Social aspects

For years now the social view on video games and gamers was not a good one, there is still a stigma and stereotype surrounding digital games and gamers.

However, with the new Kinect devise that works with Xbox, the family demographic is being introduced into the world of the Xbox 360.

So far the games that have been released on the Xbox 360 are aimed at families and people who want to work out from home.

The Kinect is a devise that can monitor player’s movements in 3 dimensions without the use of a traditional controller.

It seems like through the Kinect, Microsoft are trying to change the image that the Xbox 360 has to a more wholesome family console.

The wholesome family console at the moment is the Nintendo Wii, combining an innovative control system with whimsical Nintendo characters seems to be a winning formula that Microsoft want for themselves.

Microsoft also have the ability to stream films and have social networking on the consoles, these are both ways to bring the Xbox into the living room and out of the teenage bedrooms where it usually is.

Cultural aspects

Being a games student I have prior knowledge into the cultural aspects of Video game consoles. Most of the students have either an Xbox 360 or a Playstation 3; a select few have both consoles.

The Digital games community is roughly separated into 2 main rival sides, people who prefer The Xbox 360 and people who prefer the Playstation 3.

The main reason for the allegiances seems to be…

• Choice of game (some games only are released on one console)

• Hardware vs. Price (The Xbox is cheaper and has slightly less Hardware than the Playstation 3 as this link explains http://uk.gear.ign.com/articles/111/1116182p1.html

The website also describes the rivalry between the 2 consoles as a “war”

• What console your friends have (friendship groups sharing consoles also contributes to the rivalry)

The Xbox 360 is not very popular in Japan, I feel this may be due to cultural reasons, it seems the Japanese are very loyal to their homegrown Sony Playstation and Nintendo Wii consoles. This website posts up to date sales figures world wide and separated into different categories.

http://www.vgchartz.com/#Japan%20Totals

These graphs show that the Xbox 360 is very unpopular in Japan in comparison to the Playstation or Wii. Comparing the figures world wide, the Xbox is ore popular that the Playstation, the only constant is the popularity of the Wii, constantly being the most popular console to buy, despite the region.

The Wii is the most popular because it taps a key demographic that the other consoles don’t as well, the family.

It could be viewed that the Xbox is not popular in Japan because of its national heritage, being a product of Microsoft, which is based in North America.

The same can not be said about America, as its most popular console is the Japanese Nintendo Wii, however, the Xbox 360 is more popular than the Playstation 3.

Introduction

The Xbox 360 is the second console released by the company Microsoft. Its main competition in the games consoles market is the Sony Playststion 3 and the Nintendo Wii. In this blog I will be looking at the cultural, social, economic technological and ethical aspects to the Xbox 360 and seeing how they compare to its competitors.

Being a game design student and digital games enthusiast. I have a console. There are several reasons why I chose an Xbox 360, and here are a few.

A number of my friends also bought the console and Xbox live membership, allowing me to play games with my friends online.

I had an Xbox original and so I wanted to be able to play the games I had bought for that on my updated console.

Paying for my own console also affect my purchase, the Xbox was and still is cheaper than the Playstation 3

Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect 3 is one of Biowares soon to be released digital games, along side Dragon Age 2.

Mass Effect 3 will be a science fiction RPG.

Before announcing the release of the game, Bioware uploaded pictures of Data Matrix Barcodes or QR codes on their facebook page.

The first translated into binary code which is the atomic weight to iron -128.5 and is the lowest temperature ever recorded on earth. This clue was about the location of the game, on earth.

The second QR code translated to the ULR for MI6. This was another clue about location, the UK.

Bioware then released a teaser trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp9Pki1eR7A featuring a man firing a rife from a tower. This trailer was to announce the fact that Bioware were going to announce their new game at the Spike Video Game Awards.

The full trailer was then announced http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WcQvjTcxY0&feature=related showing a British man shooting a rifle from Westminster clock tower.