Veel mensen uit de games industrie zijn het hier echter niet mee eens. Zij denken dat de markt altijd snellere PCs zal willen, ipv de 'bevroren' specs van een console. Voorbeeldje:
One game designer who asked to remain anonymous had nothing but praise for Gates' game wing. "From what I've seen, Microsoft is intent on taking the time to do things right and listen to developers." Bill Gates zelf is natuurlijk ook zeer enthousiast, maar vind de Playstation2 niet echt directe competitie:
"Sony is a great company, and is actually a partner of ours," said Gates." But in the case of video games, Xbox and PlayStation 2 are actually going to compete. In terms of richne of its graphics, and having a hard disc storage ... You won't even think of PlayStation 2 and Xbox as being in the same generation."
Zoals de meeste van jullie weten wordt er bijna nul winst (zelfs $100 verlies in het geval van de Playstation2) gemaakt op consoles. Die wordt helemaal gedraait op de games zelf. Microsoft stelde aan een aantal developers voor om daar geen heffing op te doen, waarop de meeste heel negatief reageerde:
"'Look, Microsoft, you wanna do a console, OK, here are the rules. The rules are, you have as low a price as you po ibly can, we'll chip in [to cover the Xbox's low retail cost], and you'll chip in part of that. And two, you make sure that all the stuff that comes out on the Xbox, especially in the early years, comes out as fantastic as it could po ibly be.'"
En tot slot nog de conclusie waarom de Xbox toch echt wel een goed idee is:
"When I make my purchase," says Robertson, "I know that Blockbuster will be renting the games, and that the majority of America will be joining the Xbox bandwagon. This may sound like simple Microsoft communism, but as a gamer, this is good. A unifying console is what we're after."
[...]Could a new Microsoft hegemony lead to a more nurturing atmosphere for Looking Gla -style creativity? Many developers and gamers hope so, especially those who have battled with PC technical idiosyncrasies and the oppre ive power of Sony. Predicting who will win the gaming wars is ultimately a loser's bet, but one can always dream, can't one? Judging by the optimism the gaming industry is beaming in Microsoft's direction, it suddenly seems po ible that the giant that has crushed so many to grow so large may finally be using its stature to do what it claims (with little conviction) to have been doing all along: Innovate and make the world a better place.
Oftewel, kom op iedereen en doe mee met het Microsoft communisme