gabalicious Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 (edited) The official story: "The story is highly speculative and we don’t have anything to say on it."--Microsoft rep. What we heard: Two weeks ago, the gaming industry was rocked by a leaked video that showed what looked like a Microsoft handheld that could run Halo. However, the video turned out to be concept footage of Project Origami, the code name for a new line of "ultra-mobile tablet PCs." When Project Origami was officially unveiled at the CeBit tech expo, it appeared rumors of Microsoft's foray into handhelds had been laid to rest. That is, until today, when Takahashi added an entry to his blog titled "Microsoft's Plans for Handheld Game Player and 'iPod Killer.'" The entry, which comes from the reporter's forthcoming book The Xbox 360 Uncloaked: The Real Story Behind Microsoft's Next-Generation Video Game Console, also appears to solve another game-industry mystery--namely, what happened to J Allard? After being arguably overexposed in the campaign to hype the Xbox 360, the corporate vice president and chief XNA architect has all but disappeared from public view. Though some theorized Allard's new low profile was due to a de facto demotion, Takahashi claims that the executive is in fact cloistered away, working on a Microsoft portable. "In a bid to capture the huge audience for handheld entertainment gadgets, Microsoft is designing a product that combines video games, music, and video in one handheld device," wrote Takahashi, citing anonymous "sources familiar with the project." The source said that Allard is heading up development of the handheld, which he calls the "Xplayer." He said that the machine would be strictly for entertainment, and "would likely more closely resemble Sony's PlayStation Portable multimedia gaming device" than the iPod. Takahashi also said the Xplayer team is staffed with some of Microsoft's "most seasoned talent," including Xbox 360 system designer Greg Gibson and Xbox finance chief Bryan Lee. He said that it was originally conceived in 2002 when work on the Xbox 360 began, but was shelved so Microsoft engineers could focus on the next-gen console. Takahashi's report would be easy to dismiss, were it based solely on an anonymous insider. However, the reporter cites a regulatory filing by Transmeta, a maker of low-power microprocessors for handhelds, which says the company has assigned 30 engineers to an unnamed Microsoft project. A more recent Transmeta filing cited by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer says that the company has "substantially completed" its work on the unnamed Microsoft device. Does the Transmeta filing mean that the Xplayer could arrive sometime soon? Takahashi doesn't think so. He speculates that "it could be 2007 before the device hits store shelves," since Microsoft wants it to be compatible with its still-in-the-works music-download service, code-named "Alexandria." He also says that gamers may be able to get their portable Halo on after all. "One benefit of waiting longer is that the handheld will likely have sufficient technology in it to run a lot of original Xbox games from a few years ago," says Takahashi. Bogus or not bogus?: The Nintendo DS and Sony PSP are helping handheld gaming reaching new heights of popularity. Microsoft would be foolish not to try and get in on the action. Source:Gamespot.com --------------------------------------------------- Well rumor has it that microsoft will indeed make a portable gaming system, thoughts anyone? I hope it adds value to the xbox 360 Edited March 21, 2006 by bulio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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