Ign got the opportunity to speak with some of the developers after receiving their %90 completed beta kits from MS. From the looks of the article, I would say that Xbox fans have a little bit to be worried about. Is it possible that MS may have over hyped their product? I guess it wouldn't be the first time MS pulled the wool over our eyes. Now with the upcoming launch of the new lack luster Windows OS sadly named Vista; how much more can MS take?
My real concern comes from a quote taken out of the IGN article from an unnamed developer when he stated...
"Right now, we're still wrapping our heads around them, but I have to be honest, I'm a bit disappointed with the Beta Kits. Microsoft still has a lot of work to do in terms of optimization. Also, the Beta Kits are loud to a point of distraction."
If these systems represent a %90 completed product then maybe there is something to be concerned with. From my understanding, most of the actual important hardware is inside these kits including 3 CPUs and the final GPU. Only a working audio chip and optimization remain.
The good news is that from what I saw at E3 the games looked fantastic. So if those systems were only at an Alpha stage and these beta units are closer to FINAL, then we should be able to breath a short sigh of relief. In fact one developer in IGN's article said...
"The major difference is in the video chipset, which is pretty different from anything you can find on the PC (or alpha hardware). It does some slick bits of load balancing between pixel performance and vertex performance, which helps us make sure that we're maxing out the video hardware no matter what we're doing. HDTV looks spectacular on this thing."
So maybe once the system is complete they will have a better idea of how to write the code. In the end, Microsoft promised to have one of the 'easiest' platforms to develop for. In fact, many companies jumped on the MS bandwagon for this very reason. Now it seems as though these same developers are not finding it quit as simple as MS led on. Could this backfire for MS? I guess only time will tell.
- doodi
Read The Full Article Here
"Right now, we're still wrapping our heads around them, but I have to be honest, I'm a bit disappointed with the Beta Kits. Microsoft still has a lot of work to do in terms of optimization. Also, the Beta Kits are loud to a point of distraction."
If these systems represent a %90 completed product then maybe there is something to be concerned with. From my understanding, most of the actual important hardware is inside these kits including 3 CPUs and the final GPU. Only a working audio chip and optimization remain.
The good news is that from what I saw at E3 the games looked fantastic. So if those systems were only at an Alpha stage and these beta units are closer to FINAL, then we should be able to breath a short sigh of relief. In fact one developer in IGN's article said...
"The major difference is in the video chipset, which is pretty different from anything you can find on the PC (or alpha hardware). It does some slick bits of load balancing between pixel performance and vertex performance, which helps us make sure that we're maxing out the video hardware no matter what we're doing. HDTV looks spectacular on this thing."
So maybe once the system is complete they will have a better idea of how to write the code. In the end, Microsoft promised to have one of the 'easiest' platforms to develop for. In fact, many companies jumped on the MS bandwagon for this very reason. Now it seems as though these same developers are not finding it quit as simple as MS led on. Could this backfire for MS? I guess only time will tell.
- doodi
Read The Full Article Here
