The Richter Scale^®

As 2006 came to a close, Microsoft did a lot of chest thumping to declare themselves the winner of the next generation console battle, touting console sales (over 10 million Xbox 360s sold) and content (160 high definition Xbox 360 titles). Disregarding the fact that the next generation console battle is really just starting in earnest, and Microsoft merely had an early lead, the 160 titles proclamation puzzled me. After all, I think I am probably one of Microsoft’s best individual consumer clients - I have three Xbox 360s and a couple of dozen Xbox 360 packaged titles - and I add another few every month as they are released, and I did not realize I was missing well over 100 games in my collection. Nor have I seen that many games on shelves at BestBuy or GameStop. So, I asked my media contact at Microsoft for a current list of high definition Xbox 360 titles, and this is what they sent back:

2006 FIFA World Cup
A Train HX
Amped 3
Aqua Zone*
Assault Heroes*
AstroPop*
Bankshot Billiards 2*
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
Bejeweled 2*
Bionicle Heros
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WW II
Blitz: The League
Blue Dragon
Bomberman Act: Zero
Bullet Witch
Burger King: Big Bumpin’
Burger King: Pocketbike Racer
Burger King: Sneak King
Burnout: Revenge
Cabela’s African Safari
Cabela’s Alaskan Adventure
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 3
Chanbara Beauty X
Chromehounds
Cloning Clyde*
Condemned
Contra*
Crystal Quest*
Culdcept Saga
DEAD OR ALIVE 4
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
Dead Rising
Defender*
Dig Dug*
Disney/Pixar’s Cars
Doom*
Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires
Earth Defense Force 3
Enchanted Arms
Eragon
Everyparty
F.E.A.R.
Far Cry Instinct: Predator
Far East of Eden ZIRIA
Feeding Frenzy*
FIFA 06 Road to World Cup
FIFA 2007
Fight Night Round 3
Final Fantasy XI
Football Manager 2006
Football Manager 2007
Frogger*
Full Auto
Galaga*
Gauntlet*
Gears of War
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved*
Gun
Hardwood Backgammon*
Hardwood Hearts*
Hardwood Spades*
Hexic*
Hitman: Blood Money
Import Tuner Challenge
Jewel Quest*
Joust*
Just Cause
Kameo
Kengo ZERO
King Kong (Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie)
LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
LMA Manager 2007
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
LOVE FOOTBALL
Lumines Live*
Madden NFL 06
Madden NFL 07
Major League Baseball 2K6
Marble Blast 2*
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Moto GP 2006
Mutant Storm Reloaded*
NBA 2K6
NBA 2K7
NBA Live 06
NBA Live 07
NCAA College Hoops 2K6
NCAA College Hoops 2K7
NCAA Football 07
Need For Speed Most Wanted
Need for Speed: Carbon
New Rally X*
NHL 07
NHL 2K6
NHL 2K7
NINETY-NINE NIGHTS
NovaDrome*
Open Season
Outpost Kaloki*
Over G
Pac-Man*
Perfect Dark Zero
Phantasy Star Universe
Pimp my Ride
Prey
Pro Baseball Spirits 3
Pro Evolution Soccer 6
Project Gotham Racing 3
Project Sylpheed
Quake 4
Ridge Racer 6
RoboBlitz*
Robotron*
Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis
Rumble Roses XX
Saints Row
Samurai Warriors 2
Scramble*
Senko no Ronde Rev. X
Shin Sangoku Musou 4 special
Small Arms*
Smash TV*
Sonic the Hedgehog
SPECTRAL FORCE 3 INNOCENT RAGE
Star Trek Legacy
Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting*
Super Robot Wars XO
Superman Returns: The Videogame
Tenchu Senran
Test Drive Unlimited
Tetris Grand Master 3*
Texas Hold’Em*
The American Civil War
The Conveni 200X
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The Godfather The Game
The Outfit
Tiger Woods 2007
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06
Time Pilot*
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent
Tomb Raider Legend
Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland
Tony Hawk’s Project 8
Top Spin 2
Toryumon
Totemball
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Uno*
Viva Pinata
Wik & the Fable of Souls*
World Championship Poker 3
World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions
Wrestle Kingdom
WWE SMACKDOWN VS. RAW 2007
Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Vol. 1
X-Men 3: The Movie Game (aka X-Men: The Official Game)
Zegapain NOT
ZEGAPAIN XOR
Zoids Infinity EX Neo
Zuma*

Okay - I am not into sports games, certain car racing games being an exception - I love Burnout: Revenge, although calling that a sports game is a real stretch. But sports games make up a healthy percentage of the titles on the list. There are also a number of games on the list that are only available outside the U.S., including Bullet Witch (Japan for now, U.S. in the next couple of months) and Chanbara Beauty X. And a few others appear to not be shipping yet anywhere as best I can tell (e.g. Super Robot Wars XO).

