Xbox 2 Plans on Schedule

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for their article regarding the manufacturing plans for the Xbox 2. "Speaking at a press conference, senior vice president Kenneth Kin said that ... manufacturing plans for Xbox 2 chips is 'proceeding according to plan,' scotching recent murmuring about a possible further delay to Microsoft's schedule for the system."

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Text of the article

[TrafficGeek]

Reassurance on next-gen development progress

A representative of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the company tasked with fabricating the chips being used in Microsoft's next Xbox console, has told the media that the development of the console is proceeding to plan.

Speaking at a press conference, senior vice president Kenneth Kin said that the firm's manufacturing plans for Xbox 2 chips is "proceeding according to plan," scotching recent murmuring about a possible further delay to Microsoft's schedule for the system.

TSMC has been tapped to develop the core chipsets for the Xbox 2 platform, including ATI's GPU chip, which the graphics company said was nearing the end of its development stage earlier this month.

It's believed that Microsoft is planning to launch the Xbox 2 in late 2005, which would give it a significant headstart over its rivals, as neither Sony nor Nintendo is expected to have a new home console ready until 2006.

Xbox 2 - which is reportedly codenamed Xenon in the development community - will feature multiple IBM Power5 processors, an SIS motherboard chipset and the aforementioned ATI graphics unit. Early development kits for the hardware have already been sent to selected developers, based on Apple PowerMac G5 units running a custom version of the Windows NT kernel.

Re:Text of the article

[17028]

"And you know it's shitty how?"

"my loyalty lies elsewhere anyway."

Re:Text of the article

[cheeseSource]

"It's believed that Microsoft is planning to launch the Xbox 2 in late 2005, which would give it a significant headstart over its rivals, as neither Sony nor Nintendo is expected to have a new home console ready until 2006."

It seems like both Nintendo and Sony are prepared to launch at the end of 2005 - both look like they are going to unveil the beginning of next year as is Microsoft. Let the competition begin...

Re:Text of the article

[unclethursday]

based on Apple PowerMac G5 units running a custom version of the Windows NT kernel.

Great, now the G5 has been infected... now no one is safe...

Re:Text of the article

[unclethursday]

You do realize that Sony hasn't even had a prototype Cell chip made yet, right? And they don't expect the first prototype CHIPS to be ready until late this year or early next year.

Even considering they get the prototype chips ready by say November, they won't have final versions and manufacturing ready until early next year at the earliest, which means developers won't be able to get development kits until after that.

Sorry, there's no way in hell that sony is going to launch in 2005 with the PS3, provided it uses the Cell chip. Or, if it does, it'll have to survive for a good long time on PS2 games while developers learn the new chipset and architecture. In other words, if they launched at the end of 2005, their launch games would be worse than their PS2 launch games.

As for Nintendo, we don't know if they have sent out development kits or not, yet. They may have, but have the companies under a strict NDA until they unveil the console publically.

Re:Text of the article

[cluke]

Launching first isn't necessarily an advantage you know. Look at the Dreamcast - it wasn't able to make a significant dent in the PS1 user-base, and when the PS2 came out it was seen as second-generation, giving the Dreamcast a dated feel of a "one and a half" generation console (yeah, yeah, I know this is wrong and the Dreamcast was as good as the PS2 in some areas, but this was not the perception).
So, rather than getting the drop on the competition, they just allowed them time to study the move and counter more effectively. It seems to me that the PS2 has a similarly entrenched market grip at this time, which could make history repeat itself.

3 announcements

[Phil Wilkins]

Nintendo: $149 DS!
Sony: Slimmer PS2!
MS: Err... umm...

Re:3 announcements

[karnal]

Maybe Microsoft could get some weight-loss shakes for it's XBox....

Re:3 announcements

[StocDred]

This is modded Troll? He's making a point about the press release war. Nintendo reveals the DS, Sony immediately reveals the PStwo... and Microsoft has jack shit, so the best they can come up with is "Chip production is on schedule."

Chip production is on schedule! Get me to the fanboy forums immediately! OMG!

Re:3 announcements

[AbRASiON]

Does Microsoft really NEED to fucking release anything just because the others are?

One is a handheld, one is a re-hash, while both interesting they are both not exciting specifically.

The Xbox is fine as it is and beggining to really gain momentum game wise now.

Re:3 announcements

[StocDred]

"Beginning to gain momentum game wise now"? After three years? Wow, that is something to be proud of.

Obviously Microsoft thought it was important to "fucking release" something just because the others are, or else they wouldn't have bothered. The point is how silly a topic Microsoft chose to mention.

Re:I just had a "Aha" moment.

[Frizzle Fry]

I played Halo right through and it was just so damn repetitive I almost went insane.

