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Microsoft XBox (Games) Entertainment Games

Gates Shows Off Xbox Media Center, Discusses Consoles 73

Posted by simoniker from the everything-to-everyone dept.
Thanks to Reuters for its story reporting on Bill Gates' announcement of an Xbox Media Center Extender kit at the CES show in Las Vegas, discussing the add-on "that will extend the functions of its Windows XP Media Center Edition to the console, turning it into a set-top box that allows the playback of live and recorded video, music and photos." 1UP has a couple more details, noting the add-on "will combine an Xbox DVD title with a dedicated remote control [and] currently carries no release date or price point", and the Reuters interview with Gates has him noting of the Xbox: "We are pushing the boundaries in terms of expanding what people think of as what the device can do." He's also confident but secretive about the next generation of consoles, suggesting: "In terms of the next round, hey, it's a new game. We're not showing our hand and I don't think Sony's showing their hand. We're doing some very cool work, but that's really all we say at this point."
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Gates Shows Off Xbox Media Center, Discusses Consoles More

Gates Shows Off Xbox Media Center, Discusses Consoles

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  • Windows Tv's (Score:4, Funny)

    by Bruha ( 412869 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @08:32AM (#7926911) Homepage Journal
    Yeah and he's also secured deals to put WinCE into many tv's for some home media center.

    Frankly I'm pissed becuase the last thing I want to do is have to buy antivirus for my Tv.

    • Re:Windows Tv's (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Ugh. Microsoft everywhere. MSNBC, Xbox, WMA-enabled DVD players, V-ports on RCA TVs, WinCE everywhere, etc.

      I don't want to think about what influence Microsoft will have on content when America inevitably allows them to control every medium in existence. He who owns the bridge controls who and what can pass, and at what price.
      • Ugh. Microsoft everywhere. MSNBC.....America inevitably allows them to control every medium

        Have you ever watched MSNBC? Hardly anyone does. It's pretty much a failure. It's not even a real "Cable news channel", as they fill so much of their schedule with recycled fluff such as multi-hour celebrity profiles drawn from old "Today" show material. That net is in the fish-flops of death right now.

      • Re:Windows Tv's (Score:3, Insightful)

        by NanoGator ( 522640 )
        "I don't want to think about what influence Microsoft will have on content when America inevitably allows them to control every medium in existence. He who owns the bridge controls who and what can pass, and at what price."

        Yeah, because Microsoft makes a monopoly out of everything it touches. For example, the XBOX, the PocketPC, Ultimate TV, Front Page, IIS, Microsoft Network Cards...
        • For example, the XBOX, the PocketPC, Ultimate TV, Front Page, IIS, Microsoft Network Cards...

          While it's true the Xbox and others aren't monopoly positions now, the Xbox is their way into the living room where UltimateTV and MSN TV (formerly WebTV) failed miserably.

          Considering the Xbox Music Mixer moves the Xbox away from being 'just a game console', and this new Media Center application will do so even more, it really is apparent that the Xbox is a trojan designed for Microsoft to be able to gain footh

          • "Expect the Next Xbox to be a huge feature laden set top box, probably complete with UltimateTV and MSN TV capabilities, as well as even closer ties to connecting to Windows/Longhorn PCs. Games will end up being just part of the focus, instead of the main focus. They'll use the Xbox name to get it into homes where the Xbox already is, and hope to lock people into their control."

            That's fine. But for them to make a monopoly out of it, they still need for the market to say "Yes, we like this." That's not l
        • Yeah, because Microsoft makes a monopoly out of everything it touches. For example, the XBOX

          Well, the Xbox looks and feels like a monolith, does that count? : )
    • HA HA! That's so funny! Because you have to use antivirus software under Windows! So obviously any Microsoft product needs it too! Oh man, hilarious!

      Wait a second, does the XBox come with antivirus software? What about the Microsoft mouse I own? How about MS t-shirts?

    • Last time I checked Sony made lots of Very nice TVs. I don't think they'll become dependant on their direct competition.
  • This stunt is quite probably done to reduce the value consumers get from modding the xbox; soon similar stuff can be done with an un-modded xbox.

    Quite probably MSFT will be referring to this as an "innovation", like all the other obvious things they do.
    • Outside the "Slashdot" circles I doubt very many people mod their consoles. Until somebody comes up with a way to "mod" that doesn't require opening the case and poking around inside, then I don't think Bill loses much sleep over this threat.
      • You're wrong if you think that only "hackers" (people who like to tinker with their hardware and software.. linux uses... etc) and people interested in technology on more than a superficial level mod their consoles. The vast majority of people who mod their consoles are kiddies who don't want to pay for games.

        Virtually anyone can do it. opening the case and poking around inside requires simply unscrewing a few screws, setting the solderless modchip in place, screwing it in, and putting the top back on y

  • This feels like a knee-jerk reaction to the psx being released. Of course Gates again lost the race, this time for a media center / console hybrid. At least the difference is far less than the last release wars.

