When they were designing the latest generation of video game consoles — the generation we’re currently right in the middle of — two of the three major players envisioned their systems as hubs not just for games but for all sorts of digital entertainment. Downloaded movies, songs stored on a PC, high-definition discs, etc., would all run through their platforms, so they built their systems with HD video capabilities. The results appear to be what they intended — three or four years on, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 still look spectacular on a big screen.
