The Console Race has been Destroyed...

[stof]

libellule said:
"""The multiple sku's of the box and station do present some problems""""

YES and NO

PS3 sku : minor issue :

HD capacity :
There are all up superior or egual to 20gb
that is sufficient if a game use the HD.

Retrocompability with PS2 game :
Lot of difference between the model, but the software that emulate PS2 seems to work better with the firmware update. Since it is about PS2 game AND NOT PS3 game, it is ok.

Xbox360 : big questions :

Hard drive :
1. The core doesnt have any hard drive. that is a big problem since some game may not play on it (CoDuty4 ?). OR Microsoft will not be able to use the Xbox360 HardDrive in the games.

2. HD-DVD : it seems that some develloper need more storage capacity than a DVD. Since the HD-DVD is facultative, Microsoft will not be able to use HD-DVD in game.

The SKU of the Xbox360 are more different than the SKU of the PS3 (mainly only extra storage). I see more problem in the side of Microsoft.

 1. Those with the core are very, very few. I wouldn't be suprised if dev's eventually start using the hard drive as if it were standard. There's already one game that uses it, and COD 4 might as well.

2. the HD-DVD is an add on, for movies, and that's all it will ever be. Microsoft doesn't seem to have any intention of putting that drive in their system.

One of the biggest differences in the xbox sku's are with the hard drive, but for two of those the only difference is the size, and that's not really important unless your downloading a lot of movies.

 

The sku differences only seems to be a problem in terms of having a system with different prices and possible customer confusion.