Xbox 360

A new console is now among us (or will be tomorrow). I've thought a lot about the Xbox 360, and what it could mean for the industry. Personally, I want to see it do well, for the sole reason that I don't like where Sony wants to take the industry with the PS3, and having an undisputed industry leader 3 generations in a row is just silly.

Still, while I want it to succeed, I am also very much worried about it. I had a whole post on this planned in my head, but it turns out that Eric-Jon Rössel Waugh (one of my favorite game writers of recent) expresses many of the same concerns in the style of a real, professional writer. The console does have a focus tested feel (First time I saw it I thougth "Macintosh + Mountain Dew, and I don't believe that is coincidence), as if every piece of its design exists soley because

a) its currently fashionable
b) Sony would do it.

When I picture the "casual/cool gamer" and "Xbox 360 mega fan", I get the same image. That doesn't sit well with me, not because the console is designed for someone else, but because people don't always know what they want. Catering to them won't make things any better.

Perhaps my biggest concern can be found in this one paragraph by Eric-John:

The 360 is the first out the door, and surprise of surprises, two-thirds of the games on its launch list are either gussied-up current-generation games like Gun and King Kong (both developed for the lowest common denominator of the PS2) or merely the 2005 entries in long-unchanging series like Madden and Need for Speed. Get rid of a couple of PC ports and all you're really left with are two Rare games, neither of which has much to say that we didn't hear a decade ago on the N64 (as pretty as they might be).

A brand new next generation console, and we're playing current gen PC/console ports and a few games stuck in their N64 roots. The same thing happened with the PS2 launch, and to this day there are only a few titles that I can say play better becuase they're on PS2 rather than if they were on PS1. I know they need some time to really show what the 360 can do, but I'm afraid that for a long time we are going to be stuck with games that play no better than they do now. And it will all be in the name of graphics.

All hail the HD-Era, where everything will look pretty. Good luck Microsoft. You may-or may not- be needing it.