Word: microsoft
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...trick going forward is for Microsoft to walk a delicate line between two opposing principles: openness and, for lack of a better word, closedness. Whoever is king of the living room will control the flow of 1s and 0s that very soon will make up the entire fabric of our living culture. That's a big responsibility, and a big test for any company--it's always tempting to use that kind of power to squeeze out the competition. If Xbox 360 were to take over your media cabinet, would it play DVDs with Sony Pictures movies on them...
...final step in the process has nothing to do with what's inside the Xbox: Microsoft will have to make it cool. In addition to giving it that iPod-esque design, Peter Moore will run a very hip, very un-Microsoft ad campaign featuring quirky hipsters wearing the Xbox logo. Moore just threw the Xbox 360 the equivalent of a movie premiere: a party, broadcast on MTV, with Elijah Wood as host and featuring beyond-trendy rockers the Killers. For the Xbox 360's theme song, Moore licensed an obscure Sex Pistols B-side titled C'mon Everybody, with...
...ready for all-out war. Microsoft may beat Sony and Nintendo to market with Xbox 360, but the two Japanese competitors will unveil their own updated game players this week...
...dominates the U.S. market, has the most to lose in this battle. PS2 has contributed 40% to 60% of Sony's operating profits over the past several years. With Sony's core electronics business cratering and no obvious successor to the Spider-Man franchise in its entertainment pipeline, Microsoft's renewed assault on this bedrock business could not have come at a worse moment...
...Like Microsoft, Sony--whose next-generation PlayStation might not hit store shelves until next spring--hopes its machine will become a home-entertainment hub. Sony is banking on the muscle of the PlayStation's new Cell processor, which the company has called "a supercomputer on a chip" with 10 times the power of the latest PC processors. The new console may employ Sony's new high-density "Blu-ray" DVDs, allowing for longer and more cinematic games. But Sony's online strategy remains unclear...