Um, it's a multiplayer game. It's pretty unfair to play it as one player and then conclude that it's repetitive. That's like saying that you played Street Fighter 2 or Madden against the computer a few times and found it boring. It may be true, but it's not really a fair judgment of the game.

Re:I just had a "Aha" moment.

[hibiki_r]

It is true that 90% of current Halo fans still play it only for the multiplayer. However game magazines were also raving about the single player campaign. For example, this is what gamespot had to say about the game:

Halo is a complete thrill ride from beginning to end, an experience perhaps best described as a 16-hour-plus version of the siege scene from the film Terminator 2.[...]The single-player experience in Halo is so strong that it's easy to regard the multiplayer side of the game as secondary, and to a large extent, it is.

This doesn't seem to me like a comment regarding the multiplayer, does it?. I still don't know if the reviewer was receiving oral sex while he was playing or something: Some of the game's areas were so poorly designed that they are only marginally better than the first era in Daikatana. While not a terrible game as a whole, (as you said, the multiplayer game is better than the single player) the reviewers did seem to be pretty wrong with this one.

Re:I just had a "Aha" moment.

[33degrees]

I have to disagree; I really enjoyed to single player, so much so that I actually played the entire game through in a single sitting(!), and I subsequently finished it several more times with friends in coop mode, which is a LOT of fun.

I do agree that the game is repetitive at times, but that's the only complaint I would make, and the story was engrossing enough that the repetitive level design didn't bother me. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what makes the game so good despite it's flaws, but it remains my favorite FPS game ever, and considering that most of the flaws were due to the pressure to release the game in time for the xbox launch, I think it's safe to assume that halo2 will be even better.

Re:I just had a "Aha" moment.

[andy_fish]

Why does everybody on Slashdot trash everything that Microsoft ever did like it's worse than slime, but celebrate the X-box because of Halo and some other mediocre games? Why does everybody overgeneralize like that? Everybody in the ENTIRE WORLD. Overgeneralizing CONSTANTLY. It's like all they ever do. Always and all the time.

Re:I just had a "Aha" moment.

[KeeperS]

Despite what some may think, everybody on Slashdot doesn't think exactly alike or have the exact same opinions about everything. The people bashing Microsoft aren't necessarily the same people praising the Xbox.

Re:I just had a "Aha" moment.

[MMaestro]

Why does everybody on Slashdot trash everything that Microsoft ever did like it's worse than slime, but celebrate the X-box because of Halo and some other mediocre games? It's totally antithetic.

Because everything Microsoft does or seems to do is worse than slime (kinda hard to defend Windows when it has more bugs and viruses than a fat, unhealthy kids summer camp). But Microsoft somehow managed to do a good job with the Xbox against damned near impossible odds. Oh and Halo's not the only good game for the Xbox, just like SOCOM isn't the only good online game for the PS2. Get with the times.

Re:I just had a "Aha" moment.

[hai.uchida]

Why does everybody on Slashdot trash everything that Microsoft ever did like it's worse than slime, but celebrate the X-box because of Halo and some other mediocre games? It's totally antithetic. The X-box is praised (when it's praised) for a number of reasons-- the games, the graphics, the ease of modding and ability to turn it into a desktop. And I'm glad it's praised. It means some Slashdotteers are open-mided and realize Microsoft isn't just Windows, and that we don't have to declare everything they produce "evil" because we don't like their OS. Anyway last time I checked there wasn't a mandtae on what we were supposed to think. There are people here who seem ready to forgive Real, for God's sake...!

Re:I just had a "Aha" moment.

[hai.uchida]

Why does everybody on Slashdot trash everything that Microsoft ever did like it's worse than slime, but celebrate the X-box because of Halo and some other mediocre games? It's totally antithetic.

The X-box is praised (when it's praised) for a number of reasons-- the games, the graphics, the ease of modding and ability to turn it into a desktop.

And I'm glad it's praised. It means some Slashdotteers are open-mided and realize Microsoft isn't just Windows, and that we don't have to declare everything they produce "evil" because we don't like their OS.

Anyway last time I checked there wasn't a mandtae on what we were supposed to think. There are people here who seem ready to forgive Real, for God's sake...!

indeed

[muyuubyou]

When the Nintendo 64 gained momentum two years late, it was a complete failure. The XBOX is three years late and this is success?

Re:I just had a "Aha" moment.

[cluke]

The name's Dumass. Alexander Dumass.

(sorry)

Re:xbox2 rox

[AlexMax2742]

Thank god I'm not the only guy who loves his Xbox. Tons of awesome games, plus some pretty underrated forgotten titles if you're willing to do a little digging. I don't think I've liked a console this much since the Dreamcast.