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What is Xbox?
by James C. Smith—NOCCC , JamesCSmith@BigFoot.com - April 17, 2001 at 15:13:54:
This fall Microsoft will be launching a new video game console called Xbox.Does Microsoft Know Games?—You may be asking yourself, what does Microsoft know about games? For the past several years, Microsoft has been very successful making PC games and game accessories such as joysticks, game pads, and steering wheels. Many of Microsoft’s games have reached the top 20 selling games lists including Microsoft Flight Simulator, Links, Mechwarrior, Motocross Madness, Age of Empires, and numerous Age of Empires add-on and sequels. With the addition of the Xbox hardware and software developers, Microsoft now has a total of over 700 developers working on game-related software or hardware for the PC or Xbox.
What is a Game Console?—The phrase “game console” refers to a device that plugs into a TV and allows users to play games, which are stored on cartridges or CDs. Examples include the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, Sony Play Station, or the old Atari 2600.
Unlike PCs, which can be expanded and upgraded, game consoles are a closed system. The benefits of this closed system architecture is true plug and play, ease of use, and no compatibility problems. Console users expect to be able to plug a system into a TV and immediately start playing games. When a user is ready to play a different game, he can just pop in a different cartridge or CD and be playing seconds later.
When a console becomes outdated, it cannot be expanded or upgraded. It is simply replaced with a complete new system. It also makes it possible for game developers to know the exact specification of the users machine, allowing developers to tune their game for that specific system’s processor speed, disk speed, and memory capacity. This is very different from the PC market where some users have much faster systems than others or where one component of a system may be fast and other components slow. A PC game developer can never tune a game for a specific processor or 3D video card.
The Game Console Royalty Model—Game consoles are usually sold at or below cost. The manufactures make their profit by selling games for the console. For this business model to work, the console manufacturer needs to receive a portion of the revenue from every game made for their system, even if a third party sold the game to the consumer.
For example, Nintendo sells Nintendo 64 consoles at a loss and then develops games like Mario Brothers and sells them for a profit. Games that work on a Nintendo 64 console are also developed and sold by third party publishers such as Activision. For each copy of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 64 that Activation sells, Activision pays Nintendo a royalty. In addition to collecting royalties for each N64 game made, Nintendo also controls who is allowed to make games for the N64, which games they are allowed to make, and how good those games have to be before they are allowed to be released. Nintendo doesn’t want third parties making buggy games for the N64 because it reflects poorly on the whole system.
This system of tight control and mandatory royalties is true for every game console whether it is from Nintendo, Sony (PlayStation), SEGA, 3DO, or Atari. Xbox will be no different. Microsoft will sell the Xbox at or below cost and receive a royalty for each game sold for the Xbox, even if the game was developed, published, and sold by a third party. Microsoft will also control which publishers have a license to make games for Xbox, and all games will have to pass Microsoft’s quality assurance tests before the game is allowed to ship to stores.
The Xbox hardware—Xbox is built using many of the same components used in standard PCs. The Xbox CPU is an Intel Pentium III, and the graphics processor is a custom NVIDIA chip very similar to the NVIDIA GeForce 3.
Xbox also features an Ethernet port, a DVD-ROM drive, and a hard drive. However, Xbox is not a PC. It does not have a PCI bus, there is no mouse or keyboard, there is no BIOS, it doesn’t boot the OS from the hard drive, and it is not upgradeable or expandable. The Xbox does not act like a PC. There will be no word processor or web browser for Xbox. You cannot play PC games on Xbox. You will not have to install games. Xbox “boots” in less that one second and plays games directly from the CD with no installation or setup required. Xbox is a game console in every sense of the word. It just happens to be a console with a PIII for a processor. But, it is still a proprietary architecture designed to be the ultimate game console and not compatible with PCs in any way.
Xbox is not a TiVo or WebTV—Because the Xbox connects to your TV and has a hard drive, some people assume it will perform the functions of a digital video recorder such as TiVo. This is not the case. Xbox does not have a tuner or video digitizer. It just plays games like a Nintendo 64.
Because Xbox can communicate over a broadband Internet connection, many people think it will perform the same function as a WebTV. Again this is not the case. Xbox does not have a web browser, a keyboard, or a mouse. The Internet broadband connection is included not for web browsing, but to allow Xbox games to be played head to head against other live player over the Internet.
