X-Box rocks E3 expo
Consumers, developers eagerly await Pentium-powered console
The exhibition of Microsoft’s first vidgame console, the X-Box, garnered excited attention -- a line to see the device stretched around the Microsoft booth -- even though the player is not due to be released for almost a year and a half.
The console is expected to compete with Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Nintendo’s Dolphin vidgame players, whose extra capabilities are expected to further fuel Hollywood’s homevid and music markets.
The PlayStation 2 will be the first out of the block, bowing in October. The X-Box and the Dolphin should debut around the same time toward the end of 2001.
The X-Box console will include a hard drive and capabilities for broadband access. The PlayStation 2 is offering these features as accessories to its system.
In a behind-closed-doors demonstration, Seamus Blackley, manager of the Advanced Technology Group, ran through a series of gee-whiz examples of what the X-Box can do.
The prototype console is an aluminum “X” with a bright green center, making it look something like a rejected logo for “The X-Files.” Blackley said the design will be rejiggered before release of the console.
“We’re 16½ months away from launch,” Blackley said. “We’re showing a lot more than anybody else this far out.”
The graphics capability and sound of the X-Box were demonstrated via an interactive scene in a garden. Each of the more than 1,000 butterflies that populate the virtual garden were programmed to include artificial intelligence and physics models for a lifelike appearance. When the user zooms in to look at a butterfly, it skitters away.
The graphics chip was customized for the X-Box by manufacturer NVidia. The X-Box runs on a Pentium III processor chip.
All of these techie goodies will be used in the X-Box to encourage the talent behind vidgame design to push the envelope, Blackley said.
“In order to win in this market, you need the best games,” he said. “In order to get the best games, you need happy developers.”
Developers excited
And since the X-Box was announced by Bill Gates in March, developers have responded enthusiastically. Although Microsoft is keeping mum on game announcements until this summer, vidgame developers are some of the biggest cheerleaders for the console.
“X-Box is going to be the most powerful videogame console that’s ever been produced,” said John Rowe, vice chairman of game developer Midway. “Developers are going to make great games, and when consumers see these games, they’re going to say, ‘Wow, this is like playing television.’ I think consumers are going to really perceive the X-Box as revolutionary.”
