LOS ANGELES -- Beginning this November with the launch of Microsoft's Xbox 360, the next generation of gaming begins. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo all talked about their new hardware devices at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) here this past May. While Microsoft had playable games, Sony focused on realtime technology demos and tech specs, and Nintendo talked in more general terms. But one thing remains clear--the next-generation consoles will always be on, via broadband and Wi-Fi-enabled devices. Microsoft and Sony will use Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to gain access to the living rooms of tomorrow. And even Nintendo, which has always focused strictly on games, will offer an add-on device to play DVD movies on its Revolution game console.

Nintendo, whose new console will ship as early as summer 2006, will allow gamers to download any title from its 23-year history of consoles directly to its new box. And its price is expected to be more affordable at $199 compared to the $299 and $399 anticipated prices of Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively. While the company did not divulge much information about its controllers, Revolution is expected to implement technologies currently in Nintendo DS, including touch-screen controllers and voice recognition.

For Microsoft and Sony, the future of gaming is high definition. Xbox 360 and PS3 will bring HD graphics to the living room and help jump-start sales of HDTV hardware to the masses. While Microsoft touted HD gaming in its press conference, Xbox 360 will not ship with any form of next-generation high definition DVD drive. Also, many current generation Xbox games already support HDTV, although the Xbox 360 games are clearly better thanks to the jump in hardware processing power. Sony will ship PlayStation 3 next spring in Japan with a built-in Blu-Ray disc (BR-D) drive. This feature alone could win over the masses who may not want to pay the high cost of admission for next-generation DVD technology. (The current war between HD-DVD and BR-D also leaves the picture murky.)

On the gaming side, according to developers working on games for both PS3 and Xbox 360, PS3 is a bigger leap in technology from PS2, but Xbox came out of the gate ahead of PS2. PS3 games are expected to be 35 times better than PS2 games, compared to Xbox 360, which will be 10 to 12 times better. One key differentiator for the next-generation console wars will be how easy it will be for game makers to work on these consoles. PS2 was a complex machine to develop on, and PS3 is reported to be much smoother. With its XNA cross-architecture, Microsoft is ensuring Xbox 360 games are also easy to create. One note, according to game makers, is that Xbox 360 games will use about 70 percent of the console's capacity at launch, while PS3 will only make use of 30 percent. So while there may be parity at the start of the race, Sony could take the lead over the long haul.

There were plenty of games on hand at E3 to test drive for Xbox 360, and an assortment of PS3 demos to view. One thing remains clear, the visual fidelity of next-generation games will push the realm of interactive entertainment in a new direction.

NEXT-GEN GRAPHICS

Oscar-winner Glenn Entis, VP/chief visual officer at Electronic Arts, said next-generation graphics will allow game makers to create more emotional stories with more believable characters. "The head and eyes are extremely important in animation, and next-generation graphics will allow us to utilize these aspects in-game to connect with the players," added Entis.

Whether in the fantasy role-playing game from Bethesda Softworks, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, or the sci-fi action shooter from Epic Games called Gears of War, the characters in the new Xbox 360 games are more lifelike and believable. This especially comes true in Xbox 360 sports games like 2K Games' NBA 2K6, where you watch the sweat drip from the brows of players, and in Electronic Arts' Madden NFL 06, where every birthmark and scar of a hulking foot-ball player is brought vividly to life.

Electronic Arts showed a demo from its in-development Fight Night Round 3 PS3 game, which showed the deformation of the face with each punch. The photorealism of the human combatants, coupled with the sweat that poured from the face, made the game look like an actual boxing match.

"With multi-core processors powering the next-generation systems, game creators have the headroom to create realtime game scenes in which thousands of players--each with their own facial and behavior characteristics--make up battlefield scenes," said David Hufford, Xbox group manager at Microsoft. "Sports programmers will be able to model cloth physics in the game so NBA players' uniforms separate from the bodies--and so every hitch in every player's shot is accounted for--when they go up for a jump shot."

