Gamers all over the country queued overnight for their chance to snap up the much-coveted games console. Demand has been so great that virtually every Xbox 360 in the UK was sold within a matter of hours.
However, not only gamers have been eager to get their hands on the Xbox – thousands of consoles have gone on sale on the online auction site eBay with prices averaging around £600, three times more expensive than the retail price.
By releasing their console first, Microsoft hope to take an early lead in the race to dominate a global market worth $25 billion. Snapping at their heels are arch-rivals Sony and Nintendo.
Sony’s Play Station 3 is due to roll out in Japan in spring 2006, with the US and Europe following later in the year. According to its manufacturers, it will set a new standard in the power of gaming machines. Chris Keegan, Technical Director claims that if the PS3 had existed in 1998, it would have been the most powerful super-computer in the world.
Although the latest machines are many times more powerful in raw processing terms than their predecessors, the way in which the user interacts with the console via a joystick or controller has remained largely unchanged.
However, all that will change with the release in 2006 of the Nintendo Revolution. Nintendo’s new console will indeed be ‘revolutionary’ in that it introduces a new kind of wireless controller.
Similar in appearance to a TV remote control, the Nintendo controller is waved in front of the TV screen causing corresponding actions on screen. The Nintendo demonstration video shows the controller being used as a gun in a first–person shooter, a fishing rod and even as a conductor’s baton.
The battle of the consoles may have begun, but the war is far from over.
GLOSSARY 词汇表
games consoles
游戏机
much coveted
渴望已久, 垂涎欲滴
retail price
零售价
snapping at their heels
步步紧逼
roll out
发行
raw processing
原始数据处理
controller
操纵键盘
waved
晃动,摆动
first-person shooter
第一人称视点射手
conductor's baton
乐队指挥的指挥棒
snap up
抢购
get their hands on
拥有
take an early lead
捷足先登
arch rivals
强有力的竞争对手
super-computer
超级计算机
joystick
操纵杆
wireless
无线的
corresponding actions
相应的反应
fishing rod