wraggster
July 31st, 2005, 23:34
In a recent meeting with Microsoft's financial big wigs, big cheese Bill Gates commented on how he sees the race between his Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. And he sees it as........a race.
Gates said "basically, we've got a Ferrari. They've got a Ferrari. Our Ferrari is leaving the starting line substantially before their Ferrari is, and, in most races, that's a very nice thing."
Gates said he believes that the the PlayStation 2 has become market leader because it was released ahead of the Xbox, and that being first to release was, and is, a huge advantage.
"We tried it the other way last time," he said.
(Of course, the actual first consoles released in both previous generations, Sega's Saturn and then Dreamcast, both failed to become market leader. But we won't tell Bill that......it might hurt his feelings!)
Head of the Xbox project, Robbie Bach, added that he doesn't see Sony having a power advantage with its hardware, as the Xbox and Gamecube currently have over the PS2.
"They're going to be a little faster in a few areas; we're going to be a little faster in a few areas," Bach said. "The net result from a hardware perspective is going to be kind of a toss-up."
Bach described the Xbox 360 developer tools as its "secret sauce", and that Microsoft should also benefit from greater developer support this time around.
He claimed there are 160 Xbox 360 games in development, 25 to 40 of which are to be released this year, including 15 at launch.
The analysts then saw a demonstration of Project Gotham Racing 3, but didn't get to play it or any other game - apparently a few were quite disappointed at this!
Gates said "basically, we've got a Ferrari. They've got a Ferrari. Our Ferrari is leaving the starting line substantially before their Ferrari is, and, in most races, that's a very nice thing."
Gates said he believes that the the PlayStation 2 has become market leader because it was released ahead of the Xbox, and that being first to release was, and is, a huge advantage.
"We tried it the other way last time," he said.
(Of course, the actual first consoles released in both previous generations, Sega's Saturn and then Dreamcast, both failed to become market leader. But we won't tell Bill that......it might hurt his feelings!)
Head of the Xbox project, Robbie Bach, added that he doesn't see Sony having a power advantage with its hardware, as the Xbox and Gamecube currently have over the PS2.
"They're going to be a little faster in a few areas; we're going to be a little faster in a few areas," Bach said. "The net result from a hardware perspective is going to be kind of a toss-up."
Bach described the Xbox 360 developer tools as its "secret sauce", and that Microsoft should also benefit from greater developer support this time around.
He claimed there are 160 Xbox 360 games in development, 25 to 40 of which are to be released this year, including 15 at launch.
The analysts then saw a demonstration of Project Gotham Racing 3, but didn't get to play it or any other game - apparently a few were quite disappointed at this!