But, the other group of games I was surprised (or maybe not) to find Microsoft touting as high definition games were Xbox Live games for the Xbox 360. They may be high definition, I guess, but in Bejeweled 2 that only buys you nice looking cut scenes and prettier sparkles. I guess, however, they really still are high definition titles. And Microsoft never said 160 “packaged” titles, did they? (Although that’s what I thought was implied.)

For now, I guess I actually have all the games that I want and can easily get my hands on and be able to play/read - my Kana and Kanji skills are lacking, so I prefer games in English. And I am eagerly awaiting Lost Planet, which arrives here on Bonaire for me in less than a week. Not that I will have much time to play it. One more thing to delegate to my kids, I suppose.

One of the more creative PC game input devices I have seen in some time (and first reported on here), is the Novint Falcon.

At CES here in Las Vegas this week, Novint finally announced a ship date and pricing for the device. The Falcon will ship on June 18, 2007, and is available for pre-order now in a limited edition bundle at http://www.novintfalcon.com for a price of $189. The pre-order bundle includes the Novint Falcon game controller device, a copy of Newton’s Monkey Business (a set of mini-games strangely reminiscent of Super Monkey Ball on the Nintendo Wii), a free game download from Novint’s Online Game Service and membership in the Falcon First Club.

The full retail price of the Novint Falcon will be $239 when it ships in June.

What makes the Novint Falcon so different is that it is a haptic device, meaning that it provides physical feedback. For example, in the Half-Life 2 demo I tried, I could actually feel the recoil when firing various weapons because the Falcon would jerk up and to the right, just as a real gun would. Similarly, when opponents were firing upon me, the controller would jerk in a direction to indicate the force of being hit, allowing me to quickly locate the source of attack. The use of the Falcon is very intuitive, although I suspect that with extended game play my arm would tire. Although, arguably, that means it might be good exercise too.

The launch price for the device is significantly higher than the $99 price Novint had bandied about last May at the E3 Show in Los Angeles, but for a haptic device of this complexity, probably not unreasonable. The biggest challenge that Novint faces is getting game developers to support their device natively in PC games, but they assured me that they were working on that effort.

I certainly look forward to playing with it when it ships because it really is one cool device. And I hope they overcome the market hurdles such innovation and uniqueness tend to face.

A couple of weeks ago in New York City I was lucky enough to score two Nintendo Wii consoles with merely a 2 hour wait in line at the Times Square Toys R Us. I received a ticket to purchase a console when I joined the line, and I roped in my nine year old son to get a ticket too. See pictures below of us in line, along with some new friends, with our tickets; Wii boxes stacked up at the Toys R Us; and my son Bas and I with one of our Wiis.

One of the Wii consoles has been sent on home to Bonaire via slow boat, but we managed to install the other one last week at the in-laws while visiting for Christmas, and it was great fun. We now have the same Wii set up in our living room on our big screen and it’s still fun.

Nintendo has, in my estimation, never been stupid - foolish and foolhardy yes, but not stupid. And the Wii is no exception. While the Wii has been derided by game mavens as having mediocre graphics, the fact is that the Wii is designed to be used with just about all existing televisions. Okay, so it doesn’t look as crisp and awe inspiring as an Xbox 360 or PS3 running in high definition with an appropriately designed game title and all the right cables, but most real folks don’t have HD TVs yet.

So, in contrast to the Sony PS3 and Xbox 360, for which an HD TV is pretty much required, the Wii is effectively plug and play with current display technology (but get a component video cable if you want to get a bit better resolution out of it on a newer TV). And from personal experience, you don’t notice jagged pixels or fuzziness when you’re madly shaking your hands and arms to make your character on the screen run, jump, or whatever - you’re too busy playing the game using the Wii’s innovative input devices.

