Not only is this the time of year when everyone's concocting cunning plans to determine the perfect gadgetry to give their offspring--or, for that matter, one's self--it's also the opening volley in the latest round of game console wars. Every five years, console makers roll out new hardware, spend a few years duking it out, and then start hinting about their next generations.
The first melody in this generation's competitive canon came from Sony, which introduced the PlayStation 2 (news - web sites) (PS2) just in time for last year's holiday buying season. Microsoft recently released its Xbox (news - web sites), and Nintendo (news - web sites) unveiled the GameCube in the U.S. shortly thereafter. Though Sony currently leads by a year, that doesn't inherently mean it will win the race. This sort of thing is more like a long-distance run than a sprint.
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