By Ben Kuchera
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Playing defense
It would make sense for Microsoft to be on the defensive. The Xbox 360 is about a year old, so the company isn't going into the holiday season with the buzz that Sony and Nintendo are enjoying. But having that long of a head start also carries with it some advantages: hardware will be plentiful on store shelves, and Microsoft had all that time to hone the online and UI experiences with the 360. At this stage, the console is a mature product just hitting its stride, a nice position to be in given what both the Wii and the PS3 are going through.
Microsoft is confident enough in their position that they invited me to New York to see how the Xbox 360 stacks up against the PS3 when both are hooked into the same 1080p display and using the highest-quality connection possible. For the 360 that means the VGA cable, which is currently the only way the system can output 1080p; the PS3 is hooked up via HDMI. When I walk into the room, I'm amused at their choice of display: a Sony Bravia XBR2 1080p LCD. It's a gorgeous display, and I remark on it.
I'm there with Aaron Greenberg, the Group Marketing Manager for Xbox Live, and Scott Henson, product unit manager for Microsoft's game technology group. They're open and surprisingly unguarded. In addition to the nice display are a 360 with an HD DVD drive and the 60GB PS3. Both are also online, and there are a stack of games between them. "We're selling Bravias on the side," they joke, and I'm invited to take a look around the setup, with the air of a magician telling me there's nothing up his sleeve. They want to be sure I'm happy with how each system is hooked up and that I don't think one system has the advantage in cabling or anything else. "We want to compare apples to apples," they tell me.
It's an odd situation. I know that the point of this meeting is for them to convince me of the 360's supremacy, but they leave the meeting up to me to control in terms of what we put in or how we play the games and movies, and I see them listening to me as much as I listen to them. Evan Parker, the PR person in the room, also makes notes on what's said more than once. I feel like I'm being interviewed and watched almost as much as I'm interviewing and watching them.
The rest here.
http://arstechnica.com/articles/headstart.ars
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Playing defense
It would make sense for Microsoft to be on the defensive. The Xbox 360 is about a year old, so the company isn't going into the holiday season with the buzz that Sony and Nintendo are enjoying. But having that long of a head start also carries with it some advantages: hardware will be plentiful on store shelves, and Microsoft had all that time to hone the online and UI experiences with the 360. At this stage, the console is a mature product just hitting its stride, a nice position to be in given what both the Wii and the PS3 are going through.
Microsoft is confident enough in their position that they invited me to New York to see how the Xbox 360 stacks up against the PS3 when both are hooked into the same 1080p display and using the highest-quality connection possible. For the 360 that means the VGA cable, which is currently the only way the system can output 1080p; the PS3 is hooked up via HDMI. When I walk into the room, I'm amused at their choice of display: a Sony Bravia XBR2 1080p LCD. It's a gorgeous display, and I remark on it.
I'm there with Aaron Greenberg, the Group Marketing Manager for Xbox Live, and Scott Henson, product unit manager for Microsoft's game technology group. They're open and surprisingly unguarded. In addition to the nice display are a 360 with an HD DVD drive and the 60GB PS3. Both are also online, and there are a stack of games between them. "We're selling Bravias on the side," they joke, and I'm invited to take a look around the setup, with the air of a magician telling me there's nothing up his sleeve. They want to be sure I'm happy with how each system is hooked up and that I don't think one system has the advantage in cabling or anything else. "We want to compare apples to apples," they tell me.
It's an odd situation. I know that the point of this meeting is for them to convince me of the 360's supremacy, but they leave the meeting up to me to control in terms of what we put in or how we play the games and movies, and I see them listening to me as much as I listen to them. Evan Parker, the PR person in the room, also makes notes on what's said more than once. I feel like I'm being interviewed and watched almost as much as I'm interviewing and watching them.
The rest here.
http://arstechnica.com/articles/headstart.ars
