Xbox 360, Microsoft’s successor to their popular Xbox gaming console, will be “unleashed” tonight at a celebrity-packed launch broadcast on MTV, which shows at 8pm in the UK. It was launched on US MTV last night.
With a press release positively hyperventilating with hyperbole, Microsoft breathlessly extols the virtues of their new games machine, dramatically waffling on about “a dawn of a new era in entertainment.”
Unlike the manly, chunky lines of the first-generation Xbox, the 360 has been given the ladyboy treatment, with smooth, concave lines covering the rippling muscle lurking below.
And there certainly is a beast in the box, with the unit powered by a custom-made IBM PowerPC-based three-core chip running at 3.2GHz, supported by 512MB of GDDR3 RAM – enough beefy brawn to keep up with even the nippiest modern PCs.
Graphics performance should be speedier than a rocket-assisted rabbit too, with an ATI GPU running at 500MHz, backed up by 10MB of embedded DRAM.
The Xbox will ship with a 12X dual-layer DVD-ROM drive – supporting progressive-scan DVD movies and a host of DVD and CD formats – three USB 2.0 ports, two memory unit slots and support for four wireless game controllers.
Users will also be able to stream media from portable devices or Windows XP PCs, as well as rip music to the Xbox’s detachable (and upgradeable) 20GB hard drive.
Networking needs are catered for with a built-in Ethernet port and support for 802.11a, b, and g Wi-Fi protocols.
“With the first generation of Xbox, our ambition was to change the way people think about video games,” said Robbie Bach, chief Xbox officer at Microsoft. “Starting today with Xbox 360, our ambition is to transform the way people play games and have fun.”
Microsoft – never one to understate their case – are claiming that they will “unleash the greatest game lineup in the history of video games” when the Xbox launches in North America, Europe and Japan over Christmas.
They’ve certainly persuaded a gaggle of major league gaming companies to come onboard, with initial releases including NBA 2K6, Call of Duty 2, QUAKE 4, Madden NFL 06, Need for Speed Most Wanted and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 06.
“Xbox 360 marks the beginning of a renaissance in video games,” whooped Don Mattrick, president of Worldwide Studios for Electronic Arts. “The unbelievable Xbox 360 games in development at Electronic Arts will accelerate the industry’s mission to make video games the pre-eminent form of all entertainment.”
All the games are designed for high-definition, wide-screen televisions, although they’ll work on regular TVs.
Players will be able to access Microsoft’s free Xbox Live online service, which allows them to connect with friends through Xbox Live voice chat, send and receive text and voice messages and stuff their detachable Xbox 360 hard drive full of downloadable demos, trailers, new game levels, maps, weapons, vehicles, skins and community-created content
Gamers who shell out for the premium service, Xbox Live Gold, can join multiplayer online games and enjoy enhanced options for online game matchmaking and a greater ability to provide feedback on opponents.
Naturally, gamers love to customise their experience, so there’s a camera option to let vain players add their mugshots into games or even see their friends onscreen as they frag them to an inch of their worthless lives.
As is the current vogue, the appearance of the actual Xbox can be customised too, with a range of interchangeable Xbox Faces on offer.
Although the system is aimed at mad-for-it gamers, the Xbox is also a full entertainment system offering DVD movie, CD music and photo playback support.
So long as they’re equipped with a USB 2.0 port, MP3 players, digital cameras and Windows XP-based PC port can all plug into an Xbox 360 system to stream music and photos.
Xbox 360 players can also access recorded TV and digital movies, music, video and photos stored on Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005-based PCs through any Xbox 360 system in the house.
We’ve yet to get our greasy paws on a machine, but Microsoft have certainly raised the stakes with their new Xbox, although arch rivals Sony have yet to, err, unleash their PlayStation 3, a potentially more powerful box offering support for new high-capacity Blu-ray discs.
With both units enjoying enthusiastic support from game makers and gamers, some of the real bloody battles could soon be taking place off-screen.
Promo video for Xbox 360 (Windows Media)
If you thought Xbox 360 was just about gaming, skip to 3 minutes into the video to see how they’re transforming it into a media centre.
XBox
Games developers have included Internet access in their products. The best example of this is Wipeout Pure, which includes a browser, allowing the user to download new game levels and features. Since the game has a browser built-in, it can be reasonable to assume that Sony have actually put all the code to access the Internet in the PSP itself (and made it available to developers). 
Rather than everyone set-up spoof servers, some nice people have done it for you, and these then point to a PSP portal which someone has set-up PSP friendly content. You can access the spoof DNS servers by amending your Internet set-up configuration (on the PSP) and leave everything to automatic except for the DNS settings, into which you enter the spoof server settings. 
Once updated versions of the firmware come out, or there are 3rd party applications, the system will have all the features to be a powerful media hub. It supports WiFi, has a decent screen and video capability now, adding other Internet capabilities will just add the finishing touches to a superb product.
Sony have produced a portable games console which on its own merit is going to sell a lot of units. However it has the possibility of becoming a portable media hub that will give even Microsoft a jolt by driving into their Portable Media Center market. 
The system uses Sony’s 1.8″ UMD optical disk which comes in a protective sheath (like a minidisc). They’re small enough so you could easily carry a few around with you (though don’t eject them unless there’s something solid and accessible beneath you as they have a tendency to fly out and disappear somewhere awkward). There’s also a Memory Stick due (32MB supplied) to allow game saves and other features. 
