!!Online&Gaming&MIS!304!!!!!!!!!!!!!Project!5/10/10!Scott!Holmes!Blake!Morton!Matt!Harrow!Robert!Orloff!Alan!Dehesa!! Console Games Background A console game is a form of interactive multimedia used for entertainment. The game consists of interactive game play generated by a video game console, and displayed on a television or similar audio-video system. The game itself is usually controlled using a handheld device called a controller and is connected wirelessly or wired to the console. The controller generally contains a number of buttons and directional controls each of which has a specific assigned purpose for controlling the game. Game multimedia usually comes in the form of a disc or card and is inserted into console. Recent advances have allowed games and game demos to be downloaded directly to the console via the Internet. Simpler consoles had a fixed selection of built-in games. Although the first computer games appeared in the 1950s, they used vector displays, not video. It was not until 1972 that Magnavox released the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, invented by Ralph H. Baer. The Odyssey was initially only moderately successful, and it was not until Atari's arcade game Pong popularized video games, that the public began to take more notice of the emerging industry. The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. Some major features of the Xbox 360 are its integrated Xbox Live service that allows players to compete online, download arcade games, game demos, trailers, TV shows, music and movies and its Windows Media Center multimedia capabilities. The Xbox 360 also offers region specific access to third-party media streaming services such as Netflix in the USA or Sky TV in the UK. The Xbox 360 was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005. Theconsole sold out completely upon release in all regions except in Japan. On May 28, 2009, Microsoft announced that sales have surpassed the 30 million unit mark, stating that 2008 was Microsoft's "biggest year in history" also due to the increase of Xbox Live users. Start up costs Xbox 360 Arcade starts at $199, Xbox 360 Elite starts at $299, and refurbished Xbox 360 go for about $159. New games cost $59; most new consoles come with one or two bundled games. Controllers cost about $50 dollars and come in wired and wireless types. New Xbox’s come with one or two controllers. Other accessories like microphones, keyboards, steering wheels, and more are also available for this console. Membership/ Fees Xbox Live is a membership aspect of the Xbox 360 console which allows you to play games online and download trailers & movies, as well as other multimedia. Xbox Silver is free; Xbox Gold 12 month membership is $49. The gold membership unlocks all aspects of games to be played and also allows tracking of your gamertag or account for ranking and/ or experience. Xbox 360 also uses point system to purchase game add -on’s, themes, skins, and other downloadable content. Currently 1600 Microsoft points go for about $20. Game points can either be purchased online through Xbox marketplace or in card form at most videogame retailers. Software/ Hardware The Xbox 360 console is an all in one gaming console; over the years different versions and special editions of the console have been released and discontinued. The console features a DVD-ROM capable of reading game disks and DVD’s. All Xbox 360’s also include a 256MBinternal hard drive. The console features a port to which an external housed hard drive unit can be attached in sizes of 20, 60, 120 or 250 GB. The console uses the triple core IBM designed Xenon as its CPU, with each core capable of simultaneously processing two threads, and can therefore operate on up to six threads at once. Graphics processing is handled by the ATI Xenos, which has 10 MB of eDRAM. Its main memory pool is 512 MB in size. The Xbox 360's original graphical user interface was the Xbox 360 Dashboard; a tabbed interface that featured five "Blades" and was designed by AKQA. Marketing Xbox 360 is marketed towards kids, teenagers, and young adults as comprehensive system of thrilling games and multimedia as a complete entertainment system. Current promotions focus on adult somewhat realistic games similar to rival console PS3. Unlike the Wii console which is more animated childish games, until recently with the unveiling of project Natal. New deals with facebook and Netflix has expanded the consoles uses as a movie player and a social media Future Project Natal is Xbox’s new idea and means “controller-free gaming and entertainment experience." It was first announced on June 1, 2009 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The add-on peripheral enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without a game controller, but rather through gestures, spoken commands, and/or presented objects and images. Project Natal will be compatible with all existing Xbox 360 models. A release date has yet to be announced, but Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has stated that the technology will be incorporated into a new Xbox 360, which may or may not have new hardware, due for release in 2010.Duringtheir CES 2010 keynote speech, Ballmer and Robbie Bach went on to say that Project Natal will be released during the holiday period (November–January) and it will work with every 360 console. This new attempt for Xbox is aiming towards the Wii’s gaming market whose cliental focus on body and hand gestures as the controller. APP GAMES App games are downloadable games for handheld electronic devices such as cell phones, iPods, and just recently brought to the app games market is the iPad. Leading today’s market in the app gaming world is Apple Corporation, who was the mastermind behind this phenomenon of gaming. Some of the interesting factors of the app gaming community are how it all got started, who are the main competitors today, how do companies market this type of gaming, what genres of games are available to the community, and primarily how money is made through the different platforms and devices available to the public. The community (users/developers) of app games have grown rapidly through the last few years and this market that was founded by Apple is showing no definite signs of a slow down, but rather
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