Microsoft Unveils The X Box

markf was one of the first people to e-mail us about the ahead of schedule unveiling of the X-Box. As those who have watched the news, Microsoft's gaming console has been a close secret. Now we know it's going to be about 600 Mhz, DVD-ROM drive, 64+ megs of RAM. Gates went on to talk about the market, which is very interesting. They'll be aiming at Nintendo, Sony and Sega, the triumvirate of the Gaming Market. The machine itself will be Windows-based, and will support online "stuff" - although only through high speed connections. I've got to admit - this thing looks really interesting. They are hoping for a Christmas 2001 release, which will make competing with Dolphin and PSX2 difficult.

Comments

Re:MS is dead in the water...

[Frac]

I think everyone was being just as(even more) critical when Sony rolled out their Playstation. "What, we already have Nintendo and Sega - Sony makes walkmans and compact disk players, they won't survive in the console market!"

The X-box is attractive because the architecture will be very close to the commodity PCs. That means it will be very easy for companies to port games to and from the X-box and Windows 9x. Easy to port translates to less money to reach a larger audience. A conformity to a single standard (in terms of hardware and software) also means developers can be more comfortable in pushing the limits of whatever they have, as opposed to creating a game for the lowest common denominator.

Assuming Microsoft doens't fsck it up too much, they have a very solid chance of taking marketshare, not from Sony, but mainly from Sega and Nintendo's lackluster lineup these days.

Console gamers only care about the games, not the internals. That's why consoles are so popular! You don't have to care about which chips you have; all games are compatible!

Oh, and I doubt the X-box will be upgradable - that's why they are choosing the specs now...

Full X-Box Specs and Movies.

[ratsdliw]

Here are the spec from Microsoft X-Box Site

600 MHz x86 compatible CPU Custom 3-D NVIDIA graphics processor
64 MB of RAM (unified memory architecture)
Custom 3-D audio processor
8GB hard drive
4X DVD drive with movie playback
Four game controller ports
Expansion port
Proprietary A/V connector
100 MBps Ethernet


All this for $299 USD
I think the coolest thing that the X-Box has going for it is the badass 3D support (Comeon NVDA is pretty damn cool) and the 100 MBps Ethernet.
It looks like this puppy is going to be broadband ready with this fast network port.
If the price is cheap enough these thing could make decent Linux web servers or firewalls.
I'm sure M$ would love that. :) (I'm sure the would need some more ram tho)

There is also a mpg demo of the 3D capabilities of the x-box. It's a demo of mech. You can grab it here for MPEG and here for QT4

Re:Windows based

[Frac]

I personally don't want my game crashing in the middle of me playing. And as we all know that if it is going to be windows based OS, then it wll crash at the most random times.

I don't get it - I'm not a big fan of Microsoft crashes, but are there actually people that think Microsoft run timers in their OSes set to crash at random intervals?

Windows 9x crashes so much because there are so many legacy applications they have to support, and memory protection-wise they don't care that much. Windows 2000 already proves to be impressively stable for 35 million lines of code.

Since X-box will be running on a unified spec, it's very doubtful that it will crash that much, since they have a much much smaller set of hardware/software to test and make robust.

I personally don't understand where MS gets off thinking that they can just jump into the Console gaming market. And if they do pull it off it will just go to show how much weight they do pull with Mindshare of the average Joe

So in other words, they suck if they fail, and they suck if they succeed?

Question:

[Tarnar]

Will the X Box be another moving target?

Why do I ask? Simple. It has a hard drive. And supports high speed online connections. Does this mean that we'll see patches and software upgrades from MS? They live on these updates in the desktop world.. Releasing second rate products and promising fixes, leaving people begging for more. With a moving target, will we see DLL Hell?

A Static Target is a Good Thing on consoles. Early on in the consoles lifespan, people code on the API's. Then they start coding on the low-level. As they get better, programs get better. Just look at how far the PSX has been pushed with FF8 or Chrono Cross.

We'll wait and see I suppose. Incoherent post brought to you by lack of sleep and lots of Coke/Code.

Double standard.

[Matt2000]

I find it ridiculous the number of people on here that are simultaneously deriding this MS X-Box thing as a closed product, while pumping up sony and its playstation line.

Sony is the king of closed and proprietary standards (or at least non-standard) that it refuses to open, and refuses to let drop. Memory sticks, mini-discs and all manner of crazy ports for their machines.

I like Sony's products myself, but only because they allow fun games on their platforms and generally have a good design sense.

