Everyone likes to speculate about the future; when the next generation of consoles will be out, what the games will look like, and so on. Everyone looks at Sony and sees how their consoles have outlasted all of their competition in the marketplace. And everyone thinks the Xbox 360 will be phased out in the next year or two, just like Microsoft did with the original Xbox. Well, whatever you think about the "next generation" of consoles, understand one thing: it is going to be nothing like any generational shift the industry has seen before. And Microsoft is largely to thank (or to blame) for that.

Previously, console transitions meant massive changes. We had to make do with a launch library consisting of one standout first-party title and a handful of rushed-to-launch third party filler titles. We had to go out and buy new controllers, new games, new memory cards, new everything. Developers had to juggle their resources, figuring out who to target their titles for. In many cases we had to choose between the next-gen or previous-gen versions of a hit title... buy the previous-gen version to play on your previous-gen console knowing that it would be useless as soon as you bought the next-gen console, or buy the next-gen title and risk not being able to play online with your friends who hadn't upgraded yet.

For Xbox 360 gamers, the next console transition is going to be so much smoother than that; it will be completely hassle-free. None of the tough decisions, a full library of games, no new controllers or other peripherals to buy, and no need to sign up for a different XBL membership. Xbox gamers will just walk into the store, purchase the new hardware, bring it home and resume playing their games, with many of their old games seeing vastly upgraded graphics, but everything else unchanged. Don't want to upgrade? Want to wait a few months before shelling out for the upgraded hardware? That's no problem either, because the new games will also be backwards compatible with the old hardware. In face, any game released around the time of that transition will fully support both the old and new hardware on the exact same game disc, but will utilize enhanced graphics and sound on the new hardware, or maybe they'll have features that can only be unlocked with the new hardware (they'll want you to buy the new hardware, after all.)

This is possible because of the fundamental nature of the Xbox ecosystem, and how it differs from those of its competitors. Previous videogame console ecosystems were built around the hardware platform; everything about them – the games, the controllers, the accessories – was designed and built as to be inextricably tied to the console hardware. Playstation 2 controllers and accessories only work on PS2. Wii-motes only work on the Wii. Original Xbox controllers and accessories only work on the Original Xbox. On the other hand, Xbox 360 is built around a software platform—XNA—of which the 360 itself is a mere part. Every Xbox 360 game, accessory and controller is built to support XNA, and the Xbox 360 itself is simply a hardware device to run XNA software. XNA itself was designed from the ground up to support several different hardware devices with different capabilities, from Zune and mobile phones on the low end, to all sorts of PCs running Windows, to Xbox 360 and beyond.

For Microsoft, this means their next console doesn't have to have the same hardware platform as the 360. Instead of using PowerPC and ATI, they could switch to x64 and nVidia. Instead of sporting just a DVD drive, they could switch to Blu-ray, or simply provide a massive hard drive and rely on digital distribution. As long as the console fully supports the XNA standard, it will be 100% backwards and forwards compatible with Xbox 360 and other XNA titles. They can sell both Xbox 360 and the next Xbox alongside each other, and cross market the accessories and games.

For developers, this means any projects they have in development will seamlessly transition over to the next XNA hardware device with virtually zero additional work from them. They won't have to ship two versions of the same game. They won't even have to develop or build two versions of the same game. They'll merely have to include a hardware sniffer to determine the capabilities of the hardware running their game, and adjust the graphics based on that. They already do this for PC games. They'll be able to ship a game today that runs well on 360, then when the next console comes out, they'll be able to ship a downloadable "enhancement pack" that will update the graphics in their game to next-generation levels.

For gamers, this removes the uncertainty that the games and accessories they buy now will be obsolete when the new console appears. They can know that the games they buy today will work with the new hardware, no matter what it may be. They won't have to rush out and buy the new hardware on day one, simply buy the new games and play them with reduced graphics until they are ready to upgrade. When they buy the new console, the old one won't suddenly become obsolete; they can put it in the kids' room or something, and it will still be able to play all the new games.

XNA is a platform that will far outlast Sony's vaunted "10-year lifecycle." We'll still be playing XNA games two decades (or more) from now. In 2030, you'll be able to pull out that old copy of Halo 3, and jump into a quick Slayer match with your buddies on your new Xbox consoles, just for old time's sake. And it will work with 100% compatibility. That's the power of XNA.

Wow. There is only one word for this game: Stunning.

This is Microsoft's answer to Zelda, and Nintendo had better start taking notes, because Fable II is every bit as good as any Zelda game yet. In many ways, it's even better.

I didn't like Fable. I thought it was boring, repetitive and a little morose. I didn't have the patience to finish it. So you'll understand why I never paid much attention to Fable 2.

Of course, that changed today after the game received a rash of stellar reviews. Call me a sucker for reviews, but if a game gets this much universal acclaim, that tends to get me excited for it. That's what reviews are supposed to do, i guess.

Such as it is, i'm currently preparing to purchase the game at midnight. Who knows, maybe I'll surprise myself and actually finish this game.

Yeah, right. Fat chance of that happening.

Yes, I'm blogging at GameSpot again. So sue me.