Microsoft set to Dominate GDC - First Xbox 2 Image Revealed?
Bach and Allard double act revealed.
Microsoft is set to dominate the Games Developer's Conference, taking place this week in San Jose, with a suddenly enhanced line-up being revealed.
Lead Xbox evangelist J Allard will now take the stage alongside overlord Robbie Bach, with a keynote speech aimed at highlighting productive working practices amid escalating development costs, entitled, Turning Innovation Into Impact.
Industry chat now points towards a retrospective look at the emergence of the Xbox, as well as a glimpse of several technical demonstrations from the next incarnation of Xbox hardware.
Interestingly, we unearthed a flyer - said to be an official print from Microsoft - featuring Raven, the tech demo sweetheart with the dancing robot buddy that wowed crowds during the first ever glimpse of the original Xbox. If our image is real - something we cannot verify at this moment - does this make for the first ever Xbox 2 picture?
Tenuous indeed, but interesting nonetheless.
Lead Xbox evangelist J Allard will now take the stage alongside overlord Robbie Bach, with a keynote speech aimed at highlighting productive working practices amid escalating development costs, entitled, Turning Innovation Into Impact.
Industry chat now points towards a retrospective look at the emergence of the Xbox, as well as a glimpse of several technical demonstrations from the next incarnation of Xbox hardware.
Interestingly, we unearthed a flyer - said to be an official print from Microsoft - featuring Raven, the tech demo sweetheart with the dancing robot buddy that wowed crowds during the first ever glimpse of the original Xbox. If our image is real - something we cannot verify at this moment - does this make for the first ever Xbox 2 picture?
Tenuous indeed, but interesting nonetheless.
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Comments
ray_tugley 15 Mar 2004 17:27
1/5
Xbox2=ZZZZZZZ!
Words like evangelist and overlord used to describe Bach and Allard is over the top don't you think? I feel like i've been reading from Reverend Mountjoy's book of boring sermons.
And that picture? Just a flyer my friend, surely not a Xbox2 image.
Words like evangelist and overlord used to describe Bach and Allard is over the top don't you think? I feel like i've been reading from Reverend Mountjoy's book of boring sermons.
And that picture? Just a flyer my friend, surely not a Xbox2 image.
SPInGSPOnG 15 Mar 2004 18:40
2/5
Ray Tugley wrote:
>Words like evangelist and overlord used to
Dude, you're soo right. Evangelist sounds like someone who really believes in something. Not someone who is paid a king's ransome to go on the road spouting propoganda for his employers.
It's a word that has been appropriated by the "new media" marketing droids to imply that people working in the internet and allied industries "care" about what they are doing beyond the call of duty. But let's see any of them get up and do it without a fat silicon valley style pay-check and a company BMW. The use of the word on a business card is a cynical marketing ploy, and although I loathe religion (organised or not) it belittles the devotion that religious people put into their belief systems, to compare them to some company running boy.
>Words like evangelist and overlord used to
Dude, you're soo right. Evangelist sounds like someone who really believes in something. Not someone who is paid a king's ransome to go on the road spouting propoganda for his employers.
It's a word that has been appropriated by the "new media" marketing droids to imply that people working in the internet and allied industries "care" about what they are doing beyond the call of duty. But let's see any of them get up and do it without a fat silicon valley style pay-check and a company BMW. The use of the word on a business card is a cynical marketing ploy, and although I loathe religion (organised or not) it belittles the devotion that religious people put into their belief systems, to compare them to some company running boy.
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auzdafluff 16 Mar 2004 13:05
3/5
Ray Tugley wrote:
>And that picture? Just a flyer my friend, surely
>not a Xbox2 image.
We'll just have to wait and see... If it does then Sony might be forced to play one of its cards but that image, if anything, really does show up Sony's current hardware (for that matter, it would show up the Xbox if it wasn't from the Xbox's successor)... Anyway... there's onlt a fornight to wait till we know
>And that picture? Just a flyer my friend, surely
>not a Xbox2 image.
