XBOX /2 — Let the Leapfrogging Begin!

Published on May 4th, 2005

Posted by John C Dvorak in Column fodder, General

Xbox: New Xbox Has a 2005 Release Date — Is anyone actually surprised by this?

According to a report on Gamesindustry.biz, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has confirmed that the next Xbox will be released this year.

The announcement was made at a business writers convention, where Gates told the Society of American Business Writers and Editors that the console will be shipping this year.

The subject was brought up when Gates was speaking about HD displays where he said that this was “the year of high definition” due to the next Xbox shipping this year.

10 users responded in " XBOX /2 — Let the Leapfrogging Begin! "

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# 1 Ima Fish said, on May 4th, 2005 at 7:32 am

Microsoft is obsessed with coming out before the PS3. I’m not sure why. Sony used the Dreamcast’s promptness to kill it. Sony’s sales pitch was essentially, “We’re coming out with something much better, all your PS1 games will work with the PS2, so don’t waste your money on the crappy Dreamcast.

What’s going to stop this from happening again? The PS3 will be backwards compatible to both PS2 and PS1 games. It’ll have more games. It will offer more raw power.

I’m not saying the Xbox 360 will be a failure. But it certainly will NOT be a PS3 killer. Sony will continue to dominate well into the future.

# 2 Ima Fish said, on May 4th, 2005 at 7:35 am

Oh, and does anyone at Microsoft realize that when you make a 360 degree turn, you end up heading in the exact same direction?! Or is this an inside joke from Microsoft.

# 3 Edward Dinovo said, on May 4th, 2005 at 11:21 am

I am surprised they got their 3-core Power PC design finished in time. Maybe IBM did most of the work, or maybe this launch date is just hype to steal some of the limelight. What an odd twist of fate – Microsoft abandoning Intel and NVidia (who SONY now uses) for hardware. Perhaps Microsoft made too many enemies with the XBOX 1 project and their hardware providers refused to play along this time.

# 4 Alan said, on May 4th, 2005 at 12:01 pm

I’m not very smart about this stuff but it looks like the X2 is a Mac. Look at this: http://www.apple.com/macmini/

Alan

# 5 site admin said, on May 4th, 2005 at 1:43 pm

Alan, FYI, the pic is a gag. A callback to the assertion that Microsoft copies everything from Apple.

# 6 Wesley said, on May 4th, 2005 at 1:50 pm

Um, Alan. That picture is supposed to be a joke… you know the oft repeated mantra (especially from Mac fanatics) that Microsoft simply copies from Apple and slap their name on it. Like what they’re saying that Longhorn will be a cheaply made copy of Tiger. ( A very cute cartoon btw). Anyway, using that (and the fact that XBoxes use PowerPC processors) as the foundation, look at the above picture again.

# 7 Miguel Lopes said, on May 4th, 2005 at 2:58 pm

For half a second before reading the post I though MS was teaming up with Apple to come up with a killer gaming console… I thought that’s what the pic was trying to suggest… And it wouldn’t be such a bad idea… would it?

MHO – MS should design an extremely cool looking box – not like the old xbox, which is big and ugly – more like the new PS2, tiny, slim and cool. Then get the very best hardware in there. It can even be PC compatible like the original xbox. Also include a hard disk disk – maybe 120 gigs or 200. A card reader. Make it inexpensive-ish – it’s POSSIBLE. And then don’t go after the Linux gang after they hack into it – that’ll actually boost sales and the increase the ‘cult’ value of the thing.

But hey, this is just a dream, of course…

# 8 Anthony said, on May 4th, 2005 at 7:40 pm

If Microsoft didn’t have unlimited money I doubt they would push so hard to beat Sony out of the gate.

The Dreamcast (or rather any Sega console) is a great example.

IMO though it’s going to take something that has not been put on the table yet to win this stage of the console war. I’m sure all of the big 3 have something up their sleeves, and no one has any clue what their missing out on.

# 9 Alan said, on May 5th, 2005 at 10:13 am

I should have known. Thanks for being gentle with me.

Alan

# 10 Tal Rotbart said, on May 8th, 2005 at 11:00 am

What I find interesting, is actually how Bill G. himself is taking a large part in the PR for this launch. This seems more like trying to kindle a fire under the tepid MSFT stock rather than an actual interest in the enterntainment division. Especially as comes immediately following some unfavourable business articles noting how Microsoft’s revenue growth has stopped increasing, which is (IMHO, wrongly) blamed on the lull until Longhorn.

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