The three titles I have found so far that make the best use of the Wii remote (and Wii nunchuk in some cases) are the free Wii Sports game disc which comes with the Wii (features Baseball, Tennis, Bowling, and Golf), Excite Truck, and Super Monkey Ball. And the latest Zelda (Twilight Princess) is good too, but it takes quite a bit of game time to get to where you are using the wireless motion controls in a broad range of ways.

Super Monkey Ball in particular features 50 mini-games ranging from darts, running hurdles, races, space shooters, tightrope walking, and much much more. But even Super Monkey Ball probably only scratches the surface on original ways game developers will likely put the wireless controls to use in the future.

I have read and heard a fair bit of commentary from naysayers that the Wii is just a fad, and recreational gamers will soon tire of it, but I’m not so sure. There’s something very satisfying about being able to physically interact with a video game, whether it be swinging a control like a golf club in a golf game, playing tennis with the control as a racket, throwing darts, or even pointing the remote at the screen as an aiming mechanism for some weapon in a first person shooter. Certainly it’s a lot more natural to point your “gun” at a target than it is to use a joystick to rotate your view so that your cross hairs then line up on your target.

And while reports of television destruction and bodily injury from flailing arms, snapping Wii Remote restraint cords, and sweat-induced slipperiness abound, the experience in my family is that the greatest pain resulting from use of the Wii controllers is the day after vigorous play - muscle aches being the most common malady.

I am firmly convinced the Wii will outsell the PS3 and Xbox 360 by mid-2008, if for no other reason than it will work very well with pretty much any TV already in use today, as well as new ones being purchased, combined with the fact that it’s much more attractively priced than the higher end alternatives, meaning it’s more accessible to a larger number of people. It also doesn’t hurt that the game titles available for the Wii are much more family friendly than those for the PS3 (and to some extent, the Xbox 360), at least as things stand now.

I give the Nintendo Wii a 9.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale.

I finally got back home to Bonaire last night, and had my new PS3 waiting for me. I installed it using the regular composite video cable the PS3 comes with on the Samsung 32” LCD TV in my bedroom. I used the composite video cable because the TV only has one HDMI port, and that port was already in use by my DVD player.

Sure, I could have just gone and disconnected the DVD player, and used the PS3 to play DVDs instead, but that is a suboptimal solution, because the user interface for DVD playback on the PS3, well, sucks. Also, I have the DVD functionality programmed into my universal remote, and am too lazy to figure out if there’s a way to get the remote to work on the PS3.

I had anticipated this issue some weeks back, and had gone shopping on-line to find an affordable HDMI switch, as surely such an item must exist. And indeed, I found several options. I finally settled on a 5-port HDMI switch I found at Amazon.com from a third party seller.

That switch arrived today, so I unpacked it, rewired things, and found that for some reason the PS3 would not output image data onto the HDMI connection. Turned out to be a configuration issue in the PS3, so I switched back to the composite video view (which, incidentally, was really ugly relative to what I knew the PS3 could do - fuzzy and chunky graphics at 480 lines of resolution - yuck! Oh how spoiled we’ve become!), and reconfigured the PS3 to use HDMI as the output. My Samsung TV could do 720p and 1080i resolutions, testing showed, so I enabled that, and was off and running, and things looked oh so much better.

However, this would not have been possible without the 5-port HDMI switch I found at Amazon.com - it’s still not cheap at $124.99, but it works like a dream. More specifically, it auto-senses which of the five HDMI inputs have an active signal, and if it’s only one, switches to use that input automatically. That means it is wife-safe too. My wife is no dummy, but she hates it when she has to take extra steps to get something working like it used to, and with the 5-port HDMI switch, if she turns on the DVD player, and the PS3 is off (as it would likely be), it will all just work as it did before.

The 5-port HDMI switch is made by Monoprice, and the model number is HDX-501. It has five HDMI inputs, and one HDMI output. The specifications say it supports 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p video formats, and that it also supports HDCP compliant video devices - something that is necessary for both 1080p output for Blu-ray movies on the PS3 as well as for some of Windows Vista’s forthcoming features. The unit comes with a remote controls, and a pair of AAA batteries are included as well.

