New Gaming Consoles Jockey for Top Spot

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

Video game experts and fans are at the E3 trade show in Los Angeles this week. They're previewing the industry's latest games, graphics and technology. Even before the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo opened, competing gaming consoles were vying for consumers' attention. Microsoft premiered its next-generation Xbox a few days ago. Nintendo and Sony are making their own efforts.

Ankarino Lara is following all this as the director of GameSpot, which is an online source for video game and industry news.

So what's at stake in this battle, if we can, between the different video game makers?

Mr. ANKARINO LARA (Director, GameSpot): Quite a bit is at stake. It's really a war of sorts between these new consoles. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo are all jockeying to try to see who can build the largest install base the quickest and all signs point towards Microsoft coming out first with their console, the Xbox 360, before the holiday season this year and that should give them a good six- to 10-month jump on the competitors, being Sony and Nintendo.

INSKEEP: Can you explain it--you said, `the largest install base.' What does that mean?

Mr. LARA: That basically means the largest number of individuals who purchase the product. So to give you some context, the PlayStation 2, which came out in 2000, has about 35 to 35 1/2 million units that have been sold in the United States. And you compare that to Xbox, which came out about a year later in 2001, and they only have about 13, 13 1/2 million. So the fact that Xbox 360 comes out before the PlayStation 3 this time around, could give them a good jump on getting a larger amount of systems out in the world before the Xbox.

INSKEEP: Is there a game that you find particularly compelling this year, a new game?

Mr. LARA: Well, I mean, there's lots of talk about Halo 3.

INSKEEP: What the halo is Halo?

Mr. LARA: Halo was the game that everyone who had an Xbox had to have. So it's a first-person shooter. It put you as a sci-fi protagonist who went along and fought aliens to protect the world as we know it. And that what was called Halo. And the sequel, Halo 2, came out last year. It was a big hit. So everyone's looking forward to another sequel of that game and hoping that it comes out on the Xbox 360, taking advantage of all the new graphics and technology.

INSKEEP: And Nintendo and Sony have their own equivalents of something like this.

Mr. LARA: Of course. You know, Sony has been very successful with the Grand Theft Auto franchise, which I'm sure everyone is pretty familiar with. It's kind of an infamous franchise. And then you also have the franchises which are specific to Nintendo, a lot of the favorites like the Mario Bros. and Super Mario as well as Zelda and characters like that. So each of these consoles is going to come out with their own staple of unique titles but as well, of course, they'll take other titles on which are multiplatform which are games like Madden, for example, or other games which appeal to a broader audience of all the console owners.

INSKEEP: That's Ankarino Lara, the director of GameSpot. Thanks very much.

Mr. LARA: Thank you very much, Steve.

INSKEEP: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

Copyright © 2005 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.