Bill Gates on Xbox2 POWER

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Gates Interview Part Three: Xbox 2 and Xbox Live

gates3.jpg imageHere's Part 3 of our discussion with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, where we talk about the Xbox 2, its role as the hub of the next generation's living room (hint: maybe not the center, but it's sounding awful hard-drivey. Also, "base thing?"), as well as Microsoft's plans for the future of Xbox Live. If you want to catch up, start with Part 1, then head over to Part 2.

Gizmodo: To sort of get back to the Digital Home—which is obviously the direction Microsoft wants to go in the short term, if not the long term—have you seen that the middle [sales] penetration of the Xbox in the first generation, definitely better than Nintendo's offering, not up there where Sony is, but definitely a strong #2... Do you feel like in the next generation all the home integration pieces of the Xbox 2 is going to be what it's going to take to move you to #1 as the most adopted console?

Gates: There's no doubt Sony will do a great next generation box and we'll do a great next generation box and that competition will be very healthy. People will have a choice. Some of the really hardcore people will end up with both. The next generation is just going to be another dramatic improvement. What we want to do is grow the business as a whole by making the games far more approachable.

Today, if you're not an aficionado, if you sit down, if within five minutes you don't know what the heck is going on... We need a lot of new genres of games. Now Xbox Live has been one of our great triumphs. They are bringing into the game experience—talking to your friends, being able to meet people, do contests, have spectators—and that we think is a super-important feature going forward. You're going to see brilliant software creativity around Live.

Gizmodo: What do you think the chances are that you guys might offer Live without a subscription fee in the next generation? Just assume that everyone that has an Xbox will have the capability to use it?

Gates: There will always be some elements of Live that we'll offer for free, but there will be significant portions of Live that we'll offer for subscription. And the subscription—what is it, $39.95 a year?—I mean, hey!

Gizmodo: It's not that it's expensive so much as it is that with... If everybody had it, there might be more opportunity for develops to come up with games that utilize it.

Gates: We expect the penetration of Live in the next generation to be over 80%. We'll put enough value into it to make that very, very attractive for people. So anyway, we're investing a lot in having Live just be dramatically more. Obviously, we'll connect Xbox Love up to what we do with Messenger, so the idea that you can share music, talk to your friends, video chat with friends, voice chat, text chat—all those things between the Xbox world and the PC world—as the Xbox evolves, we'll get that going. So there's some nice connections that can take place there.

Gizmodo: Now I know you've said that you're not interested—at least for the moment—in mobile gaming. It's just not a direction you're looking to take the Xbox platform. But there has been some talk that the next generation of Xbox will be integrated, or that there will be a lot more integration, [like] using it as a hub for personal media devices: video players, flash memory drives, things like that. Have you guys—is there anything that you're moving in that direction for that platform yet? Specifically, where it comes down to using the hard drive of the Xbox to store MP3s or store Windows Audio and then copy it to a flash drive; things like that.

Gates: Well, the PC is our superset device in terms of media integration. You'll see a ton of that stuff you see on the PC, like the ability to listen to your tunes... we did some of this on Xbox 1, where you could move music over and have tracks—it wasn't a required feature for the games. We did build in the music mixer-type stuff, but we'll build a lot of that stuff into the base thing. We're evolving the photo and music stuff that's in Windows and Xbox will get some of that extra capability. So you'll see more synergy between Windows and Xbox. And we think these portable media devices, whether they are music only or with video, will take off. So we'll make sure that we connect up as much as we can.

The portable space... It's not like we're saying that's a boring space or anything. There just happens to be one or two things that Microsoft isn't doing. And we probably benefit that Sony is fighting Nintendo and has a real challenge on their hands with PSP versus DS, while our group is totally focussed on the next generation video console.

In terms of #1 and #2, we did in November and December, just slightly outsell Sony in the US. The only place where we actually didn't do well with Xbox—if you took all the expectations we had going into it—our sales in Japan is the only place we didn't achieve much. Not at all. Wherein Europe and the US, we did super-well. With Xbox Live we did very well. Our relationship with the game publishers we did well. And so we certainly are empowered to, as they say, 'play again.'

