Will Wright and Greg Borrud

Name: Will Wright
Title, Company: Founder, Maxis
Company's previous work: The Sims, SimCity 3000

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

Will: I like the idea of a hard drive very much. Memory limitations are generally the biggest pain about developing on consoles and the HD eases that burden considerably. From a computer gamer's point of view the Direct X compatibility is a strong plus also. I notice they didn't say much about the controllers.

Everyone has mentioned how we will be able to easily port our PC games to it. One topic I haven't seen mentioned is that it works the other way also. Really cool games written specifically for the X-Box should also enjoy a relatively easy port to the PC (with a suitable graphics card).

My biggest worry is how are they going to afford all this hardware with the price range they are targeting (licensing fees on the software??).

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?

Will: 1 year. By the time the X-Box comes out the PSX2 should be fairly well entrenched. The X-Box sounds easy (and cheaper) to develop for but that won't matter a bit if the Playstation2 has 10x the number of units out there.

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

Will: It all depends on where the gamers go

Name: Greg Borrud
Title, Company: Project Director of Dark Reign 2, Pandemic
Company's previous work: Battlezone 2

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

Greg: My first impression was...Wow! I can't tell the difference between high-res cut scene movies and actual gameplay anymore. The limitations of what we can do as game designers keep getting smaller allowing us to do bigger and better things.

My second impression was...when this thing comes out, PC's will be so much faster and look so much better. So although the X Box looks amazing now, we should be able to do all that and more on a PC by this Christmas. Frightening. It's a great time to be a game developer and even a better time to be a game player.

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?

Greg: The most obvious advantage will be the ease of developing for the system. I have a lot of friends who have left the world of PC development and are now developing for the PSX2 and I hear nothing but horror stories about the difficulty and cost of development. X-Box is promising to use a lot of the DirectX components that we are used to developing with, so the transition over to that system should be a lot easier, allowing us more time to work on making the game look and play better and less time fighting with the hardware.

The disadvantage is that it's the new kid on the block. Will it be accepted by console gamers as much as the PSX2? And when will it come out? Microsoft has been known to miss a few dates here and there. But, if and when it does come out, it is definitely a contender.

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

Greg: We would (and are) consider developing for the X-Box. We've talked a lot about getting into consoles. Our first love is PC's, and we will always be a PC developer, but we'd be crazy if we didn't consider console development. So I wouldn't be surprised if you heard of a Pandemic console game at some point. And yes, we are considering PSX2 development as well. Dolphin is the only thing we haven't talked about much as we just don't have any info on it yet.