Generation Xbox…
Where do you draw the line between Hollywood and videogames? By the time Y2K arrived it was hard to tell. In the autumn of 2000, Sony unveiled the PlayStation 2.
Punters queued for hours to get hold of the minimalist black boxes. It wasn’t just a games machine. It played CDs and DVDs. It was the hub of the living room.
“The PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system is not the future of videogame entertainment,” intoned the slightly biased Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America. “It is the future of entertainment period.”
Meanwhile in cinemas, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Resident Evil made multi-million dollar ‘synergy’ between movies and videogames add up. Even Microsoft realised consoles were the future and unveiled their Xbox in 2001 and their seventh generation console the Xbox 360 in 2005.
Nintendo withdrew from the graphics arms race, yet its underpowered Wii turned out to be a revolution and made pick-up-and-play gaming fun for all the family (watch out for gran on Need For Speed: Nitro this Christmas, though...).
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