Conclusions

Familiar Echoes

From the responses we got, a couple of common themes emerged - one is that these developers seem to like the presence of a hard drive and other PC type components that they're familiar with as part of the standard X-Box spec. Other consoles in the past have had storage components as add-ons, but when it comes to console hardware, if it doesn't come standard, it might as well not come at all. Clearly, Microsoft has enamored themselves to PC games developers by having a hard drive on board in the X-Box.

Same tools

Another theme is that developers recognize MS's argument that X-Box will be easier to develop for, at least in the sense that there's nothing new to learn. Since it's based on DirectX, PC game programmers will have a very quick learning curve. OpenGL programmers will have to jump through a few hoops since X-Box will almost certainly not support that API, but it probably won't be too much of an issue.

PC games and console games are different

A couple of developers also brought up the point that PC and console games are very different. There are a number of reasons for this, ranging from the savvy of the users (PC vs. console) to the type of controllers. Even though X-Box is PC derived, a successful X-Box title won't just be a re-compile of a PC game. The best console developers will know how to work within the constraints of the box to squeeze out the most performance.

Not diving head first

The last common element we noticed is a "wait and see" attitude towards console development. PSX 2 will have a year's head start on the X-Box, a huge advantage in terms of grabbing market share. This is critical because the size of the market is clearly an issue for developers, whose programming time is crucial to the success of their respective companies. Several months or a year wasted programming a game for a small market console could be lethal!

Still vaporware

Despite the cautious optimism from developers, we all know that Microsoft is an expert at capturing markets. They have literally unlimited resources with which to promote their platform. The question is, will they choose to use it? A recent column from the witty Cringely theorizes that X-Box could still be a huge Microsoft bluff that they have no intention of following through on. Is this likely? Probably not - but it's interesting to ponder, nonetheless. Bottom line: if MS gives game developers the kind of backing that they're capable of, it will be hard for a lot of developers to resist the pull. Will it be enough to dislodge console veterans like Sony and Nintendo? We'll have to wait for the games to decide that.

What do you think of X-Box? Do you think the traditional console developers (Square, etc.) embrace it? Or will X-Box vs. the big 3 (Sony, Nintendo, Sega) become a real life experiment of the PC games vs console games debate? Talk about it on the message board