Topic: Xbox 360

January 8, 2007, 10:10 AM

Posted in: Gaming consoles

Sunday night's keynote speech from Microsoft's Bill Gates re-introduced the Xbox 360 not as the blast-'em-up gaming console we saw last year at E3, but instead as the digital home entertainment arbiter of choice, through which all things digital eventually pass.

The revised Xbox 360 will, according to Microsoft, deliver 1080p resolution (matching PlayStation 3) and include the HDMI connections. The HD DVD player will still be available as an add-on, though Microsoft's Robbie Bach made it clear Sunday night that the company was still firmly behind HD DVD over Blu-ray, stopping just short of declaring it the victor in the high-def format war. (That wasn't the only premature conclusion we heard from Bach Sunday.) But demonstrations of Xbox 360 playing UNO - that's right, everyone, the card game - made it clear that Microsoft is positioning this as the family-friendly device that connects people everywhere and that provides downloadable, high-definition content. This makes Xbox 360 a contender in the IPTV set-top box arena, where the rules are very different, but Microsoft enters with a clear advantage: market penetration.

• The Xbox 360 as the New IPTV Set-top Box January 8, 10:09 AM