To 360 or Not to 360: That is the Question

When I purchased Halo 2 a week ago, the store clerk at Gamestop asked if I wanted to pre-order an Xbox 360. I said no, as that was my honest opinion. He asked, "Are you sure? If you want one before the end of the year, you'll have to pre-order." I told him no thanks and that I was planning on waiting.

But having played Halo 2 for the past week, my interest in the 360 has peaked. I kinda want one. It is the first next gen console. It will be technically superior the consoles that are on the shelf.

But what about the game line up? For one, Halo 3 won't be released until 2006. And Halo is the source of my inspiration. Plus, the launching line up for just about every system usually pales in comparison to the games that come out only 6 months later.

And what about Microsoft's stupid strategy of releasing several versions of the 360? Already from the beginning, there are 2 different versions of the Xbox 360. One with a hard drive, and one without. Personally, I think any consumer that chooses to buy one without the hard drive is shooting themselves in the foot, as one of the major selling points of games like Halo is the ability to download new content that extends the game. Like new maps. And some games will require a hard drive, like the next Final Fantasy.

Another point to consider it the HD-DVD aspect. Microsoft is considering releasing a future version that supports HD-DVD. Even though HD-DVD now looks like it's dead in the water, if Microsoft chooses to go this route, will games start shipping on HD-DVD discs instead of standard DVDs?

What if the Xbox 360 just flat out fails? I think that won't happen, but there is a significant chance that it will. I'm sure many units will sell right off the bat, thanks to fanboyism. But how will it fare in the long run. The unique feature of the Xbox, online gaming, will be common place in all three of the next gen consoles. So that's not much of a selling point anymore. The PS3 is going to have, as claimed by Sony, much better graphics. Nintendo will have a huge back catalog of retro games available for the Revolution, and possibly a new way of playing games. Microsoft has no unique feature advantage at the moment, other that releasing first. But I guess there is always the possibility unannounced features.

I guess the answer is not to 360. Suck it, Yorick!