Two questions. Why is the controller so weird? And — What’s with the Spider-Man (movie) font?

[UPDATE] Sony gave it a slot-loading DVD tray. I see this as the key feature that will out-cool the Xbox 360. Sony will also pack it with a bunch of slots for Memory Stick Duo, SD media, and CompactFlash.

Here’s the feature that I’m stuck thinking about. It will feature HDTV outputs for two devices. In January, I got a widescreen TV that supports HDTV. I am not going to get a second HDTV anytime soon. However, I still have a 13 inch TV. I still have my old 15 inch monitor. If I could hook one of these up to the PS3 as the second display, I’d almost certainly do it. But I’ve got to think that a setup like that would start to make my room, apartment, house, whatever look like the workstation in the Matrix. Some people might not want two TVs set up. Some people might not have that second TV. Some people might not have room for a second TV. The Xbox sold poorly in Japan. Why? Because it’s so big, and from what I understand homes in Japan are packed pretty tightly.

Now let’s extend this. If the entire Japanese market ignores this two-screen functionality, developers will ignore it. If the whole rest of the world just doesn’t pick up on this, developers will ignore it.

Let’s look at this in a wider perspective. Sony included all these media slots. Two HDTV outputs. Superpowerful processor. Built-in Wi-Fi. Slot-loading tray. What am I getting at? Cost. How much is this thing going to cost at retail? $300? $350? $400?

Looking at the Xbox 360, I’m almost certain that Microsoft will sell that sucker for $300. MS made a change from the first Xbox in that they where Nvidia owned the video processor and Intel owned the CPU, Microsoft owns everything in the 360. This means when Microsoft drops the price of the 360 two or three years from now, they will have no locked-in price with a supplier to cut into margins as they did this time around. Sony? The PS3 uses an Nvidia video processor (or two).

I have this sinking feeling that Sony is going to charge $400 for the PS3 and that it will never be able to drop the price below $200. Microsoft won’t drop the 360’s price to coincide with the PS3’s release (that’s what Halo 3 is for) — but it could drop the price, say twenty bucks for Christmas 2006. This could kill Sony. Look out for it.

Last night MTV aired its Xbox 360 special. There wasn’t a lot new regarding the Xbox itself — photos of the console and the controller have been on the Internet for a couple weeks. What caught my attention most was actual gameplay footage of Perfect Dark Zero. They even had a playable deathmatch level at the event. I look forward to playing Brown in some P Diddy Zero at some point in the future.

Now that the cat is officially out of the bag, websites of all parties involved have updated. MTV has its site. Xbox360.com has launched, and it has nice pseudo-3D views of the new system and the new, wireless controller. This article at Xbox.com caught my eye because it suggests that you’ll be able to plug your iPod into the Xbox 360’s USB 2.0 ports and listen to your music collection that way. That sounds like just about the best idea I’ve ever heard.

The 360’s hard drive appears to be removeable, meaning that it will likely be optional. If I could use my iPod in lieu of the Xbox-branded hard drive, I would almost certainly go that route. I read on one of the gaming sites that a third party — or Microsoft itself — could release a peripheral that you attach to the Xbox hard drive, turning it into a portable media player. Whatever works.