Things to Watch For in 2001
Microsoft Wants Gamers to Get X-Cited
Sick of hearing about Sony’s PlayStation 2? Now gamers have the Xbox to look forward to--a next-generation video game console from Microsoft Corp. due out in the fall.
Packing a 733-megahertz processor, a 64-megabyte hard drive and a built-in DVD player, the Xbox is set for the ultimate showdown with Sony, the current reigning champion of the $8-billion video-console industry. It will duel as well with Nintendo’s GameCube, a console also set to debut in the fall.
Judging by the reaction from hard-core gamers thus far, the Xbox is scoring big on the buzz-o-meter. But despite Microsoft’s deep pockets (the company has allocated $500 million to market the console) and formidable engineering resources, success of the Xbox is not a slam-dunk. Microsoft, for example, has to establish credibility with gamers, an irreverent crowd that won’t necessarily rank the maker of PowerPoint high on the cool-o-meter.
Microsoft also will need to come up with a sleek, winning design for its console, one that will satisfy both sophisticated gamers and newbies.
This begs the question: What’s a software company doing in the hardware business? The answer, of course, is that the Xbox, like all other game consoles, is a Trojan horse for games and, potentially, other forms of digital entertainment.
The Redmond, Wash., giant has amassed a roster of developers to make games for the Xbox, including Konami, Acclaim, Crave Entertainment and, most recently, Electronic Arts, the world’s biggest game developer.
Microsoft recently announced that it has teamed up with Flextronics Inc. to manufacture the Xbox in Hungary, Mexico and Asia. But in order to deliver on a realistic schedule, it will launch the console only in North America and Japan in the fall. Xbox fans in Europe will have to wait until the first quarter of 2002.
