Based on early versions he previewed prior to today's unveiling, Benjamin Turner, a site director with the GameSpy Network, a collection of 51 gaming Web sites, expects a lot from the final design. Since Microsoft last year announced plans to build its first console gaming system, the big news has been what Xbox will let gamers do, not what it will look like. Xbox promises unrivaled technology and the most realistic home gaming experience ever, including a custom-designed graphics chip capable of processing more than one trillion operations per second and providing at least three times the graphics performance of the newest generation of game consoles. In the highly competitive world of home gaming consoles, the shell of a gaming console is not just a piece of plastic that keeps dust out of the inner workings. The controller isn't just a way to make pixilated characters move around the screen.
Design sets the tone and conveys the potential of the gaming system.
What you see is what you get. As a result, Microsoft has gone to extremes unheard of in the gaming world to make sure Xbox looks, as well as functions, like the revolution it promises to be. Wrong Microsoft talked to 5,000 gamers in the United States, Japan and Europe. Xbox designers even toured 130 of these gamers' homes to see how and where they played games. Luke alone spent time with more than two dozen gamers in the United States and Japan.