Bill scales the gates of the game world

By Christina Okoli

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THE computer giant Microsoft is moving out of the office and into the living room, as it bids to conquer the tight and hostile world of computer games.

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��Press Association

Gates unveils the Xbox

On Sunday 7 January, the chairman of the embattled company Bill Gates unveiled the much-talked-about Xbox, a high technology games console that is being famed as a rival for Sony's PlayStation 2 and Sega's Dreamcast.

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Although the Xbox will not officially see the light of day until the end of 2001, Microsoft has launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign in an attempt to wet the appetites of game fans. The move is also being seen as a bid to capitalise on the problems that rival Sony, is having as it struggles to meet the weak demand for its PlayStation 2 (PS2) console.

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Microsoft's $500 million advertising campaign for the Xbox is a clear indication that the company, whose main source of revenue is from PC software, is making a serious bid to break and conquer the fast-growing computer games market.

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Currently entangled in an anti-trust court case, which could see the company broken-up, Microsoft is positioning the Xbox as the most powerful game console on the market. Yet, at first glance the Xbox may not strike you as a serious market leader, for it comes without the dazzling features that other game consoles are currently boasting.

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When Sony launched PS2 in November 2000, the console was famed for its DVD player and a front-to-back facility that allowed customers to use their old PlayStation games on their new console. Yet, the Xbox comes with no such features and looks positively boring in comparison.

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Microsoft also seems to have ignored the big trend of merging various technologies into one unit, and is presenting the Xbox as a powerful unit that plays games, and only games. The console will contain a 733-megahertz processor with 64 megabytes of random access memory (RAM). The increased RAM will allow designers to create Xbox games that, they say, will�have Toy Story quality graphics, with� images moving three times faster and smoother than that of its rival consoles.

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This little black Xbox has also been designed for digital connectivity with a built-in Ethernet card,�to facilitate Internet gaming. It also comes with an integrated hard drive, for storing downloadable data.

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Microsoft's decision to keep the Xbox simple may prove profitable as Sony's much-hyped PS2 hasn't lived up to sales expectations and demand for the console is far below initial expectations. Time will tell.

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