1. HDMI output
2. 120GB hard drive
3. Black color

1. HDMI output -- There will be hi-def purists who argue, but I cannot see the difference between HDMI and VGA -- and I get 720p / 1080i/p with both. I know hard core video- / cinephiles who say the same. You can maybe make an argument that you're a little "future proofed", but I don't know that the Xbox 360 Elite is going to be compliant with the newest revision of the high-bandwidth digital-content protection (HDCP) -- and there's going to be some time before that even matters. And the HD DVD drive is a USB 2.0 external addition, anyway.
   
2. 120GB hard drive -- I can buy this by itself for my current Xbox 360 Premium (or Pro) for $179. That saves me $300.
   
3. Black color -- Granted, black is the new black, and makes the Elite wicked sexy, but is it worth a McKinley? I think not.

1. Low features, high price -- Not a lot of (any?) "must-have" features for having to buy a whole new expensive console.
   
2. Old guts -- It looks like the Elite will be running on the 90-nanometer chips of the current Xbox 360 -- not the smaller / faster / cooler 65-nanometer chips that will be incorporated into manufacturing in July(ish). So in about 3 months, your Elite will have outdated innards.
   
3. Your content is tied to your current box -- Here's the biggie. One of the things Microsoft has done well is when you buy content, it's yours. Xbox Live Arcade games? Yours. TV episodes? Yours.
   
   But though you can buy a 120GB hard drive and move content from your 20GB drive (just one!) to the 120GB, if you buy a new console, you're screwed. That's because content is tied to the physical box (not hard drive; it's like a hardware signature to make sure you own the content). Though Microsoft has acknowledged they're "still working on this". Guys? You have one month.
   
   No word on if I buy a 120GB drive now (in a color scheme that matches my current 360), and buy an Elite later (that ships with a black HDD), can I move my content from my old 120GB to the new 120GB? (What can I say -- I'm a completist.)

1. No wireless -- It shouldn't have it; the specs change to fast. Sony, you're stuck with built in 802.11g, but N's out now, and Ultra-Wideband Wireless hits this year. Besides, smart gamers are going to hardline into their broadband connection.
   
2. No built-in hi-def DVD option -- Again, it shouldn't have it. The PS3 comes with a built-in Blu-ray player -- yay. I'm not willing to fork over the premium for Blu-Ray discs that are overpriced and are not taking advantage of the promised rich content capabilities (hire some UI big guns, studios!). The external HD DVD drive is Microsoft's option, so if I buy that and Blu-ray wins, I'm out $200. But if HD DVD wins, you have a $600 Blue-ray brick of a PS3. One that plays DVD-9 discs slower than the Xbox 360.

Let the hate mail begin...

• A&E Network. "Dog the Bounty Hunter," "King of Cars," "Gene Simmons Family Jewels," "Driving Force" and "Criss Angel Mindfreak"
• ADV Films. Top offerings from the No. 1 producer-distributor of Japanese animation ("anime") outside Japan
• National Geographic. The television series "Is It Real?" and "Taboo" as well as programs such as "21 Days to Baghdad" and "Air Force One"
• TotalVid.com. A broad action-sports offering including extreme skiing and snowboarding, skateboarding, motocross, surfing and mountain biking

And, hidden in the press release:

'Also, for the first time, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will be releasing its
direct-to-video movies exclusively in high definition on Xbox LIVE simultaneous
with their availability on DVD, starting with "Sublime" and later "Babylon 5:
The Lost Tales."'

I'm a guy who tracks changing business and distribution models in media, so this last nugget is pretty telling to me. To have one of the big boys willing to do day-and-date for two separate distribution modes is a big deal (and a tacit nod to guys like Mark Cuban over HD.net).

