Okay, the news is starting to trickle out from the Game Developers Conference.

This press release from Microsoft sums it up well: it’s all about the experience.

The details of this are about the platform that developers can plug into. Not hardware. Still, “the guide” sounds incredibly new and innovative. I’ve never heard of anything like this and, if succesful and used by the developers and community, could easily redefine the way we interact with games (at least at the macro level).

If the platform they’re outlining is succesful, it won’t matter what the PS3′s hardware is (unless they have similar “community” features – but really, have we seen any indication of community-mindedness from Sony? Ever?!). It’s the experience that custom playlists, more content, micropayments, community-submitted levels / weapons / etc, and “lifestyle”-based connections which are intriguing. Again, IF they are succesful.

From the press release:

Features of the guide include these:

Gamer Cards. Gamer Cards provide gamers with a quick look at key Xbox Live (TM) information. They let players instantly connect with people who have similar skills, interests and lifestyles.

Marketplace. Browseable by game, by genre, and in a number of other ways, the Marketplace will provide a one-stop shop for consumers to acquire episodic content, new game levels, maps, weapons, vehicles, skins and new community-created content.

Micro-transactions. Breaking down barriers of small-ticket online commerce, micro-transactions will allow developers and the gaming community to charge as little as they like for content they create and publish on Marketplace. Imagine players slapping down $.99 to buy a one-of-a-kind, fully tricked-out racing car to be the envy of their buddies.

Custom playlists. This feature eliminates the need for developers to support custom music in games. The guide instantly connects players to their music so they can listen to their own tracks while playing all their favorite next-generation Xbox games.

We’ll see if this can be pulled off.

And the hardware? C’mon, I wouldn’t leave you without something about the hardware.

A well-balanced system that will deliver more than a teraflop of targeted computing performance
A multicore processor architecture co-developed with IBM Corp. that provides developer “headroom” and flexibility for the HD Era
A custom-designed graphics processor co-developed with ATI Technologies Inc. designed for HD Era games and entertainment applications

I like this focus on the “HD Era”. Because it’s forward-looking. It takes the issue beyond pure horsepower and says “in the world we’re looking at for the next 5 years, which will likely be increasingly connected, how can we fit in?”

It’s less about now and more about the future, which is a little shocking to me. Microsoft typically hasn’t taken bold steps like this. The XBox was one. .NET was another. Longhorn’ll be another. Channel 9, certainly. But, no, not a lot.

Time to watch and see.

The really big news is that presenting THIS at GDC means we’re likely to see real on-the-ground stuff at E3 in May, and we’re more likely than ever to see a console this year.

Hopefully we see the PS3 at E3 in May as well so we can all do a side-by-side.

ps: inside note from friends on the XBox team: they believe they’ve sussed the backwards compatibility issue. No official word on if that means games for XBox 2 will be backwards compatible. Just a note.

Update: Here’s the audio of the keynote. I’ll link to the video once it’s up at XBox.com. 1 word: HD.