Jake Simpson and Mark Randel

Name: Jake Simpson
Title, Company: Programmer, Raven
Company's previous work: Heretic 2, Soldier of Fortune

FS: Now that details of the Microsoft X-Box are out in the open, what are your initial impressions?

Jake: I think the timing of all this is very interesting. It would almost appear to be Microsoft doing to Sony what Sony did to Sega. Sony's press releases and info leaks happened exactly around the time of the DreamCast launch. Now the PS2 is being launched in Japan, Microsoft starts releasing details of the X-box. Conincidence? I think not.

I think that while the machine sounds extremely powerful right now, when it finally arrives who knows what the PC world will look like, with gig processors already shipping, and the NV25 which is what the X-box will use for graphics processing being available in the 'real' world? I certainly think the X-Box will compete, but I don't know that it will be 3 times more powerful than anything else out there.

I think that it all sounds good, and I look forward to it, but I'm not going to say that it's the focus of my universe just yet :)

FS: What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of developing for the X-Box as opposed to other consoles like the Playstation 2?

Jake: For everyone out there that already supports DirectX it's a godsend. Since we support OpenGL it's not going to be so easy, but such is the life of a games developer :) Obviously we as PC developers will have to get our heads around the idea of not patching games, even though there is an 8meg harddrive included in the package. Since Microsoft has said "Don't expect to use this to patch games" we should use that to get out of this mindset of 'ship now, patch later'.

Of course being able to use the MS DEV studio set of tools really helps too. All us PC developers are familiar with these, and to be honest, they are the most complete set of development tools out there. The PSX2 has lots of 'little' processors in it, which makes debugging code a touch more complex than just worrying about the one program thread.

However the PSX2, - because of it's more complex architecture - should present us with more opportunities to squeeze performance out of it. Put it this way. The X-box will be like PC games. Pretty much everyone gets roughly the same sort of performance out of it polygon wise, give or take 15% or so. With the PSX2, if you know what you are doing, the difference could be as much as 50%. The PSX2 I think is really going to sort out the wheat from the chaff programmer wise.

One thing that I'm interested in hearing about is Microsoft's plans for Networking the X-box. Will we get Internet support out of the box? The PSX2, according to Phil Harrison, is "future proofed". Ok. We still haven't seen any details about this future though. No Internet support or any hints on that front. I would find it hard to believe that it won't go that way, what with Sony's involvment in 989 Games and EverQuest, but still, I would wonder if Microsoft will start out with this kind of support there, and build on it from day one rather than releasing the product and saying 'it's coming'.

FS: Would you consider developing games for the X-Box? Why or why not? What about the Playstation 2 or Nintendo Dolphin?

Jake: We are already developing for the PSX2. As we speak I am hard at work delving into the mysteries that the PSX2 holds for us. As for X-Box support, while I can't come right out and say "sure, we'll do it" - that's not my call, but for those higher up - I would find it hard to believe that we as a PC developer wouldn't port one of two of our games to it. Of course the OpenGL aspect of it needs thinking about, but there are some pretty smart people around here, so I'm sure it wouldn't present much of a problem. As for the Dolphin, well, it's so shrouded in secrecy right now it's very hard to tell.

Name: Mark Randel
Title, Company: Lead Programmer, Terminal Reality
Company's previous work: Nocturne

FS: Now that details of the Microsoft X-Box are out in the open, what are your initial impressions?

Mark: Initial impressions: Nice specs. Not sure if a hard drive is such a good idea, because it could break.

FS: What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of developing for the X-Box as opposed to other consoles like the Playstation 2?

Mark: Advantages of X-Box: Easier to program than PSX2. Disadvantages: When it's released, PSX2 will have been on market for over a year.

FS: Would you consider developing games for the X-Box? Why or why not? What about the Playstation 2 or Nintendo Dolphin?

Mark: We'll develop for whatever is the platform of choice. We're a licensed Sega, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft developer.