GameCube To Best Xbox By 3 Days
Wednesday's opening of E3 marked an important day for giants Nintendo and Microsoft, both announcing availability plans for their highly anticipated next-generation gaming consoles. Nintendo's GameCube will hit stores on November 5, with Microsoft's Xbox arriving on the 8th for $299 USD. GameCube pricing has not been officially announced, but the console is expected to run around $199 USD.
Microsoft is expected to ship approximately 800,000 units for the launch, hoping to avoid shortage problems Sony experienced with last year's PS2 debut. A marketing blitz is expected from the Redmond giant shortly, sporting a $500 million budget over the first year and a half.
The Xbox will be an important step for the video game industry, bluring the lines between traditional gaming console and PC. Featuring an ethernet port, NVIDIA graphics chip, Intel 733MHz processor, and an internal hard drive, it's hard to compare the Xbox to current market competitors.
"Xbox is going to change video games the way MTV changed music. Your games are never going to be the same," said chief Xbox officer, Robbie Bach, in a press release.
Microsoft has announced up to 20 games for November's launch, with many more following. Capcom and Sega will be strong Xbox partners, each offering exclusive titles for the console. The Xbox will not play Dreamcast games as some early rumors purported.
Nintendo maintains that while GameCube hardware may not stand out, its gaming architecture will speak for itself and has lined up many developers, including Electronic Arts.
Sony is planning to make waves this fall as well, announcing a hard drive add-on for the PS2, along with a network adaptor. Sony also recently announced a partnership with AOL to provide instant messaging and e-mail services to gamers, through the use of the hard drive.
BetaNews wants to know your pick for this holiday season. Will it be the Xbox, GameCube, or simply new games for your current system?