Well, leaving out for a moment that Core system owners can simply attach a hard drive to their system.  Sony do have a point, as my iTWire colleagues Stan and Alex have pointed out, the 20 Gig standard hard drive for the Xbox 360 just isn’t enough, for Microsoft to fulfil the dream of establishing their polar-white games machine as an Entertainment Hub.

But, no matter what Xbox 360 configuration ends up in your living room, there are still some hurdles to be straddled before it becomes the central technological focus.  The obvious one is storage, which may be addressed in the near future, simply by Microsoft releasing a decent sized storage device to bolt on.

Less obvious is the noise factor of the 360’s fan, trying to keep the beast cool.  We don’t all want to watch the latest explosion riddled blockbuster, with the sound turned up to eleven.  Even during quieter gaming moments that mini whirligig is distracting.

Furthermore, there is the family social architecture to be navigated. Not every nuclear Aussie household, spends each evening sitting on the couch playing Project Gotham Racing.   In fact, I imagine, this is a rare event, scheduled for when an extended family get together is in the making.

This marketing department utopian ideal of Microsoft, and Sony for that matter, also precludes more hardcore gaming experiences.  You know the ones, Call of Duty, Dead Rising, the GTA’s of the world. Simply because they are not "family friendly". 

The only reason my Xbox 360 is in the living room, is, that is where the High Definition TV is.  As soon as this is not the case, out it will go, in favour of a wirelessly connected PVR or similar device that will become the entertainment hub.

Microsoft seems to be pushing the TV content for their download service over movies.  This is a smart move, putting less strain on the Hard-drive and ISP download cap.  Coupled with a rumoured “exclusive Xbox HD only” TV content, could provide incentives to use the service.

Then of course there is the HD DVD drive.  But for my money, I will be hedging bets somewhat and waiting for a machine that plays both HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Sony would do well not to push their ideas on the Microsoft service too far.  They themselves have already announced multiple configurations, with differing features, for their Playstation 3 offering next year.  It is easily possible they might be chowing down on their own comments once the PS3 launches on November 17 in the US, and Australia and Europe come March 2007.

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