Microsoft Unveils Gaming Console

DarkenWood writes "I just got an email from Microsoft about the x-box. They have officially unveiled it." 600mhz, NVIDIA Video, 4x DVD Player.

Comments

Re:Why it might or might not succeed

[McBeth]

According to one of my friends who works for Microsoft, they had a special unveiling for their workers, and one of the things they talked about is shipping it with things like Bleem! and UltraHLE or whatever the equivalent is when this thing finally ships so it could run PS and N64 games in addition to whatever they can convince companies to port native...

Would make sense.

I can't wait to see this.

[finkployd]

The Microsoft Game Consol has determined that you have shot at a bad guy. Please save all information and reset the consol for the change to take effect.

Finkployd

Yep, it does sorta sound like vapor *stuff*...

[Sun Tzu]

Cringely has a nice article about this over at pbs.

More VapourWare

[orac2]

"Slated for release in 2001" - because we all know how good Microsoft are at meeting their release dates. This looks like Microsoft's usual trick of making product annoucements when they don't even have a working product, just to get people to hold off on buying someone elses technology. They did it with Windows itself (remember when Windows was just a stop gap to maintain Microsoft's ability to leverage DOS?), Pen Windows (remember that?) and the Microsoft Network. Unfortunately I think the Market Droids have made an error here - it's not like console technology is some new, unproven, region of the electronic frontier, nor is it like Nintendo or Sony don't have huge brand recognition either. (unlike those poor chumps at GO computing who got squished by Pen Windows)

Re:I don't understand this X-box thing.....

[dsginter]

What about AOL? I actually set gave my unused *free* internet account to an AOL user to save him the grief of dealing with such a lousy company but I returned a week later to find out he went back to AOL because it was *easier*. Yes, thats right - paying over $20 a month to have an ISP crap ads down your throat all day. Made me sick to the point of going postal. And then it made sense. Bottom line is that Windows/Linux/Be/etc aren't easy to use for the average Joe "Non-technical" Consumer. If MS can put one of these boxes together and partner with some broadband co's, then we will see a real winner. Just understand that you are the minority.

I don't understand this X-box thing.....

[pHatidic]

By the time this so called 'X-box' is out, will anyone care? Currently you can get a system with a celeron chip that's almost as fast, and keep in mind that this is a computer we're talking about. Now by the time the x-box with its 600 mghz chip hits the market, we'll be able to get a complete system minus the monitor with similar specs for the same price. Why then, would anyone choose the x-box over a computer, since the games for the x-box and the computer will be so similar? personally, I'd much rather get the computer over the x-box, so that at least I could run linux!....Now sure, this sounds incredible now but by a year and a half, I doubt that many people will care. Computers for the smart, x-box for the stupid and the uninformed!

Why it might or might not succeed

[Erich]

Okay, there are some interesting things about the X-box.

• It might very run existing PC games, but those aren't quite as easy and fun for the typical 8-year-old as sticking in a Playstation disk. However, the PSX2 will also come out with lots of pre-existing games, 'cause it will run normal PSX games. Having lots of games available the moment it becomes available, especially the games you currently have, is a very nice feature, and one that will help the PSX2 sell.
• Many game companies port once for console, once for PC. Don't you think it would be attractive to just port once, for DirectWhatever?
• The X-box has a hard drive. While this allows you to have lots of save games, it also allows games to add complexity, interfere with each other, and so on. Also, if the OS will go on the hard drive, there are opportunities for MS to fix bugs/introduce new ones... which will cause a moving target for game developers... something they don't want.

and, perhaps the most important thing that might help the X-box

• When have you seen MS go into a new market at less than full-force? If they're dumping billions into the console, making it cheaper than PSX2/Dreamcast/NextNintendo, and dumping billions in convincing companies to port to them (and maybe exclude other systems), and dumping billions to sell the games for cheap... it's going to hurt competition. And we've seen this happen before. And they can do this.

By the way, did you hear why they are using Intel chips rather than Athlons? Intel is giving MS the chips for free. AMD wouldn't give the chips away.