The Video Game Cold War

Microsoft and Sony; two superpowers in the entertainment market going at each other throats and they've both got console systems in the works. First rumors said that MS was thinking about a Fall 2005 launch for the Xbox 2, and now Sony's saying that the Playstation 3 will be playable before next year's E3. Of course, this could force Microsoft to release details about the Xbox 2 and its games before they wanted to and that would probably cut into the big Christmas push that every video game company has to do.

Now, having to buy an Xbox 2 in a year and a half, and believe me I'll HAVE to, doesn't really bother me. Four years of Xbox games is pretty reasonable I think and it's certainly cheaper than upgrading a PC all the time. In fact, I think a four year cycle is better than a five year cycle and for why I think that just look at most PS2 games and compare them to current top tier PC games and then imagine how they'll compare in a year and a half when the PS2 should be around 5 years old. Four years seems long enough to me for developers to really take advantage of the hardware, especially if backwards compatibility becomes the standard that it seems to be, while updating the hardware just a little more frequently.