War of the consoles

A boxing game designed by EA Sports, left, that gives vivid details like other PS3 games is likely to hit the market along with the console sometime in April. While, in right, a racing game being played on Xbox 360 shows how high-definition its graphics is.

Game developers like Electronic Arts, EA games, Microsoft game studios, Activision, Square Enix and others are already working overtime to develop state-of-the-art games for the latest craze - Xbox 360.

In the USA alone, 400,000 units were sold since the console's launch on November 22 last year. The overwhelming and ever-growing demand of gamers was appeased by the release of the console over the month of December in USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, Europe and Japan.

For other countries in the waiting list will have to wait till February and March this year, the scheduled date for Xbox 360 launch. But according to rumours, these dates may very well be delayed due to the supply shortage.

This overwhelming demand for this console does not come as a surprise. Microsoft had been pushing hard to market the product's unique feature, which, as the name suggests, allows gamers to have a 360 degree game play.

The console has 3 different Central processing units, each with a speed of 3.2 Ghz. A 500 Mhz ATI graphics processor enables the console to facilitate four times more polygons and pixels per second than the original Xbox console.

The console also has a 512 MB Random Access Memory, High definition 16:9 wide-screen viewing ratio and a 20 GB detachable hard disk drive.

Sound good? Wait, there's more!

The console is wireless and can easily detect up to four lightweight controllers without any extra peripherals or plug-n-play hassle.

Also, the console can support DVDs, CDs, DVD-ROMS, DVD R/RW, MP3, and also comes with three USB ports, through which gamers can add accessories.

The Xbox Live Marketplace, moreover, allows Xbox 360 owners are always connected through their internet connections. No wonder, Xbox Live, the online console gaming service, currently has 2 million+ users.

Although these features gives Xbox an air of invincibility in the gaming market, Playstation 3 (PS3), may very well be all this and more.

Rumours surrounding PS3 launch date, have already spread through the chatrooms, TV, net and print media gamer magazines. But gamers may expect the PS3 out by April this year.

Although PS3's Nvidia graphics processor may not be up to par with Xbox 360's ATI, 256 MB XDR system and video memory, it will have 550 Mhz graphics speed and can support up to 7 bluetooth controllers.

Despite keeping the hard disk drive specification under wraps, Sony has made sure PS3's external appearance is sleeker than the Xbox 360, giving it greater market pull, with an additional blu-ray drive compared to Xbox-360's DVD drive.

However, PS3 players can also run PS2 titles, edging out Xbox-360 in the 2006 gaming war.

PS3 will also have a 25.6 GB/sec main memory bandwidth, compared to Xbox 360's 22.4 GB/s bandwidth.

Another crucial factor that might incline gamers towards PS3 is the price as Xbox is currently priced at US$ 342, while speculations are that PS3 may be sold at PS2 price range of around US$ 300.

Disturbing reports have also been circulated that some Xbox 360 units crashed after its launch, which has cautioned Sony into making all its units crash-proof before the PS3 launch.

Gamers would also be considering the game contents and quality of each game title released through each of these boxes. Currently, Xbox 360 games like Call of Duty 2, Final Fantasy VI, Dead or Alive 4 and others. The gameplay and details are awesome and larger than life. PS3 games would surely have to work hard to keep up.

But the race is not over yet. Nintendo, the other gaming giant, has also announced the launch of its latest gaming console, the Nintendo Revolution (NR).

Not much is known about the console as of yet, but it has been reported that the long line of games, released on earlier consoles of Nintendo can all be played on this.

The console will be able to load Gamecube discs directly, but Nintendo will offer a broadband line service from which gamers can download Nintendo Entertainment system games.

There would also be a wand pointing control-system system, which can detect movements of all sorts.

There are also rumours that the console will have a giant holographic screen, which will enable gamers to play games in 3D. The controller may also provide inertia effects to improve gameplay.

Now which next generation console will win the war is yet to be seen, as the world awaits the launch of the next two consoles after the Xbox 360. But it is certain, whichever console it is, the gamers would be the ultimate winner, no matter what.