Armacham
01-25-2001, 05:03 PM
from http://www.gamers.com/news/526674
Credible sources, who prefer to remain anonymous, told us that Bill Gates and Microsoft will announce at the spring Tokyo Game Show that the Microsoft Xbox will include the Dreamcast chipset, allowing it to play all Dreamcast titles. This announcement is expected to come on the first day of the show (March 30) when Bill Gates delivers his keynote address. And while not finalized, we have been told that the DC chipset is already incorporated into the Xbox, although at this time, the DC-compatible Xbox has yet to be finalized as the market version of the system.
Microsoft and the Japanese press have alluded to a big announcement scheduled for TGS. As our international editor, Nao Higo, reported earlier this week:
There are few more hints that point to this direction, such as an article in Famitsu that says "an incredibly huge developer is going to support Xbox" and that "titles will be announced at the Tokyo Game Show beginning on March 31." At this point, the only huge software developers remaining that have not announced support of Microsoft's console are Square and Sega.
Furthermore, when Mr. Bill gave his keynote address at the Consumer Electronic Show this past January, he glibly referred to "state of the art" chips that have yet to be implemented into the Xbox. Quoted from our article by our editor-in-chief of video games, Dan "Shoe" Hsu:
While Gates was quick to brag about the Xbox's nVidia graphics processor, he did admit other chips in the system on display were not all in yet. He told the crowd that everything is complete except for a few "state of the art" chips that are to be put in later, to make sure the Xbox technology is as up-to-date as possible. This is probably music to a lot of people's ears, especially PC users, who are used to having hardware becoming outdated as quickly as Intel can make it.
This quotation ties in nicely with Sega's recent announcement that it is planning to incorporate DC technology into future eletronic devices, including set-top boxes. Also, the Dreamcast itself is being phased out, but the software support is not. Over 100 titles, including a number of high-profile games, are in development for the Dreamcast platform, which very well could be an ace up Microsoft's sleeve.
Our sources have also told us that the NY Times article that claimed Nintendo was in discussion with Sega was for the most part incorrect. The NY Times fingered the wrong Redmond giant. It was not the Redmond-based Nintendo making repeated trips to Sega HQ; it was the Redmond-based Microsoft.
If Microsoft does incorporate Dreamcast technology into the Xbox, then the system will have a back catalog of incredible games right from launch, and in terms of marketing, will have a unique and similar feature to vaunt in the face of the PS2's backwards compatibility with almost all PS one games.
We have also been informed that a Virtua Fighter game has been programmed for the Xbox. The game is not running on any DC emulation software; it is original code programmed specifically to run on the Xbox. For more information, click on the link above.
Gamers.com will have editors at the Tokyo Game Show covering Bill Gate's keynote address, the show floor and any announcements that are made. Expect live and continuous updates throughout the show which runs from March 30 to April 1.
Christopher Leonard
Gamers.com
Credible sources, who prefer to remain anonymous, told us that Bill Gates and Microsoft will announce at the spring Tokyo Game Show that the Microsoft Xbox will include the Dreamcast chipset, allowing it to play all Dreamcast titles. This announcement is expected to come on the first day of the show (March 30) when Bill Gates delivers his keynote address. And while not finalized, we have been told that the DC chipset is already incorporated into the Xbox, although at this time, the DC-compatible Xbox has yet to be finalized as the market version of the system.
Microsoft and the Japanese press have alluded to a big announcement scheduled for TGS. As our international editor, Nao Higo, reported earlier this week:
There are few more hints that point to this direction, such as an article in Famitsu that says "an incredibly huge developer is going to support Xbox" and that "titles will be announced at the Tokyo Game Show beginning on March 31." At this point, the only huge software developers remaining that have not announced support of Microsoft's console are Square and Sega.
Furthermore, when Mr. Bill gave his keynote address at the Consumer Electronic Show this past January, he glibly referred to "state of the art" chips that have yet to be implemented into the Xbox. Quoted from our article by our editor-in-chief of video games, Dan "Shoe" Hsu:
While Gates was quick to brag about the Xbox's nVidia graphics processor, he did admit other chips in the system on display were not all in yet. He told the crowd that everything is complete except for a few "state of the art" chips that are to be put in later, to make sure the Xbox technology is as up-to-date as possible. This is probably music to a lot of people's ears, especially PC users, who are used to having hardware becoming outdated as quickly as Intel can make it.
This quotation ties in nicely with Sega's recent announcement that it is planning to incorporate DC technology into future eletronic devices, including set-top boxes. Also, the Dreamcast itself is being phased out, but the software support is not. Over 100 titles, including a number of high-profile games, are in development for the Dreamcast platform, which very well could be an ace up Microsoft's sleeve.
Our sources have also told us that the NY Times article that claimed Nintendo was in discussion with Sega was for the most part incorrect. The NY Times fingered the wrong Redmond giant. It was not the Redmond-based Nintendo making repeated trips to Sega HQ; it was the Redmond-based Microsoft.
If Microsoft does incorporate Dreamcast technology into the Xbox, then the system will have a back catalog of incredible games right from launch, and in terms of marketing, will have a unique and similar feature to vaunt in the face of the PS2's backwards compatibility with almost all PS one games.
We have also been informed that a Virtua Fighter game has been programmed for the Xbox. The game is not running on any DC emulation software; it is original code programmed specifically to run on the Xbox. For more information, click on the link above.
Gamers.com will have editors at the Tokyo Game Show covering Bill Gate's keynote address, the show floor and any announcements that are made. Expect live and continuous updates throughout the show which runs from March 30 to April 1.
Christopher Leonard
Gamers.com