ADVERTISEMENT by Richard Greenhill and Mike Smith The vision Meet the three pillars of the Xbox 360: always high definition; always connected; always personalized. Microsoft's newest console doesn't just herald a new age of graphical realism -- if you believe the hype, it marks a significant, permanent shift in the way we'll relate to our entertainment. Microsoft vice president J Allard introduced us to his new creation. Allard is the first to admit that despite its successes, the Xbox was not a "magical product." What does he mean? "There were lots of seams in the experience," he told us. Obviously going from nothing to a comfortable second place in four years, cementing the first-person shooter as a mainstay of console entertainment, and mastering the delivery of online console gameplay along the way just wasn't enough for him. Allard's looking at ways to sell the Xbox to your grandmother. He's aiming at mass market success on the scale of movies: a billion people, worldwide, involved with Xbox 360, and at a time when consumer expectations for technology have never been higher. No one's going to buy a device just for games, he says, and points to the convergence of cellphones and PDAs as an example. Xbox VP, J Allard So the Xbox 360 comes equipped to fill a niche he's hoping to carve. It's a high-powered entertainment nexus, a media hub, and a gaming platform, all rolled into one slick, Mac-inspired piece of desirability. It's equipped to be a video telephone or even a viewer for your digital camera's contents. Providing a device that's solely focused on the needs of the hardcore gamer is apparently not on Microsoft's agenda. Instead, Allard outlines a future where 50 percent of Xbox 360 owners are online -- and not just to play games. Voice and video communication, content downloads, an online marketplace, and features to let users control and develop their own content. He envisages an open system -- "as open as possible" -- even if that does lead to problems with objectionable content. Players of Project Gotham 2, one of Xbox Live's best racers, will probably be familiar with the "cat and mouse" multiplayer mode. Its creator isn't a Microsoft designer, and it doesn't appear in any of the menus -- it's just an idea that an anonymous Xbox Live player thought would be cool. The premise involves two teams of four: on each side, one player takes the MINI Cooper, and the others take high-powered sports cars. The only objective is to get your team's MINI across the finish line first. It was a huge hit. This is the key to Microsoft's strategy. Xbox 360 games will be as open as possible to user-created content -- and offer tools to promote its creation and distribution. Down the line, Allard wants to create a Live Marketplace, where content can be both bought and sold by users, for real money. Somewhere, that anonymous Xbox Live player is adding "Pioneered Microsoft's next-generation content creation strategy" to his resume. Allard outlined a story of a family-run Tony Hawk's Pro Skater competition. While her son is waiting for his scheduled game to start, Mom designs a T-shirt for his skater to wear. Dad's watching the competition on his PC in the other room. Maybe other spectators are judging, instead of faceless score calculation routines. High profile competitions might feature streaming soundtracks debuting music from a popular artist. Multiplayer gaming becomes a family activity.

Live: the next generation

A new Xbox Live fee structure is also coming. Two levels of membership, Silver and Gold, will be introduced with the 360: Silver, the basic level, will be free, and support the friends list, voice, video, and text messaging, downloadable content, music, movies, and TV -- but it won't allow you to play multiplayer games.

A Gold subscription will take the place of the regular sub. It'll have a fee, similar to the current one, but will unlock the multiplayer features in Xbox 360 titles, together with an impressive range of intelligent matchmaking options. You'll be able to class yourself as a serious gamer, a novice, or a family-friendly type, and be matched with other players accordingly. A series of free Xbox Live weekends is planned, to allow Silver subscribers the temporary benefit of a fully paid membership without the price tag.

Shift in development

Offering games for download over Xbox Live costs practically nothing. Allard has a vision of a new game development paradigm, a world where teams stay together longer, releasing content over a prolonged period of time rather than dissolving and scattering once they hit their first big release.

What would become of hit TV shows if the production cast and crew disbanded after one successful episode? Why should a publisher risk $10m on one big, risky release when it can commission five shorter games, release them to the world over Live for small payments, and run with the most successful? It's the television world's "pilot" model brought to the gaming market. If it takes off, publishers can group episodes together and release them to stores in the conventional way, so even the broadband-shy can get a piece of the action.

