Microsoft may play in video game market
news.cnet.com
By Reuters
Special to CNET News.com
October 26, 1999, 4:20 a.m. PT
NEW YORK--Microsoft is considering pouring billions of dollars over four years into
developing and promoting a home video game console, in a move to control
digital entertainment, according to reports.
The console is code-named X-box [creative name from those folks in Redmond], a person briefed on Microsoft's plans told the Wall
Street Journal, and would represent an attempt to head off Sony in the home video game
market.
The Microsoft game system is expected to go on sale in the fall of 2000, unnamed industry
executives told the Journal. Sony's Playstation 2 is expected to be launched in March in
Japan and in the United States in fall 2000. It's not clear when Microsoft could announce
its system, the Journal said.
The new Sony machine will be able to run high-quality three-dimensional animation, play
digital video disks, connect to the Internet, and store data in hard disk drives, the Journal
said. It could potentially represent competition for home personal computers that use
Microsoft software, the paper said. |
