Seamus Blackley talks Xbox

[10.12.00] » Microsoft's Director of Advanced Technology for Xbox was recently at Stanford University. So was the GIA. Find out Microsoft's stance on dance pads, mahjongg, and yes, Square.

   The evening of October 11th, Microsoft's Director of Advanced Technology for Xbox, Seamus Blackley, gave a presentation to a capacity audience at Stanford University's aptly named William H Gates Computer Science building. Blackley was there to present the Xbox to an audience of interested undergraduates--and hopefully recruit some fresh talent for Microsoft in the process.

   Blackley began the presentation by filling us in on his background. He began his career as a jazz pianist at Tufts University; after failing his classes for three years, he knew he had to find something quick to complete and graduate. He completed a physics major in a mere two years. He focused on theoretical particle physics for a few more years of study before discovering the field had little application in the real world. A stint designing aircraft turned into a job at Boston-based Looking Glass Studios working on titles such as System Shock and Ultima Underworld. He jumped from Looking Glass to Dreamworks, and from Dreamworks to Microsoft. At Microsoft, he was asked to do a comparison of the power of the PS2 and of projected computer hardware that would be available at the time of the PS2 launch. After crunching a few numbers, Blackley realized, "hey, we could smoke Sony!" And thus the Xbox project was born.

   As has been stated many times before (but was repeated throughout the evening), the Xbox is a game console designed for game developers so they will be happy and produce the best games. Everything about it is designed to have good tools and good debugging available. In one of many quips during evening, Blackley noted that the Xbox was being developed "by a software company, not a camcorder company," and that this would make all the difference in developer relations. The Xbox hardware is just an "unfortunate detail"; a necessary evil to realize the dreams of both Microsoft and developers.

   Blackley gave a few specific hardware examples to explain why the system would be easy on developers. For example, the Xbox will have a 64Mb chunk of 200 Mhz DDR unified memory. This is superior to the Rambus memory used on PS2 and Gamecube for game operations, because it doesn't suffer a performance hit during page switches (changing between sections of memory), a common technique in rendering 3D graphics. The Nvidia graphics chip will also have 32 separate performance registers to help developers track performance and know exactly where graphics bottlenecks--if any--are occurring.

   But Blackley seemed reluctant to discuss the hardware at all. "When people ask me why the Xbox is better than the PS2," he said, "they're always surprised that I don't reply with numbers and statistics. But console gamers don't care about that ... they just want the games." And Xbox seems to be listening to what console gamers want. We asked Blackley if Xbox was serious about courting support from Japanese developers, and not just U.S. PC developers. Blackley responded that he had personally been to Japan 13 times in the past year, and that Microsoft had a team of thirty people in Japan working fulltime building developer relations.

   Will the Xbox have a mascot, like all great gaming consoles before it? Raven's detractors will be pleased to hear that Blackley said that the Xbox does not currently have a mascot, and that they do not intend to force "mascot" status on any pre-fabricated character. Instead, they're just going to "throw a bunch of games out there and see if anyone sticks." One student said he really hoped that the mascot wouldn't be Clippit [the paper clip-shaped Microsoft Office Assistant]. Blackley replied, "Dude, no, it's the dog." Now that's corporate synergy!

   Another student asked what Xbox's anti-piracy security would be like. Blackley's answer seemed to indiciate that it would be formidable. The security measures would be spread across the architecture: some on the processor, some of the graphics chip, etc -- so there would be no single place you could "chip" the Xbox to bypass the security. Even so, he's hired "many hackers from the Finnish demo scene" to work full time on cracking the Xbox. Blackley is resigned to the inevitability of the Xbox being cracked. He's okay with some "guys from Pasadena putting Linux on it"--it's the mass-produced, pirated software out of Taiwan that gets his dander up.

   Blackley then proceeded to show the now standard Xbox demos: ping pong balls, butterflies, desk toys, rippling water, and dancing mechs and lesbians. From time to time, he would freeze the demo and move the camera around freely in the "bullet time" effect the Matrix has made famous. After the demos, he took some more questions.

   One student asked if the Xbox would support standard Japanese game development software. Blackley hesitated, then said, well, one of his "best friends is head of R&D at Square--they make a game called Final Fantasy." Could Square's involvement with the Xbox be deeper than either they or Microsoft has let on?

   Blackley confided that he personally feels that, contrary to Newsweek editorials, videogames are art, and that he hopes the Xbox will provide a haven for artists who might not be able to realize their vision on another platform--and to provide the necessary technical power to convince the rest of the world that games can be art. A major plank in this platform is the "Unsigned Developer Program," informally called the "garage development program." Basically, anyone who can provide Microsoft with a good game idea and prove that they have the ability to make it a reality, to meet milestones, and to create a finished product--Microsoft will provide them with Xbox Developer Kits and let them try to realize their dream. Once the game is complete, if the quality is satisfactory, Microsoft could either publish it themselves or try to find a third-party publisher for the title.

   When asked about the Xbox controller (as with previous demonstrations, the demos were controlled with a standard PC Microsoft Sidewinder gamepad), Blackley was understandably silent. He did stress the importance of the controller to all aspects of a console gaming experience, and assured us that Microsoft would carefully consider all aspects of its design. In an interesting anecdote, he mentioned that some developers were considering online games that provided PC and Xbox players with different roles; for example, in a chariot racing game, the PC player could steer the chariot while the Xbox player stood in the back and fought off rivals. He also mentioned that the Xbox would support extra controllers such as driving controllers, fishing controllers, "dance pads," and, perhaps, even the special Densha de Go! controller. Blackley went into an in-depth discussion of the whole "Let's Go By Train/Plane/etc!" genre in Japan and the importance of launching with at least one mahjongg title. Such hardcore console talk made it clear that Microsoft is acutely aware of the market they must reach to succeed in the console arena--in all territories.

   After this presentation, it was clear why so many developers, PC and console alike, were interested in the Xbox. Microsoft has a clear, consistent vision of making games easy to develop and has the hardware, financing, and developer support to back up the talk. When will gamers find out more about this mysterious console? "When there are games to show," says Blackley. But we can expect a mini-advertising blitz around the October 26th PS2 launch, if only to "remind people" that the Xbox is still out there, waiting. Dreamcast is already out, PS2 is just around the corner, and Gamecube is still a ways off. Where Microsoft fits into the next-generation remains to be seen--but remember, just five years ago, Sony was an "outsider" too.