Early release or riding with a proven winner?
It has been a long time since I wrote a article, and I thought what better to write on then the impending next generation console war.
When the original next generation consoles were released back about five years ago, things were in a interesting place. Nintendo, the king of the consoles had been defeated by the up and coming starter Playstation and people were holding their breaths when Microsoft, the computer giant, decided to put it's hat into the ring.
With the release of the Playstation 2, we saw a mediocre launch and a spectacular finish. Adopting a backwards compatible system, people didn't have to junk everything to get their hands to get the PS2, still having a abundant source of games to play until the better games arrived. Sony's 'shortage' created a bigger issue in the states, and had ebay lit up for the holiday season. With the inclusion of a DVD drive for watching movies, the Playstation 2 was becoming a all in one entertainment system.
Microsoft's foyer into the ring was no less a surprise, but made sense. The massive software company had managed to be the provider of 90% of the world's OS, and due to their aggressive business model, was set to take over the world. Did it make sense that they would try and tap into a billion dollar market? You bet.
The Xbox was more like a PC than a system. With a actual brand name processor and a HDD, people were a little skeptic. Would this work? Will it be worth it? Despite a horrible showing in Japan, the US side of the gaming world embraced the Xbox and made it the # 2 gaming console. Microsoft itself attributed it's success in the later years to Xbox Live, the pulse of the Xbox community. People and industry alike attributed the poor showing due to a late release. PS2 had been out for some time before the behemoth Xbox showed itself. Apparently this time around Microsoft is not taking anything for granted.
Finally, Gamecube. I admit, I have picked on it alot in the past, and for what it is worth, it is a decent system. Due to the in fighting with third party developers, we saw Nintendo, once King of the Hill, slide down more and more. Gamers considered the system a system for kids, not hardcore gamers. With a release of a lot of games built on the most popular of Nintendo's own licensing, the 'Cube managed to stay afloat.
So, where are we now? PS2 is still in the lead with a lot of units sold, while Xbox has finally turned a profit in it's almost five year run. Nintendo is pulling up it's sleeves with not only a amazing new Zelda game, but a interesting approach to gaming for the Revolution.
The forerunner so far is the Xbox 360. With impressive hardware specs and a decent lineup for launch, the boys at Microsoft are not taking anything for granted. While some forums lambast it for being ugly and such, the one thing we can say is that it will be first out of the gate. For a short time Microsoft was quite about backwards compatitbility, and that had people nervous. How can you have a next gen system without that? The PS3 will have two other generations of games to back it up. I think part of the worry was that MS didn't know if it could make it's games backwards compatible. Then the rumor of only select games to be ported for 360 came about and were squashed, along with the long rumored Halo 2.5 installed on the HDD.
Let's talk about the HDD. One of the things that put the cost of the original Xbox over the top from a comsumer and a manufacturer's view was the inclusion of the HDD. Adding a cost of nearly $100 to the price, MS took a hit on every model sold. Now, they are doing it again, but this time adding in a slimmer, smaller laptop HDD in the system. To be honest, I think it is hte better idea. The Xbox was able ot do more in the wider field of gaming and entertainment BECAUSE of the HDD.
XBOX 360 Specs ( Not that you haven't seen them 
)
Key Highlights
Hardware, software, and services: Unveiled to the world on MTV on Thursday, May 12, 2005, Xbox 360 represents a dramatic leap forward in high-definition gaming and entertainment experiences. Fusing powerful hardware, software, and services, Xbox 360 fully engages you in a gaming experience that is more expansive, dramatic, and lifelike, where the possibilities are limitless and your imagination knows no boundaries. The next generation is here.
Industrial design: A merger of form and function, Xbox 360 wraps powerful technology in a sophisticated exterior. Two of the most innovative design firms in the world—San Francisco-based Astro Studios and Osaka, Japan-based Hers Experimental Design Laboratory Inc.—came together to craft a sleek, stylish system that conveys the very essence of Xbox 360.
Xbox Gamer Guide: The Xbox Gamer Guide is an entertainment gateway that instantly connects you to your games, friends, music, movies, and downloadable content. Available at a touch of the Xbox Guide Button, the Xbox Gamer Guide gives you instant access to the experiences and content you want, from the gamer card of the player that just invited you to play online to new downloadable content for the game currently running.
