The Xbox Story, Part 1: The Birth of a Console(vg247.com)
vg247.com
The Xbox Story, Part 1: The Birth of a Console
http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/02/the-xbox-story-part-1-the-birth-of-a-console/
8 comments
> PlayStation was the market. Sony owned consoles. Japan owned console games. [...] Microsoft didn’t understand the console world.
Oh, how times change.
Oh, how times change.
It will be interesting to see the impact of MS's game studios/technology in 3-5 years. By then, TVs and/or sub-$100 set top boxes will be thoroughly integrated into the post-PC app ecosystems and will be powerful enough to run fairly sophisticated games. It's not hard to imagine Blizzard/EA/Ubisoft/etc. targeting the most ubiquitous platform before the "dedicated game consoles", at which point the console game will dramatically change.
So the question, to me, is not the future of the XBox so much as whether MS can leverage their impressive game technology to get a foothold in these emerging ecosystems. I'm generally not a fan of WP7, but the games have some very impressive technology and I think their studios could make something of a completely different caliber than anything Gameloft/Chillingo are doing. If they can create a groundbreaking Halo or GTA-like game phenomenon on their phone platform it could be their best chance to stay relevant in the consumer space.
So the question, to me, is not the future of the XBox so much as whether MS can leverage their impressive game technology to get a foothold in these emerging ecosystems. I'm generally not a fan of WP7, but the games have some very impressive technology and I think their studios could make something of a completely different caliber than anything Gameloft/Chillingo are doing. If they can create a groundbreaking Halo or GTA-like game phenomenon on their phone platform it could be their best chance to stay relevant in the consumer space.
"By then, TVs and/or sub-$100 set top boxes will be thoroughly integrated into the post-PC app ecosystems and will be powerful enough to run fairly sophisticated games."
A solid prediction, as at least one such device already exists: http://www.roku.com/roku-products (This is amplification, not disagreement or a "gotcha".)
A solid prediction, as at least one such device already exists: http://www.roku.com/roku-products (This is amplification, not disagreement or a "gotcha".)
It's great to be a 30+ year old gamer/entrepreneur who is living thru the console wars. The landscape today feels a lot like it did in late-90's. And this piece give you a great glimpse of the dynamics on building a ground breaking piece of software.
It may seem trivial, but what I also liked about it was the boot screen menu. It was quite radically advanced, it felt futuristic. Remember this was back when Microsoft was even more frighteningly good at what they do than Apple is today. And when I saw the 3D menu, with all the futuristic sounds and whatnot -- you knew this system was for real. But the Xbox360 seemed a bit like a step backward, it was more refined, but didn't have that badass feel to it. And then Microsoft kind of fizzled away in the years since.