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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (94621)	2/22/2000 4:31:00 PM
From: steve harris	Respond to of 1573431

ted, thread, yahoo.cnet.com Gates may takes wraps off "X-box" plans soon By Bloomberg News Special to CNET News.com February 22, 2000, 1:10 p.m. PT REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft chairman Bill Gates may unveil a video-game console system to compete with Sony in opening remarks at the annual Game Developers Conference in March, analysts said. Microsoft has been working on its so-called X-Box for months and held talks with video-game publishers about its plan for a console to challenge Sony's PlayStation 2. The PlayStation 2 is set for release in Japan less than a week before Gates's March 10 speech in San Jose, Calif. Microsoft is pushing into the video-game market because new consoles can be used to surf the Internet, possibly drawing users from personal computers that account for the bulk of the company's revenue. Introducing its plans for a console at the conference would allow Microsoft to steal the limelight from Sony and attract game developers to make software for the system. 'That would strike me as being a very good possibility,' said Edward Williams, a video-game software analyst with Gerard Klauer Mattison. 'This is a conference purely for developers. It's trying to sit down with them and getting them to allocate their dollars and their time.' Video-game console makers need to convince game publishers to create attractive software in order to spur demand. Sony's shares soared to record highs recently on optimism that the PlayStation 2 will boost sales. The Tokyo-based consumer-electronics company is betting the console will serve as a central component linking digital portable stereos, televisions and other devices to the Net for online games, movies, shopping and other services. Microsoft executives weren't immediately available. A press release said Gates's speech "is expected to focus on Microsoft's ongoing commitment to the entertainment market." Williams said it's not known what the technical specifications for Microsoft's console will likely be, which companies will manufacture the device, and which will provide chips and other components. The console is expected to run on a version of Microsoft's Windows and include a modem and hard-disk drive. It may be released in the third quarter of 2001, he said.