Microsoft's new Xbox aims for greater realism, intensity
Microsoft Corp. last night unwrapped the package it hopes will be 2005's hottest Christmas gift: the Xbox 360 videogame console. The sleek, concave box represents Microsoft's bid to catch up with industry leader Sony Corp. in the $10 billion home videogame business.
''This is a rejuvenation for the videogame business," said David Hufford, group product manager for Xbox 360 at Microsoft. Hufford said that the computing power of the new machine will enable games with greater realism and intensity than those available for today's consoles.
The new Xbox, which will arrive in stores this November, carries technology that far outstrips its forerunner. At the heart of the machine is a variant of IBM Corp.'s PowerPC processor, the chip found inside Apple Computer's Macintosh computers. But the Xbox version features three separate ''cores," the parts of the chip that actually process data. In effect, it's three computer chips in one, making it far more powerful than the typical home computer.
The result, said Hufford, is a machine that will let programmers create far more impressive games. ''They've never had this kind of power before," Hufford said.
Scott Steinberg, vice president of marketing for game developer Sega of America, said his company's first two titles for the Xbox 360, Condemned and Full Auto, will take advantage of the extra computing power. In Condemned, a police officer will wander through a violent city in search of a serial killer. Steinberg said that computer games tend to be predictable, because the electronic characters behave in accordance with a ''script" that establishes a limited number of possible actions. But with the Xbox 360, the characters in Condemned can be given artificial intelligence that lets them react to the player's actions. ''What we're doing is creating more behavior characteristics that make the action feel random or more in tune with a real person," said Steinberg.
In Full Auto, a combat car-racing game, Sega will use the Xbox 360's extra power to blow stuff up, but with a precision that hasn't been possible before. The game will use ''particle physics" to program objects so that they come apart as they would in the real world. Traditional games use prepackaged animated explosions, and generally they all look alike. In Full Auto, said Steinberg, ''no two explosions ever look the same."
The Xbox 360 also boasts a custom-made graphics rendering chip from Canada's ATI Technologies Inc. that will deliver images designed for viewing on high-definition TV sets, although the game machine will also be compatible with standard TVs.
Microsoft has also made it easier to link the Xbox 360 to other digital devices. It will feature USB ports that can be used to connect the machine to other computers, home audio equipment, or portable music players like Apple Computer's iPod. It will let users ''rip" digital music to the machine's 20-gigabyte hard drive, so they can listen to the music of their choice while playing a game, or just use the Xbox as a music player. Many buyers of the original Xbox complained its eight-gigabyte drive was too small; the Xbox 360 drive will be removable, so an owner can easily upgrade it.
Schelley Olhava, a consumer electronics analyst at IDC Corp. in San Mateo, Calif., has tested the Xbox 360. ''My gut reaction was, it looks great," Olhava said. ''This is what I expected from a new videogame console."
Olhava said that Microsoft needs a hit. The company has invested $2 billion in development and marketing costs in the original Xbox. But Microsoft's game business has turned a profit in only one quarter. That was last year's quarter ending Dec. 31, after the release of the hugely popular Xbox game Halo 2, which posted $125 million in sales on its first day of release.
With its cash cushion of $16 billion, Microsoft can afford losses that would wipe out most businesses. But chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer aren't running a charity. Olhava said that Microsoft expects the Xbox 360 to put its game operations in the black. ''I would be surprised if they continue to lose lots of money in that division," she said.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.