Xbox plays multi-player games over the Internet. It does not browse the web. Because Xbox has an Intel Pentium processor, many people think it will run PC games or other PC programs. This is not the case. It is not a PC, and cannot run PC Software. Because the Xbox has a DVD-ROM drive, many people expect it to play DVD Movies. This is almost the case. In order to play movies, you need to purchase an optional package, which includes DVD player software and a remote control.
The Current Players in the Console Industry—When Microsoft’s Xbox is launched this fall, it will be competing against Nintendo’s Game Cube, which will be launched at about the same time, and Sony’s PlayStation 2 which debuted last Christmas. Sega’s Dreamcast was recently discontinued and Sega is now focusing on making software for the Xbox and PlayStations 2.
Console Feature Comparison—The “next generation” of game consoles includes the Sony PlayStaion2, Microsoft Xbox, and Nintendo Game Cube. Their systems are all dramatically more powerful that the older generation Nintendo 64, Sony PlayStation (1) and SEGA Dreamcast.
The Xbox features a 733 MHz Pentium III, 250 MHz NVIDIA Graphics Processor (GPU) capable of drawing 125 million polygons per second (MP/Sec), 64 MB of RAM, 64 3D audio channels, a DVD-ROM drive, a 10 GB hard drive, and an 8 MB memory card for save games.
The PlayStation 2 features a 300 MHz CPU, 150 MHz GPU capable of drawing 66 MP/Sec, 38 MB Ram, 48 2D Audio channels, a DVD-ROM drive, and a 8 MB memory card for save games. The Nintendo Game Cube features a 405 MHz CPU, 202 MHz GPU, 43 MB RAM, 64 3D Audio channels, and a proprietary mini DVD like drive. There are also many other hardware features that vary from system to system.
Play Station 2 can play DVD Movies out of the box and Xbox, with a $30 add-on, can, but Game Cube cannot. Xbox and Game Cube support HDTV and full scene anti-aliasing while PlayStation 2 does not support either. And Xbox is the only system to support hardware accelerated programmable vertex and shading pipeline. This feature allows special real-time effects on the surface of 3D models including fur, grass, cartoon shaders, or just about any effect a programmer can dream up.
The bottom line is that the Xbox hardware has more speed, capacity, and features than any other game console currently announced. This does not necessarily mean Xbox will be successful or the most desirable platform. Other important factors include the price of the console, the price of the games, the marketing, the quality of the games and the quantity of games available for the system. These last two items are influenced by the quality of the development tools, the level of technical support provided to developers, and the quality of the software/OS/firmware built into Xbox. In other words, no one will buy an Xbox unless Microsoft can convince everyone it won’t crash as often as Windows.
Support from Publishers—When Xbox ships to retailers this fall, there will be 12 to 20 games available for the system immediately with many more to follow shortly after. Microsoft is developing many 1st party games in their game studios in the US and Japan. There are also many 3rd party publishers currently making games for Xbox including Acclaim, Activision, Eidos, Electronic Arts, Fox, Interplay, Red Storm, SEGA, Sierra, THQ, Titus and many others. SEGA alone is working on 11 games for Xbox. However, some of SEGA best known brands, including Virtual Fighter, will be appearing only on PlayStation 2 .
Marketing—Microsoft has budgeted $500 million to market Xbox. This includes television, print, on-line, and in store advertising. This is more than Microsoft spent on the advertising for the launch of Windows 95. You can expect to not be able to watch TV this fall without seeing an Xbox ad.
Developer Friendly—Microsoft is trying to make it as easy as possible for developers to make games for Xbox. An Xbox SDK is available which includes documentation, code samples, tools, and even 24/7 technical support. Development tools for Xbox, such as compilers and debuggers, are very mature since they can leverage the work already put into such tools for the PC.
Summary—With most of the hardware components supplied by Intel and NVIDIA, Microsoft doesn’t have to do much to make the hardware great. But, the software part of the system is what everyone is unsure about. Other than DirectX, Microsoft won’t say what other parts of Windows, if any, are in Xbox. As long as Microsoft doesn’t screw up the software, Xbox will be a system that is very tough to beat for several years to come. Watch out Sony and Nintendo, Microsoft has their sights set on the video game market and their first showing looks like it is very strong. Only time will tell if it is strong enough to push Sony out of the top spot it has held for several years running.
For More information on Xbox, you can visit www.Xbox.com or any gaming web site.
James Smith is a computer programmer who has been working in the video game industry for five years developing games for PCs. JamesCSmith@BigFoot.com www.JamesCSmith.com
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