• The one about the Xbox 360 Elite (WMA)
• The one about the Xbox 360 Elite (MP3)

• SXSW: Joystiq is here!
• SXSW: The Inside Scoop - how to get a job in the game industry
• SXSW: ARG! The Attack of the Alternate Reality Games
• SXSW: Games + Entertainment Brands: Five Top Trends In 2007
• SXSW: Joystiq live at the Will Wright keynote
• SXSW: Game Perverts

"I miss handshake deals. The amount of energy, time, and resources put into
contracts and tactical negotiations is fascinating, but I miss the days when a man's word and integrity were more significant and binding than a fifty-page contract with ten signatures."

• GDC 2007: Day 1 ...
• GDC 2007: Day 2 ...
• GDC 2007: Day 3 ...
• GDC 2007: Wii comments ...
• GDC 2007: XBL accounts will work for Vista ...
• GDC 2007: Day 4 ...
• GDC 2007: More on LittleBigPlanet ...

• Game Developers Conference (Official Site)
• Gamasutra.com
• GameSpot.com
• IGN.com
• Joystiq.com
• Kotaku.com

• Kotaku (level editor demo)
• GameTrailers 1
• GameTrailers 2

This is the first thing that's made me want to buy a PS3. So, hopefully, it'll be available on more platforms.

1. Nintendo / Shigeru Miyamoto keynote
2. Developers Choice Awards
3. Independent Games Festival Awards
4. More Warren Spector
5. How to Pitch an XBLA Game
6. Chris Taylor says "no more overtime"
7. Inafune b*tch slaps Clover Studios
8. Games I'm watching

Again, this is just a sampling of some of the things that caught my attention -- see links at the bottom for more complete coverage for these and other things.

1. Nintendo / Shigeru Miyamoto keynote

Seriously, I can't argue with the Lifetime Achievement Award Miyamoto took to the hotel last night.

A lot of the coverage of his speech today is in that "Live blogging" stuff that trades up-to-the-moment information for any sense of cohesiveness. GameSpot's got a decent summary that pulls out what I want -- a legend's comments on game design and the market (codified as an expansion of the "Nintendo Difference" -- the company's vision).

The 3 key components of the vision / design ethic are "Expanded Audience" (getting "cat people and dog people to play together; seriously); "Balance" (played out in collaboration and team work and interdisciplinary benefits); and "Risk" (and "none of the company's past risks hold a candle to the Wii").

Bridging the corporate vision to his personal vision, it sounds like Miyamoto is all about fun -- but not transient fun so much as creating a lasting, positive upswing for gamers from his games. And he's self-admittedly tenacious about it.

And he said creative vision isn't one element of game design--it is the very essence of it.

Lofty stuff from a guy who makes fun games.

• GDC 07: Miyamoto speaks (GameSpot.com)
• GDC 2007: Shigeru Miyamoto Keynote (IGN)

2. Developers Choice Awards

Gears of War topped the GDC Developers Choice Awards, taking Best Game, Technology, and Visual Arts awards.

In news of local import, Austin's sound genius George "The Fat Man" Sanger took the Community Contribution award. He's actually not at all fat.

• GDC: Gears of War Sweeps Developers Choice Awards (Gamasutra.com)
• GDC 07: Gears rolls Developers Choice Awards (GameSpot.com)
• GDC 2007: Developers Choice Awards (IGN.com)

3. Independent Games Festival Awards

Indie's got their time in the limelight, with perhaps the only generally recognized game being The Behemoth's (Alien Hominid) upcoming XBLA title Castle Crashers, which picked up the Audience Award.

But if you haven't checked out the "Where-the-Wild-Things-Are(esque)" Samorost 2 (Amanita Design) -- which picked up the Best Web Browser Game -- you should.

Also, I really like the Technical Excellence Award winner from Three Rings Design, Bang! Howdy -- a tactical/strategy title that's slick and poppy.

RoboBlitz (another XBLA title) from Naked Sky Entertainment also picked up one of the GameTap awards.

