Example 1: MTV's The Next Generation Xbox Unveiled.
12 May 05

Recently people have been amazed at how well Microsoft was handling the buzz, hype and information flow for the Xbox 360. That ended tonight. They hyped the MTV special to the ends of the Earth. Now we get it. Oh my, that was painful. In the words of Whose Line: Et Tu Crappe!

The gameplay shown was minimal. The information provided was the same. I'm glad I didn't have to make a purchase decision based on that. I know that someday, barring disaster, I will have a Xbox 360 in my entertainment center. By then that MTV fiasco should be a distant memory.

Fortunately, that shrieking noise from MTV was merely a signal to open the floodgates of information. Now all the NDA's are expired and we can get something useful. It will probably take a few days to wade through. That probably indicates the only good thing about that special. It was at the right time to keep people focused on the 360 before E3.

I'd like to hit the two highlights that jumped out at me from what I've been able to read thus far. First, we only have one SKU launching. That's good. As I've said, the great strength of a console is the single hardware spec. By launching with only one version, developers can have confidence to use any of the features available since everyone will have them. It also reduces consumer confusion. Overall I think it was a smart move.

Next, we have the big rumor born out. It's shipping with 512MB of unified memory. Personally I would have liked that 512 on top of a 1080i frame buffer dedicated video memory, but it's still an impressive number for a console. Hopefully this move will force Sony and Nintendo to match. Sony especially doesn't want any feature of their console to be beaten by the 360. It's probably not strictly required since there's marketing speak around anything, but if Sony and/or Nintendo want to lure developers to their systems, they have to give them more than the competition. Microsoft has put up a big number there. Memory is pretty cheap right now and likely to get more so in the future. There's not much reason the other players can't see or raise Microsoft on this one especially when you consider how much of a bottleneck memory was in the current generation.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I hope all three next generation consoles are hits. Strong three way competition means more and better games for gamers. With Nintendo's move to differentiate themselves and an expected (perhaps purely hyped) power gap reported between the 360 and the PS3, we might see less of the major multiplatform games. I think each system would be strengthened by that.

I think from now on I'll stick to my policy of avoiding MTV. However, it's still a great time to be a gamer.

Jason