Gizmodo: And I don't think anybody is going to miss you in the portable space at this point, because you have these two titans butting heads.

Gates: There's also, in the long run, there's this question of the phone device, as it gets more gaming capability. More people believe portable PCs, as you see [the] Tablet form-factor and what we call 'ultra-mobile' PCs that are really quite small, there's going to be quite a bit of stuff there.

There's no way portable gaming can come anywhere near the high-definition gaming that we'll offer in the console-based product. The amount of power and heat that we get to budget for that [console] is two orders of magnitude more than you can do with a portable device. Just to get, you know—we have to have fans, we have to have multiple fans. I mean, we're turning out hundreds of watts in that thing because the processor and the graphics are just total state-of-the-art incredible devices.

Gizmodo: And a lot of the XNA stuff, if I'm not mistaken, is sort of setting up the infrastructure for that in the future. That you could go ahead and develop one thing, and it'll work on a phone, but when the next phone that comes out and has more power, it'll still work on that [new] phone. Just sort of like PCs are now, where you can move up within capabilities within the same software.

Gates: XNA actually takes it at [the] sweet spot. There's a lot of stuff that works on any platform, but it takes the sweet spot between Xbox and PC, and making it—the amount of work, if you want to target Xbox and PC—the marginal work is like 10 percent, as opposed to 50 percent. And that's where—by making all the Direct 3D stuff the same, and the production environment and the tools environment the same—that's where we want it to be really obvious that you can do both.

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/home...erview-part-three-xbox-2-and-xbox-live-029382
 
ummm... how is that news? OMG, graphics cards and CPU's require cooling fans. SHOCK AND AWE. They must be super powerfull like TNT2's or something.
 
If you're going to post that interview, you should have highlighted the following statement:

Gates: We expect the penetration of Live in the next generation to be over 80%.
That's about the only interesting thing he says throughout.
 
Just like the 100 million xboxes. Far too early to make assumptions at this point. But it wouldnt surprise me in the least.
 
Rhindle said:
If you're going to post that interview, you should have highlighted the following statement:


That's about the only interesting thing he says throughout.



No credit card required free trial me thinks.
 
At least Gates actually sounds like he's grounded in reality, instead of some high ranking people in other gaming companies.
 
It's funny how MS and Sony show a total lack of respect to Nintendo outside of the handheld world. It's like they don't even exist.
 
GamerDiva said:
It's funny how MS and Sony show a total lack of respect to Nintendo outside of the handheld world. It's like they don't even exist.

Well sony is so far in front, they dont need to respect anyone, and MS, well they have more money to play with than any other company in the world.
 
xbox 2 features list

Blazing graphics!
Mind blowing surround sound!
Its twice as big as the original xbox!
 
Hmm. Xbox 2 sounds like a major gas guzzler.

But that's ok. All my vehicles are beasts, that chug gasoline. Might as well have a console to match.
 
I thought I read some rumor just recently that Xenon would be smaller than the original Xbox. Could that be part of the reason they need multiple fans?
 
Oh, and Bill? Good luck on getting 5% -> 80% next gen for live subscriptions. I'm sure you have a team working on manipulating the stats right now.

As for the 'hard drivey' comments, I wouldn't read anything much into that. Xbox2 is more likely to follow the Media centre extender model than anything else - relatively cheap (software only in the case of Xbox, the hardware is already there), no hard drive needed, and you need a PC with Windows. Cha-ching!
 
he also slipped in
spectators
again for live, that kinda confirms the Xbox Live TV thing that came up a few months ago, and it might even be free, though it's more likely he was referring to the messenger features there.

That's an awesome development for Live imo.


Oh and Mr Klaw, i dont think it'll be that hard if they actually integrate live this time (which is what EB said they would do in their conference) 80% might be a bit optimistic though.
 
Ghost said:
Oh and Mr Klaw, i dont think it'll be that hard if they actually integrate live this time (which is what EB said they would do in their conference) 80% might be a bit optimistic though.