    It's interesting to note that it's touted as a media center extension -- will it not function without a media center pc already in the household? Along those same lines -- I can't really figure out what the offering is here, besides playing video over a network. This is a very vague announcement i
    • this doesn't sound like any sort of knee-jerk feature competition. the PSX added dtv-tuning and pvr capability. this basically just lets your xbox access data from your home network. Sony doesn't do that (yet), and MS doesn't do PVR (yet).

      though, i'm fairly certain MS is going to have a bigger HD and PVR in the nextbox. Sony will probably make market and sell two seperate products, the ps3, and a pricier ps3+pvr. i'd also be surprised if they don't have a firmward update for the PSX, to allow them some s

  • Sony Has Buz and More (Score:3, Interesting)

    by saden1 ( 581102 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @10:24AM (#7927584)
    PS 3 will have all the bells and whistles everyone wants. On top of that they'll have a ton of games and developer support. I'm sure PS 3 will be DVR capable too.

    Honestly, if XBox and PS 3 came out at the same time and have similar features which would you buy?
    • because marketing buzz has always turned out to be indicative of the finished product in the past right? please.

      you can't judge the systems until they're sitting on the shelf. picking sides now is just a fanboy exercise.

      if the nextbox and the ps3 hit with the exact same features, i'd go MS for the online play. if sony had a comparable network gaming experience, i'd just pick the one that had a better library of the games i play.

      right now that's the xbox.

      but i'm not about to join a flamewar suggesting
    • If it has backwards compatibility, it'd be much more useful to me :p

      I doubt PS 3 will have everything though. Remember, Sony still hasn't learned to sell the console with 4 controller ports. They will make some kind of compromise in the design somewhere and it will piss of gamers...
  • When was the last time I played a game on XP without some tweaks or another. Just changing the resolution alone is something no consoles need to deal with. This doesn't include video card patches and drivers etc etc

  • With programs like MythTV [mythtv.org] it looks like the linux community will be forever beating Microsoft to the punch as far as hardware usability goes.
    • 'roll your own' solutions using open source software will always have better features than their closed-source competitors.

      this goes for mythTV vs Tivo,replaytv,psx, et al as well.

      but they will never be the product of choice for the mass market. so it doesn't matter who beats whom to the punch. it only matters (in the money making sense) who can deliver the best product to the largest market.

      and if the xbox can do pvr and games, then i'll feel alot better about giving it to my mother-in-law than setting

    • I spent almost a full day getting MythTV working, and still didn't work perfect. Seems business as usual for linux apps. Linux poses no more threat on PVR space than linux based home built routers pose for home access point routers like linksys or netgear.
  • Big question just popped in my head. We all know Microsoft loses money for every XBox unit sold. The more they sell, the more MS loses. Now they just dumped more R&D into the unit and has this add-on. When do they plan on making money on this or are they still trying to simply saturate the market and gain market share and then increase prices and/or subscription fees? I know it's a reaction to PSX and to Apple's Digital Hub (in a roundabout way), but adding it to a loss-leader doesn't seem to make sense
    • Actually, the more MS sells, the less MS loses. Allow me to break it down for you. Microsoft spends 1 currency unit to produce a single XBox. Now let's say they produce 1,000. They're at -1,000, right? If those 1,000 units sit in a warehouse, they're still at -1,000. But let's say they ship the units and they all sell and suppose MS sells them for 0.5 current units. Then what is MS at? -500. You see how the more MS sells, the less they loose?

      Finally, the more consoles ship, the greater the number of games t

    • Re:Here's a Question (Score:3, Informative)

      by bugbread ( 599172 )
      The more people own XBoxes, the more games are sold, and MS makes their money back off games sold. It's only the hardware that's sold at a loss.
  • Microsoft and Sony duke it out over the next 5 years for the number one home media center. One becomes the clear dominate. Nintendo continues development of video gaming techologies, ignoring the home media center race. Nintendo takes number one spot in dedicated game console race.
    • Nintendo takes number one spot in dedicated game console race.

      Sweet. Number one buggy whip manufacturer.

      (FWIW, the last two consoles I have bought were Nintendo brand. Prior to that, it was a Sega Genesis. I have a way of picking the losers.)
    • Doubtful.

      The most likely thing Nintendo would do is back away from console design and pull a Sega. While I once had confidence and faith in their designs, with the twin disasters (relative to the PS2 and even Xbox) of the Nintendo 64 and the GameCube, they just can't keep doing this and expect anyone but fanboys to rush to their aid.

  • So Microsoft FINALLY got a clue. They actually realized that an important fraction of their user base WANTS to use the XBox as something else than just for games and DVD movies. So instead of modding their XBox, people might actually buy that WinXP.

    However, one wonders if this WinXP Media Center will allow for more than just MP3s, photos and video files. That's not much, considering what a properly modded XBox can do.
    • I *think* the xbox mce extender uses RDP and the video itself is streamed separatly. I know the other extenders can run third party applications like napster and even some home automation applications using flash.
      But I dont quite understdand what else you want the xbox to do? This extender kit requires a Media Center PC in your home already.
  • The XBox will be a PC. Except like with Apple, all proprietary hardware/OS.
  • Anyone who says to be considered a real media console it needs divx, mp3 et all support is more than likely just wants to play rips they downloaded from the net. I think we all just need to 'fess up and shut-up about insisting that companies support our illegal activities.

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