One of the many tech demos at Sony's press conference took Sony Imageworks' digital Spider-Man and inserted him seamlessly into the next-generation Vision Gran Turismo racing game. Sony boasted that PS3 will allow game developers to synthesize movie-quality graphics in realtime. A digital Alfred Molina from Spider-Man 2 was also shown to showcase the potential of future Hollywood-licensed videogames, as well as the next-generation appearance of actors' likenesses in original games.

Some of the PS3 game tech demos shown, including Guerilla's Killzone II, Incognito's Warhawk and Namco's new Tekken, showed how high definition graphics can be used in different ways. Just as PS3 has the ability to create photorealistic racetracks and cars, it can also allow developers to create lush new worlds that grow and evolve as a gamer plays, just as the player-controlled character ages and matures within the game's living universe.

"With the original PlayStation, our intentions were to bring SGI-quality graphics into households," said Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi. "With the PS3, our intentions have been to create a machine with supercomputer calculation capabilities for home entertainment. That's why we teamed up with IBM, which is known for its supercomputers, and co-developed the Cell [processor] together with them and Toshiba."

With Microsoft and Sony going head-to-head in HD, and Nintendo set on its own next-gen course, the machines of tomorrow will open up new opportunities for game makers, and hold the potential to grow the global gaming audience exponentially.

Head-to-head stats

                     PlayStation 3               Xbox 360

Controller           Bluetooth Wireless          2.4GHz Wireless

Graphics Core Clock  550MHz                      500MHz
Speed

Graphics Processor   RSX "Reality Synthesizer"   Custom ATI
                                                 Processor

System Memory        256MB XDR                   512MB UMA (Shared
                                                 with GPU)

Video Memory         256MB                       512MB UMA (Shared
                                                 with CPU)

Embedded Video       n/a                         10MB eDRAM
Memory

Resolution           480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i,    480p, 480i, 720p,
                     1080p                       1080i

Controller Ports     Supports up to 7 Bluetooth  Supports up to 4
                     Controllers                 Controllers

Digital Media        Compatible with CR-ROM,     DVD-Video, DVD-ROM,
Formats              CDR+W, DVD, DVD-ROM,        DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW,
                     DVD-R, DVD+R                CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R,
                                                 CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3
                                                 CD, JPEG Photo CD

Game Media Format    Blu-ray BD-ROM              Dual-Layer DVD-ROM

Integrated           802.11 B/G Wi-Fi,           802.11 A/B/G Wi-Fi
Communications       Bluetooth 2.0               ready, adapter not
                                                 included

Other I/O            Ethernet (RJ45), 6 USB      3 USB 2.0, 2 Memory
Connectors           2.0, CF Slot (Type I, II),  Slots, Ethernet Port
                     SD Slot (Regular,           (RJ45)
                     Compact), Memory Stick,
                     Memory Stick Duo, 1 x
                     Optical Audio

Plug and Play        2.5in Removable Hard Drive  20GB Removable Hard
Storage              (Unkown Size)               Drive

Standard AV Output   2 x HDMI, 1 x AV            n/a
Connectors

L2 Cache             512KB L2 cache, 256KB per   1MB
                     SPE

Processor            Cell Processor              Custom IBM PowerPC
                                                 CPU

Processor Clock      3.2GHz                      3.2GHz
Speed

Built-in Features    Backward Compatible with    Backward Compatible
                     PlayStation 2, Stands       with Xbox (limited),
                     Vertically or Horizontally  Stands Vertically or
                                                 Horizontally,
                                                 Interchangable Face
                                                 Plates, Xbox Live
                                                 Service, Media
                                                 Center Extender

Memory Bandwidth     25.6GB/s main memory        22.4GB/s main memory
                     bandwidth, 22.4GB/s video   bandwidth, 256GB/s
                     memory bandwidth            to eDRAM, 21.6GB/s
                                                 FSB

Surround Sound       Multichannel Output         Multichannel Output
                     (software driven)           (software driven)

By JOHN GAUDIOSI JGaudiosi@aol.com

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