360 in 2008, the year in Preview! (Better than 2007?)

[heruamon]

Disclaimer first: I'm a 360 guy, and while I own a Wii...it's for the kids, so everybody is happy!With that said, I think the 360 is REALLY going to come into it's own in 2008.  There are several factors that I believe will greatly contribute to these events, and these are really just my opinions, not really something for fanboys to spend their time arguing about.  I’m not interested in the other console, simply because I have no interest in them as my platform of choice, so if you’re some zealot fanboy, please stay away.  With that said:

1.      The line-up of games for the console are incredible, and imho, Halo 3 really was a drag for 360 last year.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a MASSIVE success for the console and served as a great anchor for the year, but it totally overshadowed everything else and sucked up all the 360-love.  In 2008, GTA is going to get A LOT of attention, and probably become the #1 seller for all consoles, but it’s going to generate another kinda mystic for the gaming industry.  I’m looking at the games on tap for 2008, and I think it’s going to be ALOT  more balanced over the year.  Every quarter is going to provide a lot of options for 360 gamers.  I’m drooling over Too Human, Halo Wars, and Gears now!

2.      If the price drop happens, I think it’s going to boost sales to non-holiday level that top last year’s numbers.  I’m thinking it’s going to happen in the next month, with the rebate checks looking for some cash burn and with GTA…looks like a match made in heaven. 

3.      The dreaded RROD --- This was a huge black-eye for the console in 2007, but it’s an engineering problem, and anybody who has a clue about manufacturing, knows that the problem probably has been isolated and will be address on the new console  being sold.  With the problems in the rearview, the console is going to receive a media boost for it…I can see some article coming out in the summertime talking about how a year has made a difference…of course, it’s all going to be a media event staged by Microsoft, but hey, the effect is what matters.

4.      Xbox Live…the service is like fine wine…it’s just getting better with age.  Some whine about having to pay, but here’s what I DO KNOW…anybody trying to sell the “Free Online” bag of goods is just selling gimmicks.  I’m a MMORPGer with subscriptions for LOTRO (Well…I was a beta guy, and paid $199 for lifetime), Tabula Rasa, and of course the big daddy WoW, and you can’t do it for free.  The Guild Wars guys tried and it just couldn’t be dome…it cost too much.  MS is adding A LOT of functionality to the service, and I’m loving it.

5.      This of course leads to another major point…as a MMORPG guy, I’m pretty pumped about having something on a console.  The Marvel MMO has died, but I smell something in the water for MS pulling the plug.  I don’t really think a console can afford to have 2-3 MMOs on the system…you need one decent one at this stage, and maybe another in a few years, as the console saturation reach a level to support it.  While we might not see a HARDCORE persistence universe like Wow…I think we’ll see something with a lot of persistence online…probably for a fee, but nothing on the level of $12.99-$14.99 a month

I’m sure there are a lot of other factors that excites a lot of 360 fans, but these are some of the ones on my radar for 2008, which is shaping up to be a great year, based on the library of games to be released.