And a mod I had been watching and didn't know was done won the Best Mod award and the Best Single Player FPS Mod -- Cut Corner Company Productions' "Weekday Warrior" Half-Lfe 2 mod (a "corporate office adventure mod", and really a total conversion mod). Who do I get to beat with that crowbar? Seriously, though, check out the site -- it's a slick little work of art in and of itself.

• IGF Official Website
• GDC: Independent Games Festival Awards Topped By Aquaria (Gamasutra.com)
• GDC 07: Aquaria swims off with IGF top honors (GameSpot.com)
• GDC 2007: Independent Games Festival Awards (IGN.com)

4. More Warren Spector

Like the Warren Spector stuff I posted before? Value more insights from the man?

Good. I respect you more. And I don't even know your name.

Spector spoke at GDC -- again on narrative. And he had some pithy, sometimes tough things to say to about it.

Spector broke out three narrative types

1. "The rollercoaster", where it feels like a lot is going on, but it's really constructed on non-linearity (I'd put Gears of War in this bucket).
   
2. The "Will Wright" -- The players really create the entire narrative (I'd put, uh, Will Wright's games into this; and to a lesser degree, sandbox games; and Crackdown more than others).
   
3. Procedurally generated stories -- Games with a mutable story, and allow gamers to "explore the innerspace of personal relationships as much as the outerspace of the game world". Scary, that.

He criticized his peers for not offering enough non-violent play options -- "I want the opportunity to play a game and not play the part of Vin Diesel" (And I want to be able to play Crackdown without killing innocents). He also advocated the building of fully explorable worlds, not superficial environments that are "just an excuse to shoot stuff" (this "Massive D" movement -- BLACK, upcoming Stranglehold and The Force Unleashed -- may be guilty of this, but wicked fun).

My favorite quote is probably his directed at developers:

"Get over yourself. Your story isn't that interesting. Trust the players a little bit ... let them off rails. ... This is as much a design issue as a technology issue at this point."

Not that I have anything against developers -- I just think this is an applicable quote for all of us (writers, designers, developers artists, voice actors, and players).

• GDC: Deus Ex Star Spector Questions Storytelling (Gamasutra.com)
• GDC 2007: Warren Spector on Game Narratives (IGN.com)
• Warren Spector tells us some game stories (Joystiq)
• GDC 07: Warren Spector on Next-Gen Storytelling (Kotaku.com)

5. How to Pitch an XBLA Game

Here's a gift -- get from the horse's mouth how to get a game to them. If I'd waited 4 months, I wouldn't have had to figure it all out on my own as Microsoft was doing an internal transition.

And it's changing, thanks to Microsoft's evolving mindset and inclusion of XNA.

The bummer (at least from the IGN coverage), is the revelation that while "Microsoft has funded the development of XBLA titles in the past (Small Arms), they aren't doing so at this time."

• GDC 2007: How to Pitch an XBLA Game (IGN.com)

6. Chris Taylor says "no more overtime"

I manage development teams, and quality of life for me and for them is important to me. So I hooked onto Gas Powered Games honcho (and Supreme Commander designer) Chris Taylor's success story of developing under sane hours.

"We would have made a worse game [Supreme Commander] if we had worked 14 hours a day. Dungeon Siege would have been a better game if we worked the way we did on Supreme Commander. It's just the right way to work, and it puts fun back in the business."

My experience is insane hours occur for a lot of reasons (poor scheduling, inappropriate staffing -- numbers and skills, etc.) but more often (and more severely from a breakdown in communication between the business and the technical folks, where business folks are trying to meet bottom lines and technical folks are stuck on the "you can't have a baby in one month if you add 8 more women".

Or, at BigHugeCorp, I see the breakdown when product decisions are made for a development organization -- and the rules aren't the same. I have to think there's a nigh perfect mapping to the developer/publisher relationship in the video game vertical market.

• GDC 07: Chris Taylor says "no more overtime" (GameSpot.com)

7. Inafune b**ch slaps Clover Studios

Not really, but it makes for an interesting title. Plus he kind of did.

