Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

As we’ve crested the 7th birthday of the Xbox, and the 3rd birthday of the Xbox 360, it’s time for a retrospective on how Microsoft has changed the face of gaming and what will be some of the fallout for the Next Next Generation. Readily burned into our minds are the obvious things like the Red Ring Of Death, and Xbox Live, but that’s only scratching the surface. Let’s pull back the outer layer and take a look at all of the little things that has helped advance the pastime of video gaming.

Previously, we looked at what the Xbox did to change the environment of console video game playing. This time, let’s look at what the Xbox 360 decided to bring to the table.

The early bird gets the worm
One of the foremost changes from the Xbox was Microsoft wanted to be first-to-market with their next generation console. This of course had many impacts, which will be touched on in further detail later, but had the biggest importance of giving themselves a 1-year lead on the competitors. There is no denying that the Nintendo Wii is the console with the largest consumer penetration, but the Xbox 360 still has more market share than the PS3 and even in the latest months has managed to outsell the PS3 in Japan. This is very notable because the Japanese market was never truly penetrated by the original Xbox, with its total sales around 473,000 units.

It’s not the size that matters
The Xbox 360 also departed from its predecessor by reducing the size of the unit and making it look more like it belonged in the family room. Borrowing from the mod community, it even has user-changeable faceplates to allow for customization of the console’s aesthetics. This caused another generation switcheroo as the PS3 now became known as the “big boy on the block” due its size. The controller, which is available in two flavors: wired or wireless, kept with the smaller size as well.

Another significant change from the Xbox was removal of the hard drive as a de-facto standard for the unit. This was done to allow a version of the Xbox 360 to be introduced at a lower price point to try and add sales. This brought about the effect of crippling the capabilities of the developers, who are interested in garnering the most sales, having to build a product for two possible configurations. This has caused users to need a hard drive for the online play of games, and a limitation in the size of the downloadable games on Xbox Live. The latter has been an area where Xbox 360 owners have missed opportunities or adultered releases. Recently Microsoft realized the need for permanent storage as a default option and added 256MB of internal flash storage on its low-end Arcade units. Some will compare this to the PS3 which featured many different versions, with varying capabilities. Out of each of the PS3 iterations, the core features required for standard operation still existed: next-gen gameplay, online capability, and mass storage. By making the hard drive optional, a ‘core’ feature was removed from certain SKU’s.

No longer a one trick pony
With the new Xbox360, Xbox Live received an update as well. Now gamers can download video content from Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace, or stream it via Netflix. These additional capabilities reinforce Microsoft’s original stance that the Xbox360 was more than a console and attempting to become commonplace in the entertainment centers of homes around the world. In 2007, Microsoft announced that they would be adding IPTV capabilities. Since the initial announcement there has not been much information, but it appears that it is currently in testing. Microsoft obviously took note of what the mod community did to the original Xbox in expanding it into a media center. Also, the Xbox360 now includes the ability to play back media from a DLNA media server, although the formats and outputs are limited even compared to the PS3. With money involved with selling media and Xbox Live Gold accounts, it’s hard to blame Microsoft for limiting the playback capability.

One ring to rule them all

Out of everything the Xbox 360 has done, the one thing that will go down in the annals of history is the colorful light display that too many Xbox 360 owners have seen: the Red Ring Of Death. With the surge to be first-to-market, Microsoft pushed the hardware out the door too soon, which contained many design issues that led to premature failure. The problem grew to such epic proportions that Microsoft was forced to step up and acknowledge the problem, as well as extend the warranty on the device to cover the problem. This little snafu cost over $1 billion to fix the problem. Luckily this helped to the Xbox 360 to save face and continue its push into the market place. It was after 3 years into the device’s lifetime that Microsoft had finally solved most of the issues with system. Clearly, the system was not quite ready for primetime when it was originally released. The one saving grace at the time was the library that was already teeming with quality titles from nearly every genre for every player. If the software to back the system was not there, it’s quite possible that the Xbox 360 would have flopped and been overtaken by both the Wii and the PS3.

Overall, the Xbox 360 showed a continued commitment from Microsoft in providing a viable, versatile, and fun video game console. By fragmenting their user base, they brought with them some of the headaches found on its earlier gaming platform: the PC. If the system had been sound in the hardware department, it is quite possible that it may have been the console of its generation. It is nothing but a smart move to bring more features outside of gaming to their device, in attempts to consolidate electronics, as well as provide a greater value for the investment cost in purchasing the system. The experiences and feedback that Microsoft has received from this generation is going to fuel the fire for its next iteration.