Post-E3, some good info seems to be trickling in about these upcoming systems. What intrigues me the most seems to be the Technical Specs of the XBox 360 and Sony Playstation 3 -- they both use IBM Cell Processors running at 3.2Ghz, and come with specialized GPUs for processing the graphics. Hardware-wise, I'd say that the XBox 360 has an advantage over the PS3, and that gave developers would do well to place their bets on the XBox 360 as the platform to work on. It's hard to believe that these game consoles are so mindblowingly powerful and still cost less than a comparably equipped gamer PC.
Playstation 3 - Technical Specs Overview
XBox 360: Procedural Synthesis and Dynamic Worlds
Nintendo Revolution
XBox 360 vs Xbox
I didn't think that the Xbox 360 used Cell, but a multi-core processor of some sort. It should be noted that I haven't been following this very closely, but the gist of what I'm reading is that Xbox says their architecture runs everything faster, and Sony says that Xbox may run certain functions quicker, but the PS3 will be a better "entertainment" system, whatever that means.
I think that it's interesting the amount both systems are focusing on being more than just a standard game console that plays games, with Xbox focusing on online gaming and Sony going the BluRay route.
Hmm. You could be right. I thought it was Cell, but it may just be a triple-core PowerPC chip in the 360.
I think what companies are realizing is that game systems of today need to be more than just a game console. There's a certain value added to the product if it does more than just play games. It's like the salesman pitch "but wait... there's more!"