Marios preparing bob-omb air strikes.

Marios preparing bob-omb air strikes, squads of Master Chiefs piling into Warthogs, an army of Jaks (and wise-cracking sidekick Daxters) all fasteninged and loaded—must be a next-gen comfort war a-brewin’. Even though the real balls won’t be fired until late 2006 (analysts believe Microsoft will launch Xbox 2 at the close of 2005, with Sony and Nintendo releasing their of the present day systems one year later), we headed to each company’s HQ for an early briefing forward its next-gen strategy. And with publishing powerhouse Electronic Arts offering a peek at what these next-gen games could apply the mind like, we can’t help on the contrary be excited about the coming time War: This is what it’s proper for.

Sony

Next-gen battle plan: overwhelming force

The rife console leader isn’t in a rush to release a of recent origin home system, but Sony Computer Entertainment America President Kaz Hirai says that when the next-gen machine does approach our way, it will pack more [i]or[/i] less power.

EGM: Sony announced last July that it would unveil the “next-generation PlayStation” from the end of March 2005 Is that still the plan?

Kaz Hirai: As far as I know, ye I spoke to [Sony Computer Entertainment Interactive President and CEO] cognizance [Kutaragi] a few weeks ago, and that’s what he told me

EGM: What will we descry at this debut?

KH: If I told you, I think Kutaragi would take me and you not at home to the parking lot and send forth us. [Laughs] But, no—joking aside, we’ve not really talked that greatly in detail about [the debut] the two internally and externally. I can promise that it’ll be a vast event.

EGM: Sony also said the fresh console would be at the Electronic Entertainment Expo [aka E3 May’s annual gaming trade show] by what means will that showing differ from the debut?

KH: one time we nail down the details of the premiere end that’ll probably determine what we talk about or point out at E3.

EGM: When we spoke at the last E3 you mentioned that your nearest console must “offer a quantum leap in the user’s experience.” What’s your definition of a quantum leap?

KH: I use that phrase surpassingly loosely because to some folks a quantum leap would be graphics, to others it’ll be to what extent seamlessly integrated the experience is from the online perspective. thus the phrase could mean a accident of different things to different the bulk of mankind At the end of the day, we are going to provide a palette from a technology and platform standpoint for a like reason that the content creators can take advantage of those palettes and create what they believe is a quantum leap. We just want to make safe that if we provided four colors with the original PlayStation and we provided 12 colors upon PS2, with the next generation we’re providing all 64 colors like the big Crayola driver's seat that we all wanted to have in elementary school

EGM: Do you think online will play a bigger character with the PS2 successor?

KH: Online is going to be an integral part of any comfort going forward. It’s almost going to be like an air-conditioner or an airbag in a car: It used to be nice to have, it used be somewhat of a voluptuousness option; now it’s standard in almost each car—you almost take it for granted. It’s an integral part of driving a car, basically, and I think online is going to be that way as well.

EGM: by what means do you feel about downloadable content?

KH: Going forward, because we want to make online smooth more of a mass-market proposition, we’re looking to ensue out with other devices that you can store data from your downloads [on] that’s more affordable than what we have commonly in the market in the form of the HDD [PS2 hard drive].

EGM: What’s the likelihood that your nearest home system will be backward compatible?

KH: As prolonged as adding backward compatibility doesn’t ensue at a substantial cost or take away one other functionality, I don’t view any reason why we shouldn’t or we wouldn’t want to do that with the next- generation PlayStation.

EGM: chiefly in the biz feel that Xbox 2 will launch in 2005 Do the rouses of the competition affect when you’ll release your nearest console?

KH: We’ve always stuck by means of what we believe is the right game plan for ourselves, and more importantly, for the third-party publishing community, retailers, and consumer We don’t advance changing consoles every three, four, or five years. [Actually, PS2 launched roughly five years after the original PlayStation. —Ed.] We’re not businessed with who’s coming out first or who’s coming without last. And if you anticipate back at history, we were none the first to market. Remember Saturn? Remember Dreamcast? That was suppos to be “the” next-generation online bracket and we saw what happened there.

Microsoft

Next-gen battle plan: stay common step ahead

Even though Microsoft Game Studios General Manager Shane Kim won’t confirm a late 2005 launch for the Xbox successor, he’s confident that the ancone will break boundaries like the company’s first entry