Personalized interface: Xbox 360 lets you create your own unique system and experience. With interchangeable Xbox 360 Faces, it's easy and fun to change the appearance of your console. Switch on your system and customize the look and feel of the Xbox Gamer Guide and Xbox System Guide with unique "skins." From sleek and sophisticated to fun and funky, pick the Faces and skins that show your personality.
Ring of Light and Xbox Guide Button: Divided into four quadrants, the glowing Ring of Light and Xbox® Guide Button visually connect you to your games, digital media, and the world of Xbox Live™, the first global, unified online console games service. Featured on both the wireless and wired controllers, the Xbox Guide Button puts you in control of your experience. In addition to bringing up the Xbox Gamer Guide and the Xbox System Guide, the Xbox Guide Button lets you turn the system on and off without ever leaving the couch.
Xbox Live: Xbox Live is where games and entertainment come alive, the only unified place where you can play with anyone, anytime, anywhere. And the best just got better. Connect your Xbox 360 to your broadband connection and get instant access to Xbox Live Silver. Express your digital identity through your Gamertag and gamer card, talk with others using voice chat, and access Xbox Live Marketplace—all right out of the box, at no extra cost. Upgrade to Xbox Live Gold and enter the exciting world of multiplayer online gaming. With intelligent matchmaking, access to all your achievements and statistics, video chat and video messaging, and an enormous selection of games, Xbox Live Gold delivers your competition, on your terms.
Xbox Live Marketplace: Keep your favorite games fresh with instant access to new content. Xbox Live Marketplace is a one-stop shop to download new game trailers, demos, and episodic content, plus new game levels, maps, weapons, vehicles, skins, and more. Accessible to everyone who establishes a broadband connection with their Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace lets you personalize and extend your experience, on demand.
Games: Xbox 360 redefines what games look like, sound like, feel like, and play like to engage you like never before. With Xbox 360, epic worlds are alive with detail, from thunderous skies rumbling over a mountain range to tiny blades of grass rustling together in the breeze. Vibrant characters display depth of emotion to evoke more dramatic responses, immersing you in the experience like never before. You’ll see all Xbox 360 titles at 720p and 1080i resolution in 16:9 widescreen, with anti-aliasing for smooth, movie-like graphics and multi-channel surround sound.
Digital entertainment: Amplify your music, photos, video, and TV. Watch progressive-scan DVD movies right out of the box. Rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive and share your latest digital pictures with friends. Make the connection, and Xbox 360 instantly streams the digital media stored on your MP3 player, digital camera, Media Center PC, or any Microsoft® Windows® XP-based PC.
Xbox 360 System Performance Specifications
Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each
Two hardware threads per core; six hardware threads total
VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total
128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
1 MB L2 cache
CPU Game Math Performance 9 billion dot product operations per second
Custom ATI Graphics Processor 10 MB of embedded DRAM
48-way parallel floating-point dynamically scheduled shader pipelines
Unified shader architecture
Polygon Performance 500 million triangles per second
Pixel Fill Rate 16 gigasamples per second fill rate using 4x MSAA
Shader Performance 48 billion shader operations per second
Memory 512 MB of 700 MHz GDDR3 RAM
Unified memory architecture
Memory Bandwidth 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
21.6 GB/s front-side bus
Overall System Floating-Point Performance 1 teraflop
Storage Detachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive
12x dual-layer DVD-ROM
Memory Unit support starting at 64 MB
I/O Support for up to four wireless game controllers
Three USB 2.0 ports
Two memory unit slots
Optimized for Online Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features with broadband service, including Xbox Live Marketplace for downloadable content, gamer profile for digital identity, and voice chat to talk to friends while playing games, watching movies, or listening to music
Built-in Ethernet port
Wi-Fi ready: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g
Video camera ready
Digital Media Support Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD
Ability to stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras and Windows XP-based PCs
Ability to rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive
Custom playlists in every game
Built-in Media Center Extender for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
Interactive, full-screen 3-D visualizers
High-Definition Game Support All games supported at 16:9, 720p, and 1080i, anti-aliasing
Standard-definition and high-definition video output supported
Audio Multi-channel surround sound output
Supports 48KHz 16-bit audio
320 independent decompression channels
32-bit audio processing
Over 256 audio channels
Physical Specs Height: 83 mm
Width: 309 mm
Depth: 258 mm
Weight: 7.7 lbs.