In some way a more moral company than Microsoft? Unlikely.


Hotnutz.com - Funny

Danger will Robinson Danger!!!

[Mr. Flibble]

My fear:

This gamebox becomes a sucess.

Now let me explain why.

There is no doubt that MS will push DirectX and all their other game API's on this system. I doubt that it will be designed to implictly support OpenGL. (But I bet it runs quake anyhow...)

The danger that this poses is the integration of the PC into a gaming machine. Now don't get me wrong, I play plenty of games on this machine. The danger comes in the form of more games for a single platform -Windows-. Will the games for the MS box run on a Mac or a Linux box? No. (Maybe under VMWare.) If MS corners this market then they have a great opportunity to control the game market. If they do this the odds of people choosing an alternate OS (Linux, Beos, BSD et al.) is slim.

If all the good games, or just a majority of them are run under Windows (as they are now) or on this box MS has a very good leverage point over the desktop market again. Think about this: Some parent buying a home computer. The child says "don't get the one with Linux on it! It can't run Bozo Spacewars XXVII!!" Now, Linux could dual boot as we know, but its the percetion or as they like to say "mindshare" that is important here.

Microsoft is trying to kill two birds with one stone here. They are trying to generate a viable gaming market for their OS/Firmware, and they are trying to mantain/expand their monopoly grip on software.

If this becomes a success I can only see games that are developed across multiple platforms to decrease.

No sir. I don't like it.

FUD for Developers..

[eshefer]

The reason MS is "announcing" a product that is MORE then a year into the future, using Nvidia Chips that are'nt in production, yet, is to get developer support. now.

But more importantly to get developers NOT to develop for compeating systems NOW.

It's classic MS tactic: announce something that is far into the future so people will believe that MS will be dominant in that market, just to scare of developers from spending resources and developing for alternate platforms.

The alternative platform being PS2, dolfine, and in the PC space Linux and mac.

It's not going to work. It's too little, too late.
--------------------------------

Funny...

[Black Parrot]

Last week it was a 1.5GHz machine. Now it's down to 600MHz.

Best you grabbed one now; they may be down to 12KHz next week.

--

Re:Christmas 2001?

[belgin]

I suspect that the Emotion Engine performs significantly better than it's 300Mhz would suggest.

It does.

It is a 350 MHz 128 bit chip. Compare this to a 600 MHz 32 bit Athalon. Be sure you include the 150 MHz dedicated Graphics subchip in the PS2 also. Now consider that this system is designed to do one thing absolutly spectacularly: audio-visual. The X-Box is off the shelf components, making it easier to program for, but if you want to do the stuff that the Emotion Engine does as easily as starting up, you have to code like a demon and REALLY know what you are doing. An NVidia graphics card would help the X-Box, but I'd wager that one year after the X-Box's release, its graphics are still far behind where the Playstation 2 is one year after its US release. (Keep in mind... that is at least three months before the X-Box comes out!)

Unless MS puts a lot more time and effort into both innovating and product testing than is normal in their business model, I have a hard time seeing this as anything other than a cheap PC with gimmicks. The console strategy is quite different than the mass-produce, hook, charge to upgrade methodology they have used successfully in the past.

I am interested to see what they actually do, rather than just condemning them on they will probably do.

B. Elgin

They could replace Sega...

[belgin]

I know, I know. Most folks don't have any faith in MS's ability to develop much of anything of quality. Their move is likely, however to be in some way opportunism.

The Dreamcast was Sega's official last console system. They are changing to a software company.

Microsoft might have known this, because they were working with Sega to allow CE to run on the Dreamcast.

MS wanted into the market, and they know an opening is coming up soon. Whether they have anything good or not, there is room in the console market for three major players. Sony won't squash them, because they aren't worth it. Nintendo won't kill them, because they are much more worried about Sony and have lost most of their ability to do so. Sega is quitting the game anyway.

The end result is that MS has a WIDE opening. If they can get in and establish a beachhead in the console market, they aren't too worried about losing money right off the bat. The simple trick for them is to become good enough with their first console to stay in the running. Once they are a respected (?) name in console gaming, they can continue from there, because they are going to do their damnedest to make sure that anyone with an X-Box is hooked in some way and has to stay linked to them.

I am curious to see how they actually do it. Some of us may find the results are good enough to overcome our collective loathing of MS. Just because they usually make medocre products, doesn't mean they always do.

B. Elgin