I talked to my brother and some of his friends last night. They are all in the 19-21 age range. I picked up a copy of "Electronic Gaming Monthly", which is one of the leading industry magazines (according to the in-the-know clerk at Radio Shack where I bought it). There is an article in it that breaks down the battle between the X-box, GameCube, and Playstation2, all being released this month.

My brother and his friends are PS addicts. They are intending to become PS2 addicts as well. When I asked them why they weren't interested in getting the X-box or the GameCube, their answer matched the analysis from the article: "It comes down to the games." Evidently, the console people buy is secondary to what games they want to play. When looking to decide, they analyze the choice of games available, and then pick the console based on which one plays their games of choice. According to the magazine article, and my brother, the perception is that Nintendo offers games targeted at a younger audience. And the game choices offered for the X-box aren't compelling enough to get him to switch consoles. He was highly upset when I told him that the "Resident Evil" series is going to be exclusive to the GameCube from now on, but even this isn't enough to compel him to dish out the extra money for the GameCube. I'm finding this in an interesting world.....full of...eh....controversy.

By the way, this isn't an on-line magazine. The website only offers a couple of the articles, and tries to get you to subscribe. I'll bring the magazine to class tonight if anyone is interested in looking through it.