Every few years the next round of game consoles appear. The manufacturers breathlessly list the graphics specifications and brag about realism; the press harps on declining morals and violence. It's a well-worn path.

But this round of upgrades is different. There is a very real opportunity—and a commensurate risk—this time around, because the new game consoles that will soon hit the market have enough processing power to double as home computers.

All of us know people who own a computer because they think they should but haven't learned how to do anything useful with it. More often than not, they either leave it to collect dust in the corner or recruit it for the ongoing zombie warfare on the Internet. Either way, it is a waste of resources.

The game console as home computer can change that. There has always been a computer hiding in these devices, but this generation will be the first that could participate fully on a network and run real software. As a result, it is quite possible that they will become the new personal computer.

Now the risk is that the game console business model depends on losing money on the hardware but making it up on the software by inflating game prices. To succeed as a general-purpose computer, the console must have enough applications, but the console manufacturer must be able to make money. The question becomes whether the manufacturers can control the software flow and set a sufficiently high price point without strangling the market. This is going to be an interesting next couple of years. . . .