I give the Monoprice HDX-501 HDMI Switch a 9.5 out of 10.0 on my Richter Scale. The only way to improve on it would be a lower price.

An interesting techie anecdote about HDMI switches, incidentally. I was in Tokyo last week, and visited Akihabara, the Tokyo electronics district, where every gadget known to man can be purchased. However, in asking around (using my Japanese-speaking guide, Junko) I was unable to locate any HDMI switches of any sort. We visited about a half dozen stores and stands, and in the final shop, that of one of the larger computer sellers in Akihabara, we were told point blank that while they knew HDMI switches existed, they did not yet exist in Japan. I found that statement amusing, since Japan is always apparently at the bleeding edge of technology, and the U.S. trails behind. Here was a case that appeared to be the opposite. In any event, in the U.S. you can definitely find HDMI switches. Ones that work well, at that.

I found myself in San Francisco this week for a patent conference. During a free moment during the early part of the week I wandered over from my seminar to the Metreon - a Sony owned and operated facility which features Sony’s only west coast “PlayStation” store. On a whim I asked them if they had any PS3s, and got the expected response - “No”. But, I also got a “but, we had two shipments last week and expect at least one this week”. They gave me a phone number to call and invited me to call back during the week to check if any had come in.

Being the obsessed gamer I am (or at least, can be), I called the PlayStation store several times daily. Thursday morning, around 10:45am I heard what I had hoped - “They have arrived, get here quickly.”

Alas, I wasn’t that quick apparently, since when I arrived the line for people waiting to buy a Sony PS3 was already snaking outside the building. I estimate there were already 100 people there ahead of me. The store had not actually started selling the PS3s yet, so we all just waited. I had called my friend Ted Pollack (he runs an investment fund called the Electronic Entertainment Fund or just EE Fund) to see if he could join me and maybe even help me buy a second PS3, although with the line as long as it was, it was not clear if I would be able to buy even one PS3.

After a while a store employee came out to make an announcement which those of us in the rear could not hear. Turns out he had given stickers to people at the head of the line, and had run out about 15 people ahead of us. The stickers were effectively a guarantee that there would be a PS3 for each sticker holder. Discouraged, but not beaten, Ted and I pulled out of line, went inside near the front of the line, and I asked in a loud voice if anyone would want to sell their sticker and place in line for $200. Seconds later I was number 33 in line with a sticker.

The $200 figure was the premium I had earlier figured I would be willing to pay to get a PS3 before the end of the year. Capitalism is a wonderful thing.

I had several more offers to buy stickers from others in line, but I was tapped out, and Ted had to leave (and there was a strict policy of only selling one PS3 per person - they even did name matches with driver’s licenses to ensure that the same people could not buy more than one PS3 at that store, ever - or at least until supplies were no longer restricted).

And even as #33, I still waited. A cheer suddenly erupted from the front of the line - they had seen several carts of PS3s being wheeled into the store. The folks in line were all generally in high spirits - it was something of a party atmosphere. Names were exhanged, as were business cards. Some of my fellow PS3 squatters worked for the same local company (not mentioned here to preserve their jobs) and were all skipping work to stand in line. Others were students skipping class, much as I was skipping a session on Examiner Interviews at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. But we were all in this together, even I as the sole sticker-buying interloper. We did all share in one consternation - the PlayStation store employee had apparently told those in line that only the first 26 were guaranteed 60GB PS3s (which have a few more capabilities than the 20GB models). I figured any PS3 would be better than none, although I certainly would have preferred a 60GB model myself.

But, my concerns were for naught, as another store employee came out a short while later to announce that all the incoming PS3s were 60GB models. More cheering commenced.

After about a half hour, the line finally started moving, with the store employees taking sticker-holding squatters one at a time, offering them a range of games (a rather meager selection, sadly) and accessories, and then taking payment. The whole process, while excruciatingly slow, was very well managed, ran smoothly, and everyone was exceedingly friendly and nice.

So it came to be that about two hours and a missed seminar later, I was the proud owner of a new Sony PS3 60GB system with seven games, three extra controllers, and a reader for PS2 and PSX game cards.

Goes to show that some lines are better than others. Photos from my line squatting journey can be found Here.

