Bill Gates Outlines Future of Interactive Entertainment

[Jerry Raia]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.xbox.com/en-US/press/e32006/default.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.xbox.com/en-US/press/e32006/default.htm</a><br /><br /></div>"Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates today staked the claim that the Xbox 360™ system will have a 10 million-unit head start by the time the competition enters the market and more than 160 games by the end of the year. Gates went on to outline the company’s bold new vision to connect millions of Xbox 360 gamers with hundreds of millions of Microsoft® Windows®-based PC and mobile gamers from around the world through the Xbox Live® online entertainment network. Gates made the announcements at a press conference to open the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the largest annual confab for the interactive entertainment industry.<br />Dubbed “Live Anywhere,” the initiative puts gamers at the center of a ubiquitous always-on world where their digital identities, games, friends and digital entertainment are always accessible through the familiar Xbox Live interface, regardless of location or device. The plan also clears the way for groundbreaking cross-platform gameplay scenarios, with participants using Windows-based PCs, mobile phones and Xbox 360 consoles to play together simultaneously"<br /><br />If you want to read all of this it comes in the form of a down-loadable .doc file <a href="http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/7/d/37d1985b-06dc-48f3-a342-961972f55319/E32006BriefingPR.FINAL.doc">here.</a> Pretty interesting stuff from Bill Gates. You will be assimilated. :twisted:

[randalllewis]

So I get to play Flight Simulator X on my 2125? Yikes. While I like Live Anywhere as a concept and I admire the technology behind it and hope it works well, there are some permutations of this concept that are kind of far out.

[Kris Kumar]

I hope someone inside of Microsoft has a clear understanding of how Live is supposed to come together, on the mobile, desktop and web. I am talking about the implementation and the software pieces. On paper it sounds pretty cool and very ambitious.

[Darius Wey]

So I get to play Flight Simulator X on my 2125? Yikes.

Heck, no. There are limitations involved. Only certain games will be playable on a mobile device - and these will mostly be the Xbox Live Arcade games.

Microsoft is providing this Live Anywhere service for both end-users and developers to tap into. It'll be up to each developer to add cross-platform gaming support as they see fit. Shadowrun will be the first title to support gaming on both the Xbox 360 and Windows Vista. Next year, we'll see Bejeweled, Zuma and Hexic on the mobile device. Of course, Astraware already provides some of these titles, though without all the bells and whistles of Live Anywhere.