Microsoft has been playing hard to get with
information on Xenon (XBox 2) but thankfully, its partners are more forthcoming about the
company's next-generation console.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, in a press
conferance, announced that development of Xenon chips, designed by ATI, IBM and SIS, is on
schedule. The news came as a reply to recent rumours suggesting that the company was
experiencing difficulties which resulted in delays.
There is more than meets the eye
in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's announcement. Senior Vice President Kenneth Kin was
very eager to say that manufacturing is proceeding according to plan... since timing is seen
as Xenon's biggest strength.
Although unconfirmed, plans call for XBox 2 to be
launched in Fall 2005, almost a full year ahead of Sony's PS3 and Nintendo's Revolution
console's. This could, potentially, give Microsoft an advantage similar to that enjoyed by
PS2 when XBox launched. Whether realistic or not, that Fall 2005 date has helped create a
positive spin on Microsoft's upcoming console project and the company would definitely not
want to ruin that, especially when we are still a year ahead of that date.
For the
time being however, the best guess for Xenon's launch remains Fall 2005 since developers
are planning titles for that date. Microsoft is expected to shed some light over the date in
spring 2005, possibly around E3 time.