My next stop was FedEx so I could send my hard earned gains home to Bonaire, as I was continuing on to the orient before going home myself. But when I get home, I will have my PS3 waiting for me. Now to go buy some Blu-Ray DVDs on Amazon…

I finally got home to Bonaire a couple nights ago, and among the first things I did was hook up my new HD-DVD drive to my Xbox 360 (which is connected to my Samsung 62” 720p DLP via the VGA/PC cable). Installation was a breeze, although in hindsight I should have connected the USB cable to the back of the Xbox 360 before loading the installation software because as it was, I managed to unplug a couple of things in the back of my Xbox 360 when trying to cable things up during the software installation. I then put the new HD-DVD drive through its paces with “King Kong” in HD-DVD format (included with the drive - also included was an Xbox 360 remote).

I also dug out my regular wide screen version of King Kong for regular DVD playback, put it in my upscaling DVD player, and then sync’d up both the HD and regular titles to the same point in the movie so I could compare current technology (DVD) and new technology (HD DVD).

All I can say is “Wow!”.

I had not realized what I had been putting up with as “good” quality with my regular DVDs until I compared them to the output of HD DVDs. And it’s only going to get better once I get my 1080p HDTV delivered in a few weeks. Last night I watched “16 Blocks” on the HD-DVD drive, and was tickled to be able to read the print on signs, papers, and other props in the movie with great ease because of the image clarity.

Whereas there are all sorts of scaling artifacts in the DVD image, the HD-DVD image is incredibly crisp and a delight to behold. My only complaint, and this is a minor one indeed, is that the HD-DVD drive has no display on it to show me how far along into the movie I happen to be during viewing. I know I can get the Xbox 360 to show this to me on-screen, but it’s visually disruptive.

In any event, now that I have tasted HD-DVD, I will be hard pressed to go back to regular DVD where a choice between the two exists. And as I was one of the unfortunate many unable to procure a Sony PS3 on Friday, I won’t be testing Blu-ray DVDs any time soon, although I suspect the visual difference between Blu-ray and HD DVD to be minimal or non-existant.

One thing I do like about HD-DVD titles I purchased is that most of them seem to include a DVD version as well, so that in locations where I don’t have HD-DVD playback (like my notebook computer when I travel) I can still watch the movie without having to buy a second DVD-only copy (as if I would do that anyhow). And Amazon.com has a deal where if you buy three HD-DVDs you’ll get a 10% discount on all HD-DVDs in 2007. Nice little additional bonus.

Now I need to go buy another HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360 in my bedroom… At $199 it’s a pretty good deal, I think.

I give the HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360 a 9.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale.

By now we have all probably seen the amazing devotion a die hard group of people have had to the Sony PS3 on the news, with a stampede at a Wal-Mart up north, shooting at people in a PS3 line in New England, and people traveling from outside the U.S. to wait in line for a PS3 as well.

I had opportunity to be in the Miami area yesterday (the pre-launch day) for shopping of my own. Okay - I did entertain a brief thought I might be able to score a PS3 by waiting in line too, but once I saw the line in front of Circuit City (see above), which I learned had started on Tuesday, I gave up that hope.

If you look closely at that picture, you’ll see Gaming Granny there on the right. I can’t compete in a line with the inherent patience someone like Gaming Granny has, never mind that the Circuit City had only 40 units coming in and there were already more than 40 people in line (the folks in the rear either being optimists or ignorant - not sure which is worse).

I must say I was impressed that some gamer managed to rope his grandmother into waiting in line for him while he was off doing something else (working?). I heard that elsewhere folks were hiring the homeless to wait in line for them. Capitalism at its best, I’m sure.

The line at BestBuy in Hialeah was even worse - probably close to 100 people. I asked the BestBuy employee monitoring the line if he had a box of Kleenex for the folks at the back of the line who would be crying after spending a couple of days waiting for nothing. He said, “Let them cry on the sidewalk.” Heartless, and full of disdain. He was probably bitter because store employees were not able to buy units themselves at launch.

An interview published in USA Today quoted a young man who was waiting in line to buy a PS3 - not to play it, but instead to sell it on-line, because he needed the money. And with PS3s listing on eBay for numbers as high as $2000, waiting in line for a couple of days for a 300% return isn’t a bad deal, I guess.