A look inside

Enough hand waving, here are the guts of the machine: Xbox 360's heart is a triple-core IBM processor clocked at 3.2GHz, paired with an ATI-built graphics processor and 512MB of super-fast memory. Smaller than the Xbox, it'll stand vertically or horizontally, and has interchangeable faceplates for customization.

All Xbox 360 games will support widescreen displays, and those with high-definition TVs can play in 720p or 1080i 16:9 display modes. Screenshots should be creeping out over the next week or so, but at such an early stage, who knows if they'll bear any resemblance to the first round of 360 games? One thing's for sure -- it'll be a huge step forward, and mark the line for Sony and Nintendo.

Like the Xbox, the 360 will include a hard drive. This time it'll start at 20GB, but can be removed and upgraded if necessary. Microsoft will be encouraging developers not to rely on the presence of a hard drive, but some games may still require one.

Custom soundtracks are promised for every game, and as before you'll be able to rip your CDs to the 360's hard drive. Like your PC's CD player software, it'll retrieve track and album names from an online directory. The improvements don't end there -- you'll also be able to play music stored on a networked PC, or from a portable device connected with USB.

Yes, you can even stream files from your PSP. Microsoft's pushing the media center concept hard, and judging from the success of modifications that enabled the original Xbox to be used as a similar device, the demand is there.

How about pictures? Stills and video can be recorded with a TV-mounting camera (releasing as an accessory soon after the 360), allowing games like the PlayStation's Eyetoy series, where your physical movements are translated into on-screen activity. Even online video poker was mentioned. But the camera will have offline functions too, including mapping your face onto game characters or potentially scanning in cheats published in magazines and online as barcodes.

Controlling the games

Lighter, smoother, and Wavebird inspired, the 360's controller is similar to the current Xbox Controller S, but with an extra two shoulder triggers replacing the oddly-placed black and white buttons. It's also lost its wire; the Xbox 360 supports up to four wireless controllers at once.

A large "Home" button, dead center of the controller's face, will allow you to jump from game to dashboard and back again. So you can to check messages and enter into voice chats without interrupting your play. A conventionally styled remote control will also ship with the console, mirroring the controller's functions and adding a number pad. And in one of those "why has nobody done this before" moves, the Xbox 360 can be turned on and off with the controllers or the remote, since we all know that getting off the couch is a hardship gamers shouldn't have to endure.

So will the Xbox 360 also play Xbox games? Allard's not telling. Presumably he's either concerned the answer will be unpopular, he's saving a big announcement for another day, or he just hasn't made up his mind yet. The hard drive is optional, so a 360 without one presumably wouldn't be equipped to play Xbox games -- and the omission of the white and black buttons, while replaced by other controls, could prove tricky too.

Detailed information on the anticipated launch lineup for the console should be circulating next week. Rare's Perfect Dark Zero is widely expected to be taking the place of the Master Chief as its big shooter, and we wouldn't be surprised to see a new Crimson Skies. Other major publishers will be announcing their Xbox 360 titles shortly: Ubi Soft is expected to unveil Ghost Recon 3 at the show and EA plans to unveil a new Need for Speed title and its Godfather-licensed action game. No doubt the list will be much longer this time next week. Software support isn't going to be an issue for the 360.

Some drawbacks

So what's the catch? One obvious drawback to the 360's hardware is its lack of support for the new high definition DVD movie standard coming next year. Allard's response is that DVDs are good enough for most movie-watchers, and the high-definition video formats aren't going to hit it big. "In all other formats, a new incremental standard has brought higher quality, but lower selection and lower convenience," he said. That statement seems a little incongruous to the rest of his HD vision, but if he's going to bring his console to market this year, he has little choice.

Speculation has been rife that multiple, differently equipped versions of the 360 will be available at the console's launch, like a cheaper version with fewer accessories and no hard drive. "Perhaps," said Allard. "The system has been created in a modular way, but the plan right now is to launch with just one configuration, unless feedback from next week's E3 trade show indicates this would be an unpopular move."

360 days later

As to when that launch will be, all we know for sure is that it'll definitely be before Christmas. Perhaps Microsoft will choose to repeat the Xbox's November 15 release date. As for the price, your guess is as good as ours. Allard promises the price will reflect his mass market ambitions, but that box is going to be bulging with expensive goodies. Who knows -- maybe it'll cost $360. Stranger things have happened.