System Orientation Stands vertically or horizontally
Customizable Face Plates Interchangeable to personalize the console
Sony is firing back with it's new system, and I have to admit, I am a little disappointed. I expected Sony to be first out of the gate, and they aren't. Let me put it this way: I am a hardcore geek, and it took a lot to pull me from Nintendo. More importantly, Sony has done it for two generations of systems. Not that I didn't buy them all, of course, but what I bought first was more important. I had a lot of faith in the PS2, and have more for the PS3. The fact that it would make me wait until Spring next year doesn't bode well. Do I buy a 360?
The one thing that was brought up time and time again was that the early next gen games will be graphically nice, but will not be taking advantage of the power of these systems. From looking at the screen shots of 360 games, they look the same. Is this delay a chance for Sony to put a lot more time into their games to make then that much better? I think that will be part of it. The PS2 was fully ready to spec for it's launch, and with repeated date changes of the 360 release, I wonder if they rushed to be first out of the gate. Market share as first is great, but at what cost to the gaming public?
The Playstation 3 specs
It’s going to be a doozy, and at least on paper beats the Xbox 360’s performance.
Full specs after the jump.
CPU: Cell Processor
PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz
1 VMX vector unit per core
512KB L2 cache
7 x SPE @3.2GHz
7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs
7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE
* 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for edundancy
total floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS
GPU: RSX @550MHz
1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance
Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels
Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines
Sound: Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell-base processing)
Memory:
256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz
256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz
System Bandwidth:
Main RAM 25.6GB/s
VRAM: 22.4GB/s
RSX: 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read)
SB: 2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)
System Floating Point Performance: 2 TFLOPS
Storage: HDD - Detachable 2.5” HDD slot x 1
I/O: USB: Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0)
Memory Stick: standard/Duo, PRO x 1
SD: standard/mini x 1
CompactFlash: (Type I, II) x 1
Communication: Ethernet - 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 + output x 2)
Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)
Controller:
Bluetooth (up to 7)
USB2.0 (wired)
Wi-Fi (PSP)
Network (over IP)
AV Output
Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
HDMI: HDMI out x 2
Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1
Digital audio DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1
Disc media: CD, PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation2 CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R,CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer), SACD HD, DualDisc, DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side), PlayStation2 DVD-ROM, PLAYSTATION3 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW
Blu-ray Disc: PLAYSTATION3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE
I would like to bring up the one deciding factor for me: Blu-Ray. With the power of huge storage media, the games and content of the PS3 games have the potential to be HUGE. Epic Final Fantasy games, lots of bonus stuff for top games. A great way to make collection games without loss of quality or resorting to multi-discs. If Sony is going to be late out of the gate, I expect more content from their games.
OR...will Nintendo pull out of the gate and beat both. Rumors flying back and forth that Nintendo is willing ot compromise with third party developers and that might open a flood gate for good, new games on the Nintendo next gen: Revolution. I have to admit that the Revolution is sleeker looking than both of the other systems. Nintendo is tweaking it's own system to play regular sized CD and DVD media, but the drive will be dual..it will be able to play the older Cube media. Focusing on connectivity is Nintendo's middle name, and the Revolution is no different. Long standing have the rumors that the handheld Nintendo empire will figure heavily into the next gen console. Nintendo has not made it a secret, but it isn't really discussed. The next incarnation of the DS is apparently going to be fully intergrated with the next gen console.
Revolution Specs:
2 G5 1.8GHZ CPUS
512K L2 Cache
1200 MHZ Front Side BUS
600MHz GPU with 12MB embedded 1T SRAM
128MB 1T SRAM MAIN MEMORY 600 MHz (L3 Cache to CPU and GPU)
256MB 400MHZ NEC design embedded DRAM
Embedded 16-BIT HD 7.1 Digital sound chip
Dedicated sound bandwidth with zero affect on CPU
6GB HD Dual Layer Panasonic Discs
When combined Rev CPUs equal 3.6 GHz.
A 3:1 balance ratio between CPU and RAM
1:1 balance ratio between GPU and RAM
Please keep in mind that these were rumored specs. I found a few different sets around the web, but this one came up a little more than the rest. One more thing about the Revolution. I am saddened to see that the new Legend of Zelda will NOT be making it to the Revolution, but making it's appearance on the Gamecube. A beatiful game, it deserves to be launch title for a new system.
Obviously, there is nothing we can really say about each system that hasn't been said. With none of them available, we have to go by screen shots and what each company says. But, for what it is capable of, the PS3 has my vote so far. We will see if it still does at 360 launch.