A few words from a professional procrastinator

According to Shane Kim of Microsoft, the Xbox will last 7 years.

Somehow I don’t that would be sustainable at the current state of the Xbox. Unless the Xbox manages to become the set top box of entertainment in your living room. It had the potential when HD-DVD was still in the mix but now that it’s dead, well downloads are the only way to go for this machine (that is the subject of another blog entry).

All the games are on dual-layer DVD discs. Meaning any “large” game would have to span lots and lots of discs which as a gamer is pretty annoying (Lost Odyssey anyone?). They would have to embrace some higher capacity storage in the near future (hint hint blu-ray).

All the triple A games are already out. What’s left? The steady stream of sports titles? There’s hardly any innovation on the Xbox other than it’s online capability and graphics engine but the PS3 has got them on that part. They’d better start churning out those sequels every year or else things will get old.

They don’t make hardware like they used to. Microsoft took a large hit over the RROD (red ring of death) debacle and it still haunts them today. Users are now wary of buying another console from them. Sure they’ll fix it but what am I supposed to do while it takes them weeks to send back my Xbox.

HD downloads are nice but still can’t sync them with the Zune. So all the money you spent of stuff bought on the Xbox Live Marketplace is all useless to your Zune due to DRM. The games and addons that you purchased on your Xbox cannot be used on your new replacement Xbox because of the RROD because it’s locked to your original console. You either need to be online to access these functions or call tech support for them to reset your account for you. Too much hassle.

Sure the developers are on the Xbox now. But the market always changes. I give the Xbox another 2 years before they start marketing the next next generation console. That still puts the 360 lifespan to 5 years and not 7.