Greg Zeschuk and Matt Scott

Name: Greg Zeschuk
Title, Company: President, Bioware
Company's previous work: Baldur's Gate, MDK2

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

Greg: Everyone I know is impressed with the X-Box, and our initial impressions are certainly positive. A number of both business and development questions remain about the system, but it certainly looks like Microsoft is going to make a serious dent in the console business.

One concern I do have involves the target market of X-Box. Is the target market the console hardcore or is it PC players that want a more streamlined experience? Or is it targeted as a set-top box that can also play video games? Until this is clarified it will be difficult to know what type of games to make for the X-Box.

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 PC-like hardware will certainly attract a lot of PC developers to the X-Box. I don't know that this is a good thing as console games have a certain style to them that is seldom captured in PC releases. Given that the hardware is essentially PC-derived, it should also cost a lot less for X-Box development stations than PS2 and Dreamcast.

FS: We all know that Bioware is developing for Dreamcast already (MDK2). Would you consider developing games for the X-Box? Why or why not? What about the Playstation 2 or Nintendo Dolphin?

Greg: We would absolutely consider developing for X-Box. And Playstation 2 and Dolphin! We're already doing PC and Dreamcast for MDK2, as well as PC, Mac, Linux and BeOs for Neverwinter Nights.

One of BioWare's goals is to develop for all platforms internally. We want all of our games to appear on every platform imaginable.

Name: Matt Scott
Title, Company: Lead PSX2 Lithtech Programmer, Monolith
Company's previous work: Shogo

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

Matt: Obviously, the specs that MS let out at GDC are very impressive. It is amazing how far consoles have come in just a sort time and this announcement just confirms that this is going to be the most exciting time ever for console developers. For the X-Box, the questions now become when and how much.

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?

Matt: I have always considers console development to be embedded systems programming as opposed to the more familiar programming environment of a general purpose computer with "boundless" resources.

Embedded systems always have significant restraints on what the programmer has available to them. These restrictions force a parsimonious attitude toward programming. When every byte counts and nothing is "virtual", you really learn to pay attention to detail.

I don't think that the X-Box changes any of this. It will still have restrictions. However, MS is planning to ship a full OS and use its common Dev Studio development environment. This will allow programmers familiar with this environment to do console development in the comfort of their favorite Integrated Development Environment. However, the issues imposed by an embedded system are still there. This just means that the best games and technology will come from those individuals that understand that there is a difference between developing for a general purpose computer and developing for a specialized device.

FS: We know about Monolith's endeavors in the Playstation 2 platform with Lithtech. Would you consider developing for the X-Box? Why or why not? What about Nintendo Dolphin?

Matt: We will support LithTech on platforms that our licensees are interested in. Microsoft's focus on D3D with the X-box fits perfectly into the design of LithTech.

As for why? We want licensees to gain the most by licensing LithTech and having a broad platform base allows for greater cost savings and flexibility. A company will be able to license LithTech, and become proficient in the uses of its API's and Tool set and then be able to reuse that knowledge across projects and platforms. By not limiting the platform choice, we enable the license to develop specifically for the platform of there choice or even to create cross platform content.