As for the upcoming launch of the PS3 and Wii, nothing much has changed since I last wrote about them. To repeat: There is an expected shortage of PS3s (because Sony couldn't make enough of them) for the remainder of 2006, and nearly four times as many Wiis. If you haven't yet ordered a PS3, you'll either have to wait until next year or spend thousands of dollars on eBay.
Microsoft, not one to let its competitors hog the press, is also planning some new tricks for the Xbox 360. On the first anniversary of the Xbox 360's launch, (Nov. 22), they will be launching a video download service for the 360 that is similar in scope to Apple's iTunes store, the big difference being that this store will also offer HD video. While iTunes has made the business of legal downloadable content feasible, it still fails to offer any sort of high quality video. When you download a television episode or movie from iTunes, it's actually formatted for the iPod with video, thus making the video quality crap.
This service will make Microsoft the first company to offer HD video content for download. While the demand for this sort of thing is potentially low among general PC users, the same is not true for the 360's user base. We can pretty much assume that, for the most part, 360 users are more tech savvy than average folk and more likely to own HDTVs-making them the perfect market for this new service.
360 users will be able to purchase these videos with Microsoft points, the same virtual currency that they use to purchase arcade games and extra content for the 360. The company plans to allow users to rent movies, meaning that they can be downloaded and watched an unlimited number of times the first day of purchase; however, users will have to pay again to watch them anytime after that. TV shows will be treated differently: When you download TV shows you will "own" them. They can be watched an unlimited number of times, and re-downloaded for free. Microsoft plans to have 800 hours of Standard Definition (SD) content available at launch, along with 200 hours of HD content.
Given that the Xbox 360 comes only with a 20 GB hard drive, this service will most definitely eat up that space fast. An HD film will average around 4-5GB, so you won't be creating any rich libraries of video on your 360. But this doesn't matter much for movies, which you'll most likely delete after watching them. Of course, we can expect a larger hard drive upgrade from Microsoft eventually, but from their tone it seems as if we won't be seeing one until late next year.
There is no doubt that this video-on-demand service is a big "frak you" to Sony and their Blu-ray format. Not only does Microsoft have an HD-DVD drive for the 360 (which is currently available for $200), but they now have HD content available for download. Coupled with a recent upgrade to 1080p resolution for the Xbox 360, Microsoft is quickly chipping away at everything that Sony advertises as exclusive to the PS3.
The fact that Microsoft was able to keep this video download service a secret until this past week is even more telling: They wanted to screw Sony in the worst possible way at launch, and I'm sure this announcement has got Sony executives fuming. Mission accomplished, folks.