We'll just have to wait and see... If it does then Sony might be forced to play one of its cards but that image, if anything, really does show up Sony's current hardware (for that matter, it would show up the Xbox if it wasn't from the Xbox's successor)... Anyway... there's onlt a fornight to wait till we know
config 16 Mar 2004 13:38
4/5
Ben Furfie wrote:
>Ray Tugley wrote:
>
>>And that picture? Just a flyer my friend, surely
>>not a Xbox2 image.
>
>We'll just have to wait and see... If it does
>then Sony might be forced to play one of its
>cards but that image, if anything, really does
>show up Sony's current hardware (for that matter,
>it would show up the Xbox if it wasn't from the
>Xbox's successor)... Anyway... there's onlt a
>fornight to wait till we know
Let's face it. Renders on leaflets, tech demo stills, even 1st gen game screen shots are worth s**t.
It's all about framerate. The PS2, GameCube and Xbox could all *easily* produce images of that quality. EASILY. They could likely produce the quality of CG we'll see in Shrek2.
Animating that in realtime is a different pot 'o fish.
Until I see some realtime techdemos, I'm not going to bet the farm on that image being indicative of Xb2's graphical prowess.
Hell, even then I'm not sold. Tech demos don't have the backend logic and general gubbins required to drive a game, leaving the whole machine open to being geared toward sifting polys, textures and whipping up some lush shader effects.
>Ray Tugley wrote:
>
>>And that picture? Just a flyer my friend, surely
>>not a Xbox2 image.
>
>We'll just have to wait and see... If it does
>then Sony might be forced to play one of its
>cards but that image, if anything, really does
>show up Sony's current hardware (for that matter,
>it would show up the Xbox if it wasn't from the
>Xbox's successor)... Anyway... there's onlt a
>fornight to wait till we know
Let's face it. Renders on leaflets, tech demo stills, even 1st gen game screen shots are worth s**t.
It's all about framerate. The PS2, GameCube and Xbox could all *easily* produce images of that quality. EASILY. They could likely produce the quality of CG we'll see in Shrek2.
Animating that in realtime is a different pot 'o fish.
Until I see some realtime techdemos, I'm not going to bet the farm on that image being indicative of Xb2's graphical prowess.
Hell, even then I'm not sold. Tech demos don't have the backend logic and general gubbins required to drive a game, leaving the whole machine open to being geared toward sifting polys, textures and whipping up some lush shader effects.
SPInGSPOnG 16 Mar 2004 19:58
5/5
config wrote:
>Hell, even then I'm not sold. Tech demos don't
>have the backend logic
Absolutely, it's not just about being able to shove poly's around. It's also about being able to calculate where everything is (and where it's going to be) it's spatial proximity and co-efficient of restitution at the same time. Plus keeping track of the control input (and responding to it quickly). There's FAR FAR FAR more to a console's capability than a pre-release still image.
And why is everyone getting their nickers in a twist about Xbox 2, it'll just be more of the same of what Xbox was when it came out - a not even nearly state-of-the-art PC with a nice graphics card.... oh, and no hard drive.
Let's just hope that this time it won't look like a great big ugly suit case, with cross straps to stop it bursting open on O'Hare's baggage carousel.
>Hell, even then I'm not sold. Tech demos don't
>have the backend logic
Absolutely, it's not just about being able to shove poly's around. It's also about being able to calculate where everything is (and where it's going to be) it's spatial proximity and co-efficient of restitution at the same time. Plus keeping track of the control input (and responding to it quickly). There's FAR FAR FAR more to a console's capability than a pre-release still image.
And why is everyone getting their nickers in a twist about Xbox 2, it'll just be more of the same of what Xbox was when it came out - a not even nearly state-of-the-art PC with a nice graphics card.... oh, and no hard drive.
Let's just hope that this time it won't look like a great big ugly suit case, with cross straps to stop it bursting open on O'Hare's baggage carousel.