By Shawn Drotar, Managing Editor, OperationSports.com
Graphics technology can always improve, and the brief snippets of NBA 2K6 and Madden™ NFL 06 last week on MTV showcased what is possible in the next generation of sports gaming and gaming in general.
However, it's clear that the real key to next-generation success now rests in something less tangible: the "experience." That's where Microsoft® and the Xbox™ video gaming system are making huge gains in the console world. This experience—be it through user interface, versatility, or the games themselves—will be the new paradigm for the gaming industry.
Everything Microsoft has done with the Xbox since day one has been in preparation for this very moment.
It's obvious that Microsoft—a software company at heart—intends to provide Xbox 360 developers with a robust set of tools that streamlines their design and frees them from deciphering the complexities of online play, assembly code migration, and many other time-consuming vagaries of software design. The end result, hopefully, will be better-designed games at more reasonable development costs.
This is Microsoft's secret weapon: not new system specs or any other measurables, but the realization of unified design strategy that gives both developers and consumers an original and distinct performance expectation throughout the entire gaming pipeline, from initial concept to final customer experience.
This is exactly what development studios have been seeking for years, as programmers work longer and longer hours while costs spiral out of control.
In many ways, the design concept of the Xbox 360™ even gives programmers an edge over the PC, where one must build for the lowest common denominator while enabling power users to experience the extraordinary. This often proves very difficult and is accomplished at great cost.
Conceptually, the Xbox 360 is a game designer's dream. A leaner and meaner team of hungry developers will now have the power to compete technologically with any of the largest development firms. Clever and innovative design may finally have a chance to reign supreme. For consumers, it means that the games themselves will matter even more than who makes them. Wouldn't that be refreshing?
Online play has just begun its rapid approach to terminal velocity, with Xbox Live™ at the forefront. Microsoft has made online play and all that comes with it a bulwark of the new Xbox 360. The initial offering on the current Xbox—including a single user account across all titles, voice chat, friends lists, and closed-network performance—proved to be light-years beyond anything the competition offered. The Xbox 360 promises to raise that bar to even more dizzying heights.
Major Japanese developers have already embraced the Xbox 360 and intend to build for it exclusively. This is nothing less than a spectacular rebound by Microsoft, and all but a watershed event in the Japanese marketplace, which is made even more dramatic given the Far East's tech-hungry markets.
The battle for the next-generation audience isn't a technological war to be waged only with faster processors and GPUs. It's a battle of design, innovation, and the synergy between developer, game, and gamer.
Are you prepared for that? One thing is certain: Microsoft and the Xbox 360 most certainly are.
