This is the final part of ‘Step Up Your Game’ entries. This time I’m talking about Microsoft and the Xbox 360.

The biggest thing I’m going to mention and that I’m sure plenty would agree with me on is the failure rate of Xbox 360. If you’ve been even slightly involved in the gaming community, you have more than likely heard of the ‘RROD’ (Red Ring of Death) that haunts the 360. Even a few of my friends received the red rings over the past few months. This is a serious problem that Microsoft needs to fix because I’m sure not too many people would be happy when their newly purchased Xbox 360 dies on them. Console reliability is a big issue of theirs and should be addressed.

Microsoft definitely boasts their games and they have plenty of them, however a lot of their ‘exclusives’ aren’t so exclusive. Many will say that because a game can only be found on home consoles for the 360 say it is ‘console exclusive’ but, I could be playing that same game on the PC. Some examples of this are: Gears of War, Mass Effect, & Bioshock (Which is headed to the Playstation 3 anyway). Granted you could argue that it’s easier and cheaper to get them for the 360; yes that’s true, however when boasted as exclusive, I believe that should be the case. Multiplatform is still multiplatform and Microsoft could end up losing sales on their big titles for the 360 if they keep going to the PC as well.

Xbox Live has been known for its great service to online gamers. With so many great features and content how could it not? In one way: $50.00 a year to play online. I see it this way; first you pay for the console, you pay for the game, you pay for your cable connection and now you have to pay even more to play the game online? For a lot of games these days online is half of the game! So when you go out and buy the game initially, you are spending $60.00 (plus tax) for half of the game and to access the other half you have to tack on another fee. Xbox Live is good, but the service in my eyes, is not good enough to justify the price tag and just for kicks, who else noticed that this paid service still has advertisements?

Xbox 360 has done an astounding job catering to the hardcore market of gamers. Microsoft definitely has a strong following of dedicated gamers who will buy the biggest games around, pay the fee for Xbox Live, and get their game on for months to come. However, when it comes to attracting the ‘other’ crowd that the Wii has done so well to appease (and the Playstation 3 has catered to slightly) Microsoft just isn’t hitting that mark. I don’t think ‘Scene It’ will make the cut. They need to broaden their horizons and make more casual friendly games whether it’s something along the lines of ‘Singstar’ or something more along the lines of mini games that Nintendo has been doing so well with. The rumor has been flying around about a new motion controller that Microsoft has been developing named the ‘Newton’ that if true, could steal some heat from Nintendo, but only if utilized well. Once they can tap into this crowd, Microsoft is set.

We are going to have to wait until E3 to see how each of the ‘Big Three’ steps up their game.