Re:The Beginning of the End? (Score 1)

"Each time they're creating something new and eventually people will have to upgrade just to stay current, just like with current PC's."

Upgrades are optional. If you like the same PC games, no need to upgrade your hardware. If you can handle lower resolutions and detail, many new PC games are perfectly playable on non-cutting-edge hardware. If you want it all, though, you want it all. And that costs. No different from anything else in the world.

That's true, so long as the developer is willing to handle it. Developing software that can handle multiple system configurations requires more time and more testing, which means either the development companies eat this increased cost or start raising the price of games to compensate. Then they have to deal with the "Technical Support" aspect of someone with an odd configuration that doesn't work.

I'm not saying upgrades are a Bad Thing, I just think that one of the defining feature of a Console was the static nonupgradable nature of it. You're exchanging the reduced functionality (it plays games, that's about it) for the "promise" of not having to upgrade for 4 or 5 years.

As for comparing it to the Zapper & other peripherals, I would think that a HD upgrade qualifies as more than the previously seen peripheral upgrades.. The closest resemblance would be the 8MB module you mentioned, or the Sega CD upgrade. Neither of those took off, but does Microsoft have the power to change that? I honestly don't know, but i'm pretty sure the XBox 360 has larger penetration than either the Sega or Nintendo systems did at the time.