"The first battle in the war involving the new PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Revolution consoles hasn't even been waged yet, but it seems that the first casualties are beginning to appear.

And we're not talking now about the customers' wallets (although they'll most likely be the next to suffer), but about the models already existing on the market. Everyone is arguing about SP3 or Xbox 360, but lately we haven’t heard anything about SP2 or the original Xbox.

The most important issue in this case is that of new games, because the developers are already preparing some new titles specially designed for the new consoles. Thus, in an interview for Wired magazine, the creator of the famous Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, has said that there will be no new Mario titles for the GameCube, but only for the future Revolution console. And it looks like Metal Gear Solid 4 will suffer a similar fate, because, according to an interview published in the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, it will be compatible only with PlayStation 3.

It’s very clear that all the funding is now channeled towards developing titles for the future consoles. It's actually a very normal strategy. However, the ones who'll suffer the consequences are none other than the gamers, because they'll have to cough up at least 300 US dollars (the estimated price of a Xbox 360, and it looks like PlayStation 3 will be even more expensive than that) in order to be able to enjoy the latest and most interesting games."

When I first heard the Xbox 360 will be out in November I was quite surprised. For one thing the games on the current generation are starting to look very good. The PS2 development package can now put out some robust titles. Xbox probably won't see another generation of development improvements. Microsoft is hungry for marketshare so they have stepped the time table up by about 4-6 months. The sad fact is that even with their early release analysist have already weighed in and predicted Sony to maintain the lead (albeit smaller) in the console wars.

For some reason the author of this article calls the PS2 the SP2. :P