Last night I attended the gallery opening of "Play: The Art Of Xbox 360," an art show in Toronto's historic Distillery District promising an insider look at the pre- and post-production visuals of three of the Xbox 360's first-day launch titles. In a word: Underwhelming. If you removed the Xbox 360 kiosks used to display the games themselves, and poster-sized promo-style artwork, you'd be left with a scant selection of pre-production visuals. Only half of the gallery was in use for the show, meaning the space was about 4 yards by about 8 yards in size. It's a cozy space that I've visited before, but it seemed underused for this showing.

If you happen to be at the Distillery this weekend, it couldn't hurt to drop by the Blue Dot Gallery to have a look, but I wouldn't recommend making a special trip just for the show. I think what we have here is a classic "post-release attention-span" grabber, geared towards retaining a semblance of public interest in the Xbox 360--in other words, this event isn't so much about art as it is about commerce.