So even if you don't pay $40, you still get Live if you connect an ethernet cable? That'd help with the numbers, and annoy the fuck out of people getting messenger notifications all the time. But as you say, even 80% with ethernet connected is still very optimistic.
 
Also, who at Microsoft's US PR granted Gizmodo (good though the site is) a fucking interview with *Bill Gates*?
 
Bill Gates says $39.95 a month? Bahahahahaha, of course it's not expensive for him! Kidding. Nice post, I found most of the interview interesting since I never really hear Bill Gates himself speak of next gen.
 
I'm surprised more people aren't upset that MS has said XB2 will be a media center platform. The whole focus of the initial Xbox campaign was, "We are strictly a gaming system!" ... now the winds have changed since they have some marketshare.

History proves that electronic units that try to be "all things to all people" end up failing at all things (Or doing it mediocre).


If Xbox wants true 80% XBL subscriptions, they need to do away with the "freebies", since most people just recycle those to play. Then lower the price to something outrageously low.
 
TeTr1C said:
Bill Gates says $39.95 a month? Bahahahahaha, of course it's not expensive for him! Kidding. Nice post, I found most of the interview interesting since I never really hear Bill Gates himself speak of next gen.

Read the article McFly. He said ANNUALLY

:tard:
 
ToxicAdam said:
History proves that electronic units that try to be "all things to all people" end up failing at all things (Or doing it mediocre)..

If history proves this I would LOVE an example? Just one. Give me one example of an electronic device (perhaps one related to console gaming?) that failed because it was "all things to all people" The only devices that I can think of that have really attempted this is the PS-X which by all accounts is a pretty good piece of technology.. PDA cell phones seem to work pretty well, and last count I had the Personal Computer was a pretty nifty piece of technology.. and that really does do just about everything.

How is the Xbox being able to play movie and picture files off of my PC a bad thing? It might now be something I use a ton but its nice that its there.. and if my Xbox can communicate with people on cell phones or their PC easily it will make getting on games that much easier. Hell, if MS wants to build in DVR capabilities I wouldnt complain.. why people have an aversion to set top boxes built into their console is beyond me... the fact that the cube doesnt play DVD movies doesnt make it more fun.
 
human5892 said:
That 80% figure is fucking absurd.

Do 80% of all Xbox owners even have broadband internet?

Well, seeing as only half of the US population is even able to get broadband, let alone use it right now, I find that hard to believe, too.
 
Sounds like it's gonna be even bigger and louder than the XBOX. It'll do pretty well in the US then, how did one guy recently put it? Here, in America, if it takes a forklift to move it's going to be a hit.
 
StoOgE said:
If history proves this I would LOVE an example? Just one. .



This is too easy. If you challenged me to find 4 or 5, I would have struggled.


CD-I



The CD-i (short for Compact Disc Interactive), which was released in 1991, was a multimedia system created primarily by Philips and to a lesser extent Sony, though only Philips proceeded to sell the system. Its initial price was around USD 400. It was capable of playing interactive CD-i discs (its native format, also known as Green Book), Audio CDs, CD+G (CD+Graphics), Karaoke CDs, and Video CDs (VCDs), though the last of these required an optional "Digital Video Card" to provide MPEG-1 decoding.
Early software releases focused heavily on educational and self-improvement titles, with only a handful of video games, many of them adaptations of board games like "Connect Four". Later attempts to develop a foothold in games were rendered irrelevant by the arrival of the cheaper and more powerful Sony PlayStation.

In 1994, system sales started to slow and the system died in 1998. Philips never managed to create the public interest in the capabilities of the CD-i that it had hoped for. It is noted for having several video games that are normally found exclusively on Nintendo systems, though they were not developed by Nintendo. Hotel Mario featured Super Mario characters and three Legend of Zelda games were released: Faces of Evil, Wand of Gamelon and Zelda's Adventure.

With the home market exhausted, Philips tried to position the technology as a tool for kiosks and industrial multimedia, but here too it found little success.