When Capcom R&D head Keiji Inafune was questioned about the closing of innovative design studio Clover (Okami, Viewtiful Joe), he blamed the Clover producer(s).

The interview has an interesting breakdown in what Inafune sees in the roles of Director versus Producer, and I'm curious as to how much of this is Japan-games-industry-centric.

Games are not a work of art. It's actually a product. If we think of it as a work of art, then... when we think about Picasso and Van Gogh's paintings, the end result is beauty, so it doesn't matter if you sell it or not. However for games, it's a product. It is a commodity. The producer has to think about that.
.
.
.
The producers work is to make the team make good games and then sell those games. The producer has to do the promotion. They have to think about the promotion. The producer has to take those good games and think about how to deliver it to as many users as possible.
.
.
.
Great directors may exist in great numbers, however, if you don't have a good producer it won't lead to sales. And I think this Clover Studios example is a really good example of that.

Inafune also revealed that Capcom offered to take those roles for Clover, but Clover refused. I wonder if there's more there.

Now Inafune is the guy behind many stolen hours of my life (a la Dead Rising, Lost Planet, and Mega Man), so I'm inclined to listen a wee bit.

• GDC07: Capcom's Inafune Slams Clover Producer (Kotaku)

8. Games I'm watching

I mentioned in my first GDC post there are a number of games I'm watching, and several made GDC appearances.

Killzone 2 actually showed during Sony's Edge presentation (their suite of PS3 development tools). I've heard mixed things. Like some of the footage sucked. And that it's like "BLACK for the next generation" (which will have some competition, since Electronic Arts confirmed in a conference call last year that there's an actual now-gen BLACK sequel in the works).

Tabula Rasa got a lot of time, both with new video footage and insight from Richard Garriott. After a redirect a year ago, the game sounds like it'll be an MMO with less of the MMO annoyance and more of the single-player bennies for which I'm looking. According to GameSpot coverage, the "game will make smart use of instanced content and branching story-driven quests to help players feel like they're more involved in the game's story." And in a move that might make his peer Warren Spector nod and smile, this might "also to offer a more mature overall story that offers moral ambiguity and shades of gray, as opposed to the conventional structure of most online games."

Hellgate: London continues to look great, and introduced the Templar class, which looks pretty sweet.

My other watched games haven't seemed to have made it in any noticeable form to GDC.

Except Fable 2.

Fable 2, Peter Molyneux revealed, will have 3 big features -- but he only talked about the implemented one (I think he's learned since the first Fable). And people are badmouthing it online because its ... a dog. But it's not just a dog. We're talking a Black & White AI flavor of dog. We're talking there-is-no-HUD-in-the-game, and the dog is a little map finder. We're talking he put the four-legged furred thing in there to create a form of emotion -- a form of love -- for the player. And there is some brilliance in many of his statements. About game design. About people. About life.

The dog won't leave you. It will follow you if you leave it. It will fight for you in battle. It will trail after you whimpering and bleeding and devoted.

And he hinted at downloadable content related to the dog.

Amazing stuff. Add Spore and whatever the hell Junction Point Studios is doing (and Mass Effect and the like) and we've got some heady stuff coming up.

• GDC 2007: Killzone Shown, Real Debut in July (IGN.com)
• GDC 07: Tabula Rasa Updated Impressions (GameSpot.com)
• GDC 2007: Hellgate: London (IGN.com)
• GDC07: Molyneux is Scared (Kotaku.com)

To get caught up, check out the updating GDC summaries below (and if you know of more / better ones, let me know):

• Game Developers Conference (Official Site)
• Gamasutra.com
• GameSpot.com
• IGN.com
• Joystiq.com
• Kotaku.com

• Game Developers Conference (Official Site)
• Gamasutra.com
• GameSpot.com
• IGN.com
• Joystiq.com
• Kotaku.com

Hecker also noted that when he is giving a speech (or rant) he is speaking for
himself, and not for Maxis or EA, which owns Maxis. EA has been throwing a lot
of support behind the Wii, so it may have put the company in a strange spot when
one of its employees publicly denounced Nintendo's new console.

