Rollouts in Japan and Europe will follow. I'm superconfident because I've played 30 games on a system that's going to ship in 6 months. Ask anybody who's done a console if that's ever happened before. The answer is no. Microsoft expects to finalize 12 to 20 games in time for the fall launch, while refining more than 200 titles in development by about 200 software game shops in the USA, Japan and France.
Updates arrive daily from toiling graphic artists, production designers and computer programmers.
Xbox designers get it that they're catering to artists, not hackers, says Ed Fries, Microsoft vice president of games publishing. Xbox, which plays video discs on consumers' TVs, was hatched at a senior executive retreat in 1999. Gates wandered over to a group brainstorming entry into gaming hardware as a way to boost software game sales. The discussion culminated with Gates ordering a full review of the idea. When the report came back, it highlighted a ripe opening.