Gates Talks Xbox 360 And HD-DVD

Technology website Engadget has published an interview with Microsoft founder Bill Gates conducted at last week’s CES, in which he makes a number of interesting comments regarding future Xbox 360 software and hardware. Although Gates’ answers regarding the success of the Xbox 360 launch were typically diplomatic, he was adamant that the Xbox 360 would have a “substantially higher share in this generation”, while also suggesting that the market was likely to grow with both Microsoft and its rivals selling markedly more consoles overall than the last generation. As part of the interview, and in a particular reference to comments he made in May, Gates was also keen to indicate that the release date of Halo 3 was entirely up to developer Bungie, and that it was not necessarily tied to the release date of the PlayStation 3 – which is still in any case unknown. He proved relatively dismissive about the idea of the Xbox 360 being used for IPTV (Internet protocol television), admitting that although it did have the functionality, a dedicated set-up box was still likely to be used in many home situations. Apart from a brief mention of the Xbox 360’s webcam, Gates' most interesting hardware comment was in regards to the HD-DVD external drive announced at CES. When asked by Engadget whether the HD-DVD drive risked fragmenting the Xbox 360 user base, he was adamant: “There's no fragmentation here. The developers are creating games that run on the DVD-9 format that's in every Xbox, and whatever we do with the drive, they'll all be upwards compatible with that.” This raises the possibility that games could eventually add extra HD-DVD content, while the core content will always work on the base Xbox 360, but it is equally possible that only movie content will ever run on the HD-DVD format, given the vagueness of Gates' comments and the lack of a definitive Microsoft statement on the matter.