Heavyweights of the gaming world are queuing up to jump on the bandwagon

Following the unveiling of X-Box last Friday, the leading players of the games world are all spouting fulsome words of welcome about the forthcoming new console.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, the general consensus among game developers and publishers across the world seems to be that having four big platforms in the market to work with can only be good for the industry, and for gamers, even if the battle among the platform manufacturers themselves is set to be a bloody one.

Yasuhiko Asada, Managing Director of Namco, pronounced himself "pleased with Microsoft's entry into the console games business". He went on to say, "We believe the success of X-Box will further expand the interactive entertainment market."

Alexander Seropian, Chief Executive Officer of Bungie Software, welcomed the chance to push the frontiers of what games can do. "For years we've been making games that push the limits of PC technology, and we're very excited to see upcoming console systems shipping with so much power under the hood," he said. "X-Box is a prime example of a console entering the market at the leading edge of technology, which is exactly where we want our games to be."

The big bods at Eidos, Acclaim, Titus, Activision, Hasbro and Electronic Arts have all also welcomed the X-Box into the fold too, proving what we've said all along: Bill Gates isn't such a bad chap, really.

More on X-Box as we get it.