Comment Articles

Gaming platform wars -- commence!

Stephan Somogyi AnchorDesk

Published: 17 May 2001 17:07 BST

I consider the core of any platform war to be available software as well as extensibility. This holds true for conventional computer platforms as well as games platforms. For example, Quark initially became successful as a publishing tool because it -- unlike its competitor at the time -- included a plug-in architecture. I wonder whether new consumer electronics platform creators are heeding this lesson.

Xbox is for gaming
Xbox looks like a very slick games machine; the demo I saw earlier this year at CES was pretty cool, and I'm already looking forward to Halo and Ghost Recon, to name a few. However, Xbox's aim is very single-minded: it's exclusively a games box. Any queries about whether Microsoft is contemplating multiple uses for Xbox -- beyond that of a DVD player -- are politely but firmly denied. Xbox is a games machine, and to that end, Microsoft is unlikely to make the box particularly extensible.

This is certainly its prerogative; it's Microsoft's platform, to do with as it pleases. But if I'm a hypothetical cash-strapped consumer looking to spend $300 on a games box this upcoming buying season, will this single-minded focus result in a sale? As long as Xbox games are top notch, Xbox will be appealing. But when competing platforms offer great games as well as additional features, then one has to wonder whether a single-purpose, yet expensive, device like this makes fiscal sense.

PS2 is the octopus
Despite its launch last autumn, I've still been able to resist the temptation to buy a PS2. The games that I'm actually waiting for -- Wipeout Fusion and MGS2 -- are still listed as "Fall 2001", and none of the other released games have appealed to me enough so far.

When PS2's specs were originally announced, I distinctly remember thinking that no dedicated games box would need all those different ports, and that Sony was planning for the PS2 to be a first-generation media router. Sure enough, between the built-in ports and the various add-ons announced at E3, Sony has a much bigger vision for PS2 than just as a games machine.

Sony has already announced a 10/100 Ethernet and V90 modem combo adapter, an alliance with AOL, alliances with Macromedia and Real for Flash and Real players, and a Cisco-developed IPv4 and IPv6 stack. An LCD display, keyboard, hard drive, and other widgets to turn PS2 into more than a games machine are also in the works. Sony's Japan-only release of Linux for PS2 sold out in mere minutes recently -- quelle surprise -- but, alas, there's no sign of it on this side of the Pacific.