The Philips CD-i had three versions: the CD-i 450, which was the "video game CD-i", the CD-i 210, which was the common multimedia version, and the CD-i 550, which was basically a 450 with the Digital Video Cartridge installed plus it came with a arcade pad
 
According to that site america will be 80% broadband by june 2006.

And i dont think 'penetration of live' means people paying for it, its just Xbox owners who have the ability to use it.
 
ToxicAdam said:

No, the CD-I did not fail because it was a multi-purpose console. It happened to be a multi purpose console that failed. The real reason it failed? 1) It was overpriced. 2) at that point in time, CD based games were all about "multimedia" which basically meant barely interactive FMV. The thing had shitty games, and cost too much thats why it failed.

cdi13.jpg
 
Hindsight is 20/20 ... but the CD-i was a multimedia console that the public rejected. It was rejected because all of the things you could do on it, could be done on a PC, or with other electonic devices. You asked me to name one, I did.


That's the thrust of my comment. You can not make a device that tries to do all things and produce the same results of task-specific hardware. To do so would make the cost too high, and drive yourself out of the marketplace. So you need to cut corners, sacrifice options or quality.


Good examples:

Microsoft Works. A piece of software that does many things .. none of them well.

NGage. Nuff said.

All-in-one remotes. Ever try one of these? They can do the basic options, but ultimately fail when compared to the specific remote.


It's just a truism of life. Items that are engineered for specific tasks are always superior. This idea that people are going to buy a "PC lite" to do things that thier PC can handle better is a waste of effort and money (Both thiers and ours).
 
Do The Mario said:
Why is the handheld console talking to him?

Gizmodo is a technology/gadgets blog. Gizmondo is a joke of a handheld gaming platform. The former existed before the latter.
 
Ghost said:
According to that site america will be 80% broadband by june 2006.

80% of the homes total? Or 80% of internet users?

I'd be highly surprised if 80% of homes had broadband by 2006.
 
StoOgE said:
If history proves this I would LOVE an example?

The standard of failure isn't really that black and white. "Failed" convergence devices don't often fall flat, they often find a very small niche, and exist before quietly puttering out to either make way for new models, or outright die.

But there are a couple that can be considered, well, less-than-stellar successes:

WebTV:
With all of the marketing in the world, WebTV and later, Microsoft, couldn't convince people that surfing the web on their TVs, on a completely locked-down box, was a good idea. It may be good for a Grade A neophyte, someone who's so afraid of computers they won't even go near an iMac, but not much more.

N-Gage:
Nokia was supposed to be the company that would take over portable gaming from Nintendo. Their clout in cell phones isn't something to sneeze at - to say the least - and they completely botched both attempts to make a hybrid game console/cell phone.

Brother Word Processor/Typewriter hybrid:
Paul Bunyan redux. Brother made typewriters, but they saw the writing (haw) on the walls with computers and their fancypants "word processors." Their answer was to create a devices that integrated a small display that let you preview each line before it was typed (effectively making everything take longer, because with a computer you at least had the benefit of a paper spool or tray), or a basic word processing program that functioned on an attached monitor.

People didn't buy it, literally or figuratively. Why? Because at least their computers allowed them to do their spreadsheets as well.
 
GamerDiva said:
It's funny how MS and Sony show a total lack of respect to Nintendo outside of the handheld world. It's like they don't even exist.

Nintendo is in a world of its own. They

1) sell below market value
2) sell inferior products
3) don't sell worth crap

They are simply not competing with Sony and Microsoft, and as a result they don't really exist. Nintendo am cry but it's the sad truth at this very moment in time.
 
tahrikmili said:
Nintendo is in a world of its own. They

1) sell below market value
2) sell inferior products
3) don't sell worth crap

They are simply not competing with Sony and Microsoft, and as a result they don't really exist. Nintendo am cry but it's the sad truth at this very moment in time.

1) The GC at $99 is a bargain. No complaints. No DVD play feature, it should be cheaper.
2) What? Nintendo reliability is top notch.
3) GC is a sales disappointment as it closely trails the Xbox. GBA is a mega sales monster.

The sad truth is your post is not based in reality.
 
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