X-box

Check out www.xbox.com for a little bit of information.

Though the X-box will primarily be PC-like in its programming, Microsoft has hinted that it will likely impose console-style licensing... meaning that even though you can create amateur X-Box content (as you could with PlayStation''s Yaroze box), you likely will have to be a registered developer, for some unknown (but large by an individual''s standards) sum of money to actually release titles....plus pay a percentage of the sale price to Microsoft for manufacturing & distribution.

My understanding is that the way large companies handle royalties would mean big bucks for Microsoft. Like they need it. That must be why Bill wants into this market, he''s not making money off of it... yet.
"These are the noble souls who saw an overcrowded market and said ''me too!''"
Let''s hope that MS creates a killer console division, which then gets broken off in the anti-trust proceedings and forms a killer independant. We can dream...

Where does the Landfish live? Everywhere. Is not the Landfish the Buddha?

Had a meeting with them week and a half ago. It is a console business model (publishers have to pay a royalty to Msoft on every disk they ship) but the dev system is much closer to normal PC.

So the usual console restrictions but less of a learning curve to get to grips with the system.


Dan Marchant
www.obscure.co.uk

The hard drive also opens up the patch-em-after-ship-through-the-nifty-broadband-network-that-ships-with-the-game syndrome. The Sony will keep the broadband and not have the patch issue. To me with ROM cards approaching large enough sizes for game data, there is no need for a hard drive. Even if there was a way to restrict its use, to caching only, in the developer community, someone would write code around it and use it like a PC hard drive. I am afraid this will doom the X-Box to an early grave because console gamers have ZERO tollerance for a buggy game. First majorly hyped hit that comes out like Ultima IX on the PC, will mark the days when people flock to a better set-top box.

Aside from all this rambling, the X-Box is still an exciting entrant into the market. Rest assured Microsoft will do it well enough to shake the foundation of the industry, but beating Sony, that''s a whole different ball of wax. In the end Developers will win because we will have more games to publish for and who knows maybe developer kits for Sony and Nintendo will be within our grasp as individuals.

Kressilac

Beating Sony? Hello? PS2 sucks. My 10 year-old Super Nintendo beats Sony.

One wonders where in the world the basis for that comment is

Jonathan

I agree with you Jonathan. Hmm lets see DVD player, PS1 player, PS2 player, built in DTS sound decoder, CD player and all for 350 bucks or there abouts. Not only is the PS2 a serious set top box, it is scaring the hell out of folks like Panasonic, Pioneer, Yamaha and other consumer electronics companies that make DVD players. To say the PS2 sucks and that any nintendo product is better than it is pretty lame. It shows that this person knows absolutely nothing about gaming hardware technology.

Now that I think about it, why did I respond to that lame response.

Kressilac

I'm just curious to see how much the X-Box is going to cost users. MS wants to put a lot of stuff in it. Think about it. How much would a PC, excluding the monitor cost, with all of that? If I was to take a stab in the dark about the price of the X-box, I would say atlest $400 to $500, if MS wants to make a profit from the actual selling of the console.

Also, are HDs really neccessary? I don't think so.

Domini

Edited by - Domini on 4/27/00 3:46:17 PM

Microsoft will not make a profit from the console. Just like all the other console makers the business model is to sell the machine at or below cost and to make money from the sale of software. Microsoft are aiming to publish 30% of the X-Box software and in addition get a royalty on every unit that other publishers ship. That is where the money is.


Dan Marchant
www.obscure.co.uk

A pretty old but accurate issue of NextGen told me that MS has set the price CAP of the x-box at $500 and no more.

Hey hey hey! Watch cutting on play station. I know the all the games aren''t that great but at least you can play the final fantasys, Lunar, Tactics Ogre, and other cool games. So please back off.

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Out of work hero will save world for food.