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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Howe who wrote (56940)	3/30/2001 1:43:28 AM
From: Dave	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 74651

Online gaming is going to be huge. I believe that. I think that's why XBox's competitors ship with modems. I don't, however, think there will be much future for broadband games for a few years yet. It WILL happen. But at the moment when XBox ships, it will be a very small segment, and consequently there will be very few games that take advantage of it. I was a game programmer (Mac and PlayStation) a few years ago, and it is as true now as then that most games are designed and coded to be released on various platforms, and are therefore designed around the lowest common denominator. That's why broadband gaming is still a few years away. Besides, those few games that ARE designed around broadband will be released for PS2 and Dreamcast as well as XBox. Don't get me wrong, if your home is wired for Ethernet, it's great to be able to use it on a game device so that you don't have to dial in. But in most games you'll be sending small amounts of data. But you have to realize that you can buy an Ethernet adapter for a Dreamcast, and they tell me that one will be available for PS2 by the time XBox ships. If you've got a cable-modem or DSL connection, the additional cost of the Ethernet adapter is pretty insignificant compared to the cost of wiring your home. So I believe that built-in Ethernet affords XBox no real advantage, just extra cost for those people whose homes aren't wired for Ethernet. Dave

To: David Howe who wrote (56940)	3/31/2001 5:14:52 PM
From: dybdahl	Respond to of 74651

Ameritech uses the TV show "Big Brother" as a reason to get ADSL over here. They transmit video with 500kbps, which you need an internet connection of at least 1Mbps to get with full quality. Currently, most computer games run fairly on an 28.8kbps connection, and with 64-128kbps they run quite smooth. You don't need broadband to get games running smoothly, but, of course, you can shorten development time, if you don't need to reduce bandwidth demands so much. That means that games could be cheaper or better if there's enough bandwidth, and that's where Microsoft comes in: A partnership with broadband companies makes the broadband companies a marketing tool for Microsoft, and Microsoft provides a sales method to the broadband companies. If Microsoft succeeds, they will probably also have the customer base with the best internet connections, which makes their games better and cheaper than the competitors. Quite clever. They just have to pass the first test: Make X-box get a significant market share. Lars.