The system looks like a USB memory device when attached to a PC (which basically gives access to the Memory Stick) and you can store audio and video on it. Sensibly, Sony support MP3 directly on the PSP, though it will also support ATRACplus encoded music. Interestingly, if someone decides to produce UMD music disks, they only support ATRACplus and linear PCM). Video is H.264/MPEG-4 AVC on the UMD and MPEG-4 SP, AAC on the memory stick. 
Once the PSP has real Internet capability it will be a media powerhouse, the screen size is about right for watching movies on the go. You could do this now by converting a current MPEG-2 (DVD) to MPEG-4 and storing it on the memory stick (ignoring all legal ramifications), but in future it’s more than likely you’ll be able to stream movies (or audio) directly to the unit. Sony as a music publisher and movie house, is likely to want to sell its content to a market of portable viewers – it owns both ends of the stick. 
Big sighs of disappointment are heard all around Europe, as Sony officially announce the released date of the handheld gaming/media dream machine, the Sony PSP. It’s going to be 1 September 2005. 
Sony have announced the PlayStation Portable Value Pack at €249 (£179/US$323), which includes headphones, a 32Mb Memory Stick Duo, power supply, protective pouch, etc. The hit film Spider-Man 2 will be available on a UMD disc, free to early purchasers of PSP when they register on YourPSP.com. 
There are many tales of PSP-owners modifying their pride and joy to browser the Internet via Wi-Fi, or indeed run Instant Messaging client software. 
In an astonishing volte-face, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has announced that it now endorses the auctioning of virtual items from its massively popular online game, Everquest II – with the electronics giant pocketing a cut of the cash, naturally. 
Personally, we’d rather buy a round of lovely real ale than shell out for the Dark Lord of Deltronia’s Mystical Turbo Sword of Mwegneli, but as we’ve reported before (
“There already is a ‘virtual class system’ within the game itself – you earn status and faction standing, money, prestige, titles, fancy clothes and transport, you start living in a hovel but can move on up to luxury apartments etc – But at least till now you could assume that most people had ‘earned’ those things by playing the game. 
“I’m not sure of the mechanics in EQII, but in WoW (World of Warcraft) they have mitigated the potential for selling items somewhat by introducing the concept of having things bind to that character when it is picked up, meaning you can’t transfer items to other players, hence no selling though eBay and the like.” 
For some gamers, an officially sanctioned auction site is an inevitable consequence of the growing popularity of virtual gaming, with Sony’s cut, a reasonable price to pay for eliminating a lot of scams. 
Motorola handset owners will now be able to go multiplayer bonkers, courtesy of a new selection of real-time, multiplayer games from Motorola’s consumer portal, www.hellomoto.com. 
As well as playing directly against other phone users, game-hungry portal visitors will also be able to compete in ladder tournaments, view global rankings and chat in-game. 
“This represents another major step forward in the development of Terraplay given the stature of Motorola in the global wireless market. Motorola’s initiative is excellent news for the growth of the multiplayer sector,” purred Jeremy Lewis, Chairman of the Advisory Board, Terraplay Systems, “Multiplayer gaming, offered as premium services, is a real revenue generator and an ideal path to higher ARPU for all service providers”. 
Last week, 250 executives from advertising agencies, game developers and publishers swarmed into the first annual Advertising in Games Forum on 14 April 2005 in New York City. 
For the benefit of buzzword-deficient execs, Yankee Group senior analyst Mike Goodman explained that this hideous word describes what you get when advertisers create a game around a product rather than place their brands within a well-known title. 
Fact-bloated attendees also learned that the top selling 2004 game titles (according to the NPD Group) were: 
New figures by media researchers, Screen Digest, has shown that the mobile games market has scooped up £327m worth of funding since September 1999, 56% of which was raised during 2004. 
The growth of multimedia/web-enabled phones has supercharged consumer spending on downloadable mobile games, with sales growing from £380m (US$719m/€554m)in 2003 to £778m (US$1.4bnm/€1,134m) in 2004. 
A study by Nielsen Entertainment has revealed that men spend more money on video games than they do on music, adding weight to a growing belief that video games are displacing other forms of media for the notoriously fickle attentions of young men. 
Naturally, advertisers are keen to cash in on the rising popularity of games, and are looking at ever more persuasive ways to bombard bedroom-bound, bunglesome boys with beguiling adverts (branded billboards in race games are already commonplace, as we’ve 
Overall, Nielsen reported that active gamers tend to spend just over 5 hours a week playing alone and 3 hours a week playing with people or online. 
Everyone’s heard of Space Invaders haven’t they? Those who haven’t, will surely have been sitting in a very dark room with their fingers in their ears, singing “La, la, la, la” very loudly to themselves since 1978. 
Not wanting to let a good thing go by, Nintendo has announced the latest version of Invaders – Space Invaders Revolution for the Nintendo DS. 
The new version sounds like it has some of those interesting features, such as rules that change as you pass between levels. 
In normal play, the DS version doesn’t make a great use of the dual screens. You can use the lower, touch screen as a controller, tapping the on-screen buttons, in some of the games and sometimes graphics do pass between the two.