疯狂英语阅读：VIDEOGAMEWARS

文章作者 100test 发表时间 2007:06:08 11:31:19
来源 100Test.Com百考试题网

Two of the business worlds fastest movers, Sony and Microsoft, are 1)vying for the 2)supremacy of the 3)booming video games industry. The games market is a cultural phenomenon. As a form of entertainment, its been vastly 4)underrated and yet in terms of sales, its bigger than movies, bigger than videos and fast catching up with the music business. And as current market leaders, Sony are in pole position. The new 5)console is Sonys most important product ever. At its peak, the original Play Station accounted for 40% of Sonys profits. The first Play Station still dominates the 20 billion dollar global games market. The new console has to deliver this and more, so far so good.

Sony arent the only players in the games market, two other Japanese companies Sega and Nintendo are also in the business. But they have sold mainly to children. So in claiming the cash of mostly male 20 something like Paul, Sony have left the rest for dead in the adult games market until now. Play Stations grip on this grown up market is about to be challenged by the richest kid on the block. In just over 25 years, Microsoft have risen to the top of the personal computer business. 90% of the worlds computers use their software and they have a stock market worth of over 300 billion dollars. Now the worlds most valuable company want to conquer the games machine business and they dont like losing. And this 6)prototype is what Microsofts image of fun currently looks like, the big sell, is that it will be three times more powerful than Play Station 2. The Xbox is Microsofts biggest ever project.

Robbie Bach (Chief Officer Xbox): If you compare it to something like Windows 95, this will be dramatically bigger than that, in terms of our focus, our efforts and our intent to be successful. Obviously Windows 95 at the time was a big event. But when you look at what we are trying to do, we are trying to reach consumers around the world with a new message, and a new product, thats gonna take a scale and a commitment of effort that Microsofts never done before.

Over the short life-time of the video games industry, the technical capacity of the machine has improved rapidly. Year on year consoles have provided clearer 7)graphics, better audio and more exciting experiences for the player. Games technology, and which company bodes the best, is a key battle ground for both Sony and Microsoft.

Play Station 2 has a built-in DVD player and you can link up other devices through it.

Alan Welsman (Marketing Director, Play Station): You will be able to connect your 8)camcorder to it, or a digital camera or any home recording device, a mini-disc something like that. You can connect all of these so if you wanted to record yourself and put yourself into a game or use some software on Play Station 2, that allows you to 9)compile home videos whatever, you can do that through the Play Station 2.

But much more than this Play Station 2 will have Internet access. Information and entertainment can be downloaded from the web and experienced by the once humble games console.

Alan Welsman: Play Station 2 is probably the key 10)component of this strategy to build into this network entertainment world. The world where you can download the movies of your choice and the music of your choice. Its vitally important for that, as if you like as a Trojan horse in a living room to provide that to consumers.

Microsoft are more 11)circumspect about their long term plans for the Xbox, sticking to the line that its really just a machine to play games on, they say Sony are 12)barking up the wrong tree.

Robbie Bach: I actually would argue that the console market isnt drifting that way. I think theres a phrase we use where we say technologies 13)converged but the devices dont. And in fact in the technology, thats going on in the states, things are converging. In fact, our Xbox is based very much on a very traditional PC architecture design. So that technology is converging, and thats good. But the device itself, the box has to be very dedicated to what you want to have happen in a game, because otherwise you get what I call the toaster telephone, which is an interesting device, that technically you can produce, but the consumers dont really want. They want a great toaster and a great telephone. not some bad mix of the two.

Right now this appears to be a clear difference between the two giants, but it will surely disappear if the games console sitting under your T.V. does indeed become the nerve center of home entertainment, because in this new battle, the potential rewards could be immense.