• Game Developers Conference (Official Site)
• Gamasutra.com
• GameSpot.com
• IGN.com
• Joystiq.com
• Kotaku.com

1. Sony gives PS3 owners a Home
2. Sony shows off LittleBigPlanet
3. Sony says they have an Edge
4. Microsoft episodic Halo project and more

1. Sony gives PS3 owners a Home:

Sony just gave every PS3 owner a Home

Accessed via a new menu item in the cross media bar, Home will give PS3 gamers a virtual space where they will receive and store achievements they get in games -- like Xbox 360 Achievements, but times a 100 geek points. Maybe a thousand geek points. I'm a little rusty on my rule sets.

Sony's Phil Harrison revealed the initiative last night at a press-only, NDA-bound event, and is just going public with it now during his GDC keynote.

And it's more than just virtual trophies in a Fortress of Solitude-style virtual space. Sony -- with an underlying concept call "Game 3.0" -- the "service will feature a detailed three-dimensional environment with graphics and physics on par with many next-gen games." There will be a lobby (where you can have MMO-like interactions); entertainment spaces (a cooler implementation of the Xbox Live Arcade); movie theaters (where you can watch trailers or "sit down" and watch films, a la Xbox Live Video Marketplace); decorate-able apartments (where you can "hang out" with friends, throw virtual parties and play music stored on your local PS3, etc.).

And it doesn't stop there, because Sony's gotta make some cash, too. Besides the expected pay-for-play movies, gamers will likely be able to pay for upscale apartments, clothing, and accessories. In addition, publishers could conceivably build whole neighborhoods -- paying Sony for the right to do so. And, of course, there's in-game advertising.

Set to beta this April and go live (at least for the U.S. and EU) this fall, we'll have to see what the final application looks like -- and what Microsoft does in the interim.

• GDC 07: PS3 phoning Home this fall (GameSpot)
• GDC07: Sony Unveils Home (Kotaku)

2. Sony shows off LittleBigPlanet:

Following up on its "Game 3.0" announcement last night, Sony revealed LittleBigPlanet, from Mark Healey (Media Molecule) and Alex Evans (the dudes behind Rag Doll Kung Fu). LittleBigPlanet looks like an accessibly playground for users to make their own platformer. The description and screenshots are impressive, and Kotaku now has video up.

While I'm impressed, I'm bummed this seems pretty narrowly focused -- I was hoping Sony was announcing something for Indie developers to compete in the XNA space with Microsoft.

• GDC 07: Sony Reveals LittleBigPlanet (Kotaku)
• GDC07 Clip: The PS3's Home (Kotaku)
• GDC 07: Sony Unveils New World (IGN)

3. Sony says they have an Edge:

I'm not sure if this is the XNA competitor, but Sony revealed "PlayStation Edge" -- new development tools Sony is offering to PS3 game developers free of charge. Free is cool, but is there an XNA Creator's Club-like offering, so wannabe Sony developers can publisher their creations on non-debug PS3s? I'm trying to get more info, because a lot of the press coverage seems to focusing on the apparently lackluster Killzone 2 clips -- the game that's been missing in action for nigh on 2 years.

• GDC 07: Killzone footage used to hype PlayStation Edge (GameSpot)

4. Microsoft episodic Halo project and more:

Not new news, but at least it's good to know the project's not dead, and there's a tweak. Microsoft's Shane Kim said Microsoft and Bungie Studios are currently planning two different episodic gaming series for the 360 (with Peter Jackson). Kim said the first series will be set the in Halo universe -- implying the second will not.

