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Xbox has stolen a lead over Playstation

October 11, 2006 12:59 IST

If you think investment advisors are not known for loyalty, meet Amit Mamgain, 27. He was a Sony Playstation loyalist for more than two years, ever since he got hooked to the PS2.

But value is value, and money is money - and since the wait for PS3 has been so agonisingly long, Mamgain has switched to the newest thrill-assurer in town: Microsoft Xbox.

It was a bit of an internal tussle, though. He is not alone. In the intense battle for gaming loyalties the world over, gamers are split between Playstation and Xbox - and switchovers are often momentous, with days of peer-group explaining to do and game invitations to be made by way of play-it-to-believe-it justification.

What's keeping Playstation's upgrade? It's been close to a year since Sony announced PS3. But technical glitches have delayed the launch yet again. This has given Xbox just the space it needed, and in India, it has signed up actor Akshay Kumar and cricketer Yuvraj Singh to entice game junkies - and even novices - to the hot new console. There's plenty of ground-level hoopla too.

Will all this work for Xbox?

It already has, claims Mohit Anand, country manager, Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division, adding all the same that, "It is not a 100 metre dash we are looking at, it is a marathon, and the first step has been pretty phenomenal."

By the sound of his tone, Indians can't get enough of it - some confirmation of which comes from the blogosphere, dense as it is with Xbox raves and PS3-delay rants.

"A gamer will not be able to resist the lure of Xbox because of the gaming experience it provides," claims Anand. This, despite the steep pricing. Xbox 360 is priced at Rs 20,000 and Rs 24,000 for its two variants, while PS2 sells for under Rs 10,000.

To justify the price, Microsoft is trying hard to make gaming an all-family thing. "Gaming is not for boys in the bedroom anymore and people have to realise that it's meant for everyone," says Anand.

That depends on the sort of games the console is used for. And when it comes to alternate reality escape hatches - as in Second Life - there's no saying which way gaming software will go. For now, we can debate just how good or bad the 3-D effects are, and whether artificially generated depth-of-field can ever feel authentic.
Aabhas Sharma in New Delhi
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