Happy Black Friday, Wortmaniacs! As of this writing, people all across the United States are celebrating the age-old tradition of over-the-top post-Thanksgiving consumerism to ring in the holiday season. Video game consoles—such as the Nintendo Wii, the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360—surely rank pretty high on most people’s holiday gift guides but, with today’s rocky economic landscape, does it make a whole lot of sense to blow a lot of cash on a system that’s only going to be obsolete in a few years?
Thankfully, Europe’s Xbox head Chris Lewis said in an interview with Edge Online that gamers can look forward to a longer relationship with the current crop of consoles than they’re used to.
“I think this generation will be longer, because there is so much scalability,” Lewis told the gaming industry news site. He added that through downloadable content like the New Xbox Experience (NXE), it is possible to continue enhancing current hardware without the need for a physical—and expensive—upgrade.
“So if you think of that scalability and the opportunity to enhance and develop what we do with this platform, then I think it’s very, very possible—and indeed appropriate—that this generation will be longer," he said. “But we’re not specific about when that will happen, and we don’t have a particular timeline that we share right now. But as I said, there’s a lot more still to come.”
This is a relief, since I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with my Xbox 360, and the Wii has charm despite its disregard for gamer-targeted software. Even the Playstation 3—which I’ve yet to own—has built a pretty impressive stable of exclusive games, including LittleBigPlanet and Metal Gear Solid 4. In addition, with gaming taking a bold step into the mainstream over the last few years, video games are enjoying a true golden age this generation. Let’s make sure it lasts.
2 comments:
That's interesting. For the past couple of months, I've been interested in purchasing an XBox 360, given that many enticing titles are not available for the Wii. On a scale from 0-10, how satisfied are you with the 360?
It's a solid 9. Lots of great titles and a really great online component. I'm very satisfied with it.
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