• Microsoft Talks Episodic Halo Xbox 360 Series (Gamasutra.com)

• Game Developers Conference (Official Site)
• Gamasutra.com
• GameSpot.com
• IGN.com
• Joystiq.com
• Kotaku.com

• Game Developers Conference (Official Site)
• Gamasutra.com
• GameSpot.com
• IGN.com
• Joystiq.com
• Kotaku.com

• Game Developers Conference (Official Site)
• Gamasutra.com
• GameSpot.com
• IGN.com
• Joystiq.com
• Kotaku.com

"There's a different feel to this year's. The event seems more serious, bigger,
a bit more spread out... horizontally."

• Square-Enix enters serious gaming (Gamasutra); Surprising, and logical in hindsight
• LEGO MMO revealed (Kotaku)
• Microsoft's 'Dream Build Play' $10K Indie / XNA contest (Gamasutra)
• Nokia does N-Gage 3.0 (Kotaku); Seriously, they're trying again (but with a better business model)
• Sony and Kotaku Make-Up (Kotaku); Powerful people screwing with the blogging digirati doesn't end well for powerful people; powerful people standing against bloggers, take note)

Games I want to "see" at GDC (I'm not there, but I want info on these titles):

• Bioshock (most ... ethically challenging ... game ... ever?)
• Fable 2 (what's the super secret reveal, Peter?)
• Killzone 2 (yeah, right)
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Most-annoying-to-type-title)
• Tabula Rasa (Could be wicked cool)
• Hellgate: London (It's Hell. It's London. It's RPG. It's MMO(ish).)
• Junction Point's TBA title(s)? (I'm hopeful)

To get caught up, check out the updating GDC summaries below (and if you know of more / better ones, let me know):

• Game Developers Conference (Official Site)
• Gamasutra.com
• GameSpot.com
• IGN.com
• Joystiq.com
• Kotaku.com

UPDATED: Added GameSpot.com, since their coverage is finally up.

UPDATED #2: Added Joystiq.com.

• Hero (Firefly Studios) -- A high-def RPG/dungeon crawler. Miller sez, "All the things I don't like [about dungeon crawlers] they were changing or improving upon."
  
• Insecticide (Crackpot Entertainment) -- Described as "a hard-boiled, fast-shooting detective game set in a festering future city where bugs have evolved as the planet’s dominant race." Think A Bug's Life with a layer of pulp noir, and more of an Antz kind of sensibility.
  
• Mushroom Men - The Spore Wars (Red Fly Studios) -- There's a war going on between "Mushrooms, cacti, kudzu and other formerly-normal plants", and I can't tell for sure, but think this'll be a combination of action/adventure, kind of like the Oddworld stuff for which I'm jonesing. Miller describes it as "Earthworm Jim and Abe's Oddysee" (though I think it looks more like Stranger's Wrath).
  
• Fury (Auran) --MMO + RPG = "the ultimate competitive online RPG".
  
• Hail to the Chimp (Wideload) -- This game's got me most excited, because of Alexander Seropian (Bungie founder), Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel Without a Pulse (wicked hilarious game), and because an inside source tells me, "It's a total gas" (and I've learned to not ignore my inside sources; or references to gas). This game will have Gamecock pushing 4-on-4 action (online and offline), a la a beat-'em-up / party game that will probably take over my Monday night group gaming session for weeks on end. (I struggled with whether to pair "Gamecock" with "4-on-4 action" or "beat-'em-up".)
  
  Seropian's also the guy behind Oni, one of my favorite (and under-rated) games. Gathering of Developers published Oni, which probably created the recent Wideload / Gamecock relationship.
  
• Unnamed game (TBA) -- There's another slot for a game on the Gamecock Website, so I expect something about it soon.

Good, encouraging stuff, great for Austin, great for gamers, great for people with a skewed sense of humor.

Related Links:

• Gamecock Media Group
• Kotaku coverage
• Joystiq coverage
• Gamasutra Q&A
• GameSpot.com (press release)