Post by 427@TinDog on Mar 10, 2005 8:44:17 GMT -5
J Allard Outlines Xbox 2 Roadmap at GDC
Next generation gaming dubbed the "HD Era."
by Che Chou
03/09/2005
At the 2005 Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco today, Microsoft's corporate vice-president and chief XNA architect J Allard talked about the future of games development on Xenon (aka Xbox 2). In typical GDC fashion, Allard's keynote speech, delivered to a packed standing room-only auditorium full of developers and industry insiders, skirted around any actual Xenon hardware information, and focused more on how the next generation platform will affect development workflow.
What Allard was quick to proclaim from the beginning of his speech was the dawning of the "HD Era," a new age of interactive entertainment powered by the clarity and visual impact of high definition graphics. "As more and more people get exposed to the high-def medium through television, the visual expectations they have for all mediums are gonna ratchet way up," said Allard.
He defines the HD Era as going way beyond just sharper graphics. "It's not just about the digital TV screen. Look what else is happening in the living room -- with timeshifting, and TiVO. Look at digital broadcasts, look what's happening as consumers are accessing their digital lifestyles through their digital living room." Allard points out that the HD Era encompasses all of the digital connectivity, convergence, and lifestyle changing breakthroughs of the past four years. With the "high-def" lifestyle as the foundation of where Xenon will be entrenched, Allard then laid out his plans for how the platform will capture the "remix generation," a demographic that desires to leave a personal imprint on everything they touch.
But it wasn't just all buzzwords and catch-phrases. Allard summarized Xenon's development strategy into key points: games, hardware, and services. When it came to talking about content on Xenon, Allard pointed, once again, to XNA, and how these tools will enable game designers to focus on their vision, rather than get bogged down by unnecessary technical barriers between inception and execution. Although Microsoft has already rolled out pieces of the XNA tools suite, Allard promises to be able to hand out beta copies of the complete tools at next year's GDC.
In terms of hardware, Allard told the audience to wait until E3 for the full announcement. Still, he gave us a glimpse into what the future holds. Technical jargon like "one teraflop of targeted computing performance" and "a multicore processor architecture co-developed with IBM Corp. that provides developer "headroom" and flexibility" told us that Xenon was a next generation force to be reckoned with. Allard himself summed up the balance of power versus development accessibility by saying "Xenon will be more about Bruce Lee than brute force."
Perhaps the most revealing piece at Allard's keynote had to do with Microsoft's future plans for Xbox Live. Below is a summary from their GDC press release:
· Gamer Cards. Gamer Cards provide gamers with a quick look at key Xbox Live information. They let players instantly connect with people who have similar skills, interests and lifestyles.
· Marketplace. Browseable by game, by genre, and in a number of other ways, the Marketplace will provide a one-stop shop for consumers to acquire episodic content, new game levels, maps, weapons, vehicles, skins and new community-created content.
· Micro-transactions. Breaking down barriers of small-ticket online commerce, micro-transactions will allow developers and the gaming community to charge as little as they like for content they create and publish on Marketplace. Imagine players slapping down $.99 to buy a one-of-a-kind, fully tricked-out racing car to be the envy of their buddies.
· Custom playlists. This feature eliminates the need for developers to support custom music in games. The guide instantly connects players to their music so they can listen to their own tracks while playing all their favorite next-generation Xbox games.
At the end of his speech, Allard came back on stage for an unexpected encore and announced that, in collaboration with Samsung, they would kick off the HD Era by giving away 1000 free HDTVs. They played a short pre-rendered race between three different colored cars featuring the Forza Motorsports graphics engine. Whichever color car won the race would determine who in the audience would win an HDTV. Suffice it to say, the audience ate it up. It seems Microsoft knows how to win the hearts of gamers after all.
Next generation gaming dubbed the "HD Era."
by Che Chou
03/09/2005
At the 2005 Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco today, Microsoft's corporate vice-president and chief XNA architect J Allard talked about the future of games development on Xenon (aka Xbox 2). In typical GDC fashion, Allard's keynote speech, delivered to a packed standing room-only auditorium full of developers and industry insiders, skirted around any actual Xenon hardware information, and focused more on how the next generation platform will affect development workflow.
What Allard was quick to proclaim from the beginning of his speech was the dawning of the "HD Era," a new age of interactive entertainment powered by the clarity and visual impact of high definition graphics. "As more and more people get exposed to the high-def medium through television, the visual expectations they have for all mediums are gonna ratchet way up," said Allard.
He defines the HD Era as going way beyond just sharper graphics. "It's not just about the digital TV screen. Look what else is happening in the living room -- with timeshifting, and TiVO. Look at digital broadcasts, look what's happening as consumers are accessing their digital lifestyles through their digital living room." Allard points out that the HD Era encompasses all of the digital connectivity, convergence, and lifestyle changing breakthroughs of the past four years. With the "high-def" lifestyle as the foundation of where Xenon will be entrenched, Allard then laid out his plans for how the platform will capture the "remix generation," a demographic that desires to leave a personal imprint on everything they touch.
But it wasn't just all buzzwords and catch-phrases. Allard summarized Xenon's development strategy into key points: games, hardware, and services. When it came to talking about content on Xenon, Allard pointed, once again, to XNA, and how these tools will enable game designers to focus on their vision, rather than get bogged down by unnecessary technical barriers between inception and execution. Although Microsoft has already rolled out pieces of the XNA tools suite, Allard promises to be able to hand out beta copies of the complete tools at next year's GDC.
In terms of hardware, Allard told the audience to wait until E3 for the full announcement. Still, he gave us a glimpse into what the future holds. Technical jargon like "one teraflop of targeted computing performance" and "a multicore processor architecture co-developed with IBM Corp. that provides developer "headroom" and flexibility" told us that Xenon was a next generation force to be reckoned with. Allard himself summed up the balance of power versus development accessibility by saying "Xenon will be more about Bruce Lee than brute force."
Perhaps the most revealing piece at Allard's keynote had to do with Microsoft's future plans for Xbox Live. Below is a summary from their GDC press release:
· Gamer Cards. Gamer Cards provide gamers with a quick look at key Xbox Live information. They let players instantly connect with people who have similar skills, interests and lifestyles.
· Marketplace. Browseable by game, by genre, and in a number of other ways, the Marketplace will provide a one-stop shop for consumers to acquire episodic content, new game levels, maps, weapons, vehicles, skins and new community-created content.
· Micro-transactions. Breaking down barriers of small-ticket online commerce, micro-transactions will allow developers and the gaming community to charge as little as they like for content they create and publish on Marketplace. Imagine players slapping down $.99 to buy a one-of-a-kind, fully tricked-out racing car to be the envy of their buddies.
· Custom playlists. This feature eliminates the need for developers to support custom music in games. The guide instantly connects players to their music so they can listen to their own tracks while playing all their favorite next-generation Xbox games.
At the end of his speech, Allard came back on stage for an unexpected encore and announced that, in collaboration with Samsung, they would kick off the HD Era by giving away 1000 free HDTVs. They played a short pre-rendered race between three different colored cars featuring the Forza Motorsports graphics engine. Whichever color car won the race would determine who in the audience would win an HDTV. Suffice it to say, the audience ate it up. It seems Microsoft knows how to win the hearts of gamers after all.
Link.