For those looking to buy launch time PS3s to actually play themselves, I question how many of them have the requisite display hardware necessary to really let the PS3 show off its mettle. That means a TV or display device with HDMI in and 1080p display capability. Very few HDTVs on the market presently offer 1080p resolution, and the ones that do aren’t exactly cheap - the price of a loaded PS3 is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of a decent sized HDTV with 1080p capabilities.

Sure, you can use a PS3 with a regular TV or even a newer (but not bleeding edge) 720p resolution HDTV, but that’s like owning a Corvette and driving the speed limit. It’s a waste, in my humble opinion.

With that in mind, planning for my future PS3 purchase once availability has improved, I bought a new Samsung 61” DLP HDTV with 1080p capability yesterday to replace my older 62” DLP 720p HDTV. Better yet, once it’s delivered on Bonaire, I will already be able to take advantage of it because a recent Xbox 360 update delivered by Xbox Live has enabled the Xbox 360 to output 1080p resolution signals both for games that support it, as well as with the new HD DVD add-on drive for the Xbox 360 (which I have also just picked up).

One parting comment - think of what would be possible politically in the U.S. if only those folks who slavishly waited in line for days for a gadget (or perceived profit) would be willing to commit the same level of devotion to political change in the U.S., perhaps for a third political party, or campaign reform, or… The mind boggles.

Microsoft this morning announced that they will be launching Texas Hold’em Poker for the Xbox 360 as an Xbox Live Arcade game on August 23rd, at 8:00 GMT (4:00am EDT/1:00am PDT), and that for the first 48 hours, it will be a free download to all comers. After the 48 hours expire, it will cost 800 Microsoft Points (US$10) to download and own Texas Hold’em Poker.

Considering the on-going efforts by the U.S. Congress to criminalize on-line gambling (because they can’t figure out an equitable way to tax such gambling and fill the Treasury’s coffers), Microsoft needs to ensure that in no way can their new game be used as an on-line gambling tool - it has to be purely for entertainment.

“Designed to simulate the risk-reward of real poker gameplay, keep gamers honest, and discourage opponents from betting too recklessly, Texas Hold em has an innovative new feature called Persistent Bankroll. Your virtual bankroll is tied to your Xbox Live Gamertag and keeps a running tally of your chip count. If you lose all of your chips in a poker game, you ll have to play lower stakes buy-in games to make back your stack and earn your way to the big tables.” - Microsoft Press Release, August 16, 2006

The new Texas Hold’em title, developed by TikGames, supports up to eight players. There are three modes of game play - standard, scenarios, and tournaments, and as with all Xbox Live Arcade games, statistics and achievements are tracked on-line.

I’ve already put a note in my calendar to download the game to my two Xbox 360s.

Some details on the game can be found here.

Imagine my surprise when I open this morning’s e-mail to find a note from Microsoft telling me that Chris Satchell, general manager of Microsoft’s Game Developer Group, yesterday announced that anyone with a Windows XP-based PC will be able to develop game content for the Xbox 360 in the not too distant future ("this holiday season").

The announcement was made at Gamefest 2006, a game developer event being hosted by Microsoft in Seattle, and involves the release of XNA Game Studio Express - a new set of tools based on the XNA Platform which Microsoft announced during the 2005 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

XNA Game Studio Express itself will be free, but there will be an annual $99 subscription fee to something called the “creators club”.

Apparently Microsoft has also lined up at least 10 universities to include XNA Game Studio Express in their future course offerings.

This could cause quite an explosion in Xbox 360 content next year, and appears to be Microsoft’s effort to open the proprietary Xbox 360 platform as a counter to Sony’s hints that its use of open (or at least collaborative) standards like OpenGL and COLLADA would leave the PS3 open to general development as well. Of course, the Xbox 360 is here now, and has a significant installed base (over 5 million units world wide), and the PS3 is but a mere promise for mid-November delivery, with an installed base of zero, at the moment.

Link to Microsoft Press Release

I have just posted three articles I wrote for the May 22, 2006 issue of Jon Peddie’s TechWatch industry newsletter over at http://www.RichterScale.org. All three of these articles cover various aspects of the 2006 E3 show.

More specifically, Alternative Input Devices for gaming, the E3 Keynote by ESA President Doug Lowenstein, and the results of a couple of interviews with Professional Gamers as a I search for a possible future career for my children.