by a console at a higher resolution than before. Back to Live. This is another one of those features that requires additional purchase. Sony (and Microsoft) want you do move up to High Definition, but Microsoft also wants you to have a high-speed Internet connection and if you already have a computer, you'll need a home network too. There's still a barrier to entry here because many folks are online but not thinking about networking for videogames, especially homes where the less-tech savvy are buying consoles for kids to play. For them, gameplay and graphic improvement might be the only real selling points for the next generation from Sony and Microsoft. Then we come to Nintendo, the company most analysts choose to ignore when it comes to games as if they don't exist at all. That always makes me laugh because of the three game makers, Nintendo are the only ones that are actually focused exclusively on videogames. They may not be the market leader anymore in home console sales, but when you combine their portable sales with the console sales, they're easily still the top maker of videogame systems in the world. How can you discount them so easily? With The Controller, it's obvious that Nintendo has decided to eschew pushing new viewing technology as a key selling point. Yes, Revolution games will look better than Gamecube games, but they're not too worried about supporting High Definition. Instead, The Controller changes everything we know about manipulating onscreen images. It doesn't require any extra purchase other than the console itself. Nintendo will also be supporting online features (like Sony and Microsoft) so they're not leaving out a major component of current day videogames, but by changing the interface, they're probably going to encourage some new people to try out a Revolution. The simplicity of explaining to someone how the controller works is something I've found to be very exciting to people when I tell them about it. They quickly grasp the concept. Whether that will turn them into gamers of any sort (hardcore or casual) is up in the air, but it at least removes the twelve buttons, two sticks and a d-pad problem from the equation. The modern PlayStation/Xbox/Gamecube controller definitely generates some ill will among those who have given up on games. Next generation will be about Xbox Live vs. Blu-Ray vs. The Controller is how I see it. Nintendo and Sony might still surprise us with some interesting new features of their machines and by launching after Microsoft they can look closely at where they succeed and either copy, enhance or completely overwhelm their features with changes to their base hardware or through software. Microsoft gets the advantage of putting 360 into some homes before those other consoles appear. Unfortunately, it looks like they're having trouble getting systems out there for people to buy. (That might be the understatement of the year.) No matter which of these new technologies helps drive a company to the top, it's clear that 2006 will be an exciting year in gaming. Sales are down for 2005 but with two more consoles set to launch in 2006, it's almost assured that we'll see the beginning of a return to form for sales at the end of next year. No matter which one you pick first, I think it's going to continue to be good times for gamers, even if it's getting as expensive as PC gaming to play on consoles.
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