Dear Future Gamer

In response to Scott Ewing's thoughtless non-attack of the X Box, do we really want another industry overrun by Microsoft? I know people in the games development business using DirectX and they say it's a shockingly bad system, but even so, because it's Microsoft, they're forced into using it. It's the same with a console. The idea is a scary one. How are they going to cope with the numerous service packs for a console OS? Windows Second Edition is offensive, and that's being kind considering that Windows 98 was really a bug fix of Windows 95 in slow motion.

If the X Box is upgradeable, how does it therefore differ from a PC? Surely the one advantage of a console is that it's static. In other words, if I buy a PlayStation CD, it'll work in my PlayStation exactly as the developers intended it to. If I buy a PC game, Christ knows how it'll work on my PC. It might be great; it might not run at all. Consoles should be cheaper and more disposable than PCs. That's what makes them better for games.

I hope more than anything that the X Box is a disaster. Microsoft - hands off!

John

FG: For Microsoft to reach the mass-market console audience they're going to have to make X Box completely stand-alone. This is something they realise. I don't foresee any kind of 'downloading patches to make the game work' scenario at all. This might be the norm for PC games today, but it won't wash in the console world.