Technofile: The new Xbox 360 games console is out. The question is, should you buy one now or wait for the next Sony Playstation to come out next year, asks Mike Butcher.
You'll have to decide fast. The Xbox 360 went on sale this week in the US. Next up is Europe on December 2nd and Japan on December 10th. The PS3 (Sony Playstation 3) will come out in Japan in the middle of next year, and globally a few months later.
The new machine looks far slicker than the original, mainly because Microsoft wants it to become part of your home entertainment system. The Xbox 360 can also play DVDs and plug in an MP3 player, digital camera or PC. Xbox 360 will cost around €400 for the console, wireless controller, 20GB hard drive and headset. A cheaper "core" package with less features will cost about €300, but only the added hard drive option will allow you to play old Xbox games or to save your progress through a game.
The Xbox 360 comes with a free "silver" basic membership of the Xbox Live online gaming system, allowing you to download demos, chat with gamers and post scores to leader boards. A "gold" 12-month subscription (€58) will allow you to play other gamers, access classic 1980s games, or buy extra content.
Fifteen games will be available for the Xbox launch in Europe, possibly growing to 25 by Christmas. All this is assuming you will actually be able to get one. Consoles will be in short supply because of Microsoft's race to get it out before Christmas to capitalise on the $25 billion (€21.2 billion) worldwide gaming market and recoup the $4 billion it spent developing the Xbox 360.
Meanwhile, the PS3 is likely to cost about the same as the Xbox. It will be bundled with games, movies, backward compatible with earlier PlayStation titles and possibly even feature TV shows.
Technically, it will be more advanced than the Xbox, incorporating a high-definition Blu-Ray DVD player (worth about €800) designed for high-definition TV (HDTV) sets. This expense means Sony will be selling PS3s at a big loss to try and seed Blu-Ray as the standard for the next generation DVDs. Microsoft is backing the other format, "HD DVD", but the Xbox 360 won't be able to play HD movies - yet. In other words, it's the Betamax vs VHS video war all over again.
Of course, hardware means nothing if there are no decent games. PlayStation 2 was technically inferior to the first Xbox, but good games meant over 90 million PlayStation 2 consoles have been sold worldwide since the PS2's debut in 2000, compared with some 25 million Xboxes sold since 2001. The initial feedback from gaming commentators has been that the Xbox hardware is good, but as yet there doesn't appear to be a "must have" game.
If you're a current Xbox owner, you may want to upgrade to the 360. If you're a PS2 owner you're more likely to wait for the PS3. But if you're a more casual gamer, it's probably worth waiting till next year.
