When the Xbox 360 came out, I wanted one bad. For once, I thought, I’d be on the cutting edge rather than waiting. But, scarcity of supply and the outrageous premiums on eBay turned me off and I decided to wait and see what happens with the upcoming Sony and Nintendo systems in 2006 (2007?).
Steven Frank (of Panic fame), a pretty hard-core Mac guy, explains why he bought the 360 in a recent blog post. He too was watching the results from E3 this year to see the future of console game systems. His take on Sony was great:
By pretty much all accounts, Sony couldn’t have done worse if Ken Kutaragi had personally jumped over a shark tank on a motorcycle. Did they say SIX HUNDRED dollars? Oh, but hang on, it’s not just a console, it’s a media hub.
You know what, Sony? You are not a hard-hitting entertainment industry media powerhouse. You never have been, and no matter how many times you try to pretend that you are, you never will be. Take your Blu-Ray, your Memory Sticks, your DRMed rootkit-infected CDs, your “Universal” Media Discs that play in precisely ONE device, your MiniDiscs, your two PSP games that don’t suck, and shove them all up your LocationFree BetaMax.
Maybe I should just pull the trigger and get the 360 today (Father’s Day is coming up…). In the meantime I’ve overcrowded our entertainment center with second-hand PS/2 and the original XBOX systems (to go with the kids’ GameCube) — lots of games to try now, if we can just find the time :)