| Bill gates Talks XBox 2 Thursday, January 6, 2004 - 11:49 AM By: Vegeta Source: computerandvideogames.com |
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| Contrary to rumours that have been doing the rounds since last year, Bill Gates chose not to unveil Xbox 2 at his CES keynote speech last night (to find out what he did talk about, click here). But it turns out the man who built Microsoft has been discussing his plans for the successor to the big green and black box. On Tuesday night Gates spoke to technology website CNET News and spilled the beans on his plans to make Xbox 2 a full, complete, one-stop entertainment centre. "We didn't do Xbox just to do a video game; we did it to be part of our vision of the digital lifestyle," Gates told CNET News. "In the first generation, we had one simple goal, which was to establish credibility as a great video game platform. We've done that." Gates went on to discuss how Xbox 2 would push multimedia functionality into gamers' homes, saying as well as great gaming he wants to provide "more communications, more media, more connectivity." But gaming will benefit too. "At the same time," said Gates in the interview, "we move up to things like high-definition graphics and wireless that the chip breakthroughs allow us to get to." Gates then talked about how important it is for Xbox 2 to bring together all your entertainment in one place: "For the games alone you'd say wow, but the concept of bringing in your music, your media, connecting to the PC, connecting Xbox Live to Messenger makes it a very big deal." The comments echo earlier suggestions from Microsoft that the Xbox 2 will act as a media centre for your music, movies, videos and photos and be able to share information with your home PC. It's another strong indication that games consoles are set to become far more multifunctional as the next generation dawns. So it seems that Microsoft does indeed want to rule your entire entertainment world but, at the moment at least, it's not interested in ruling the handheld world. Discussing the possibility of a handheld Xbox to rival Nintendo's DS and Sony's PSP, Gates said: "We are not in the handheld space. We watch the intense competition of Sony, Nintendo, Nokia - whoever comes along with interest." In fact, Bill Gates sees an advantage for Xbox in the bitter battle being fought between Nintendo and Sony. "The fact that Sony's a little distracted with PSP may let us do all the better in the next generation," he said. Graeme Boyd |
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