WSJ(3/24) Microsoft Bets Software Tools Will Spur Xbox (Dow Jones News Service)
Updated: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 12:00AM ET
(From THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)
By Robert A. Guth
Redmond, Wash. -- ANY DOUBT that Microsoft Corp. is at war with Sony Corp. over videogames should be dispelled by a symbol of that clash in J Allard's office here: a Sony PlayStation 2 that has been pierced by a .50-caliber machine gun bullet. Now the competition is entering a new phase, and the strong-willed Microsoft engineer is preparing a different kind of weapon.
Microsoft plans to announce today that Mr. Allard will lead a broad initiative to develop new software tools for writing sophisticated videogames. The project will draw on programmers and technologies from Microsoft's videogame group and its core Windows division to create a single "platform" of compatible programming tools for building games that run on both Microsoft's Xbox game console and Windows-based personal computers.
While technical in focus, the plan is strategic in design: Microsoft, which started in the 1970s by selling a programming language called BASIC to write software for PCs, has a long history of using its programming tools as a strategic weapon for breaking into new markets and pushing out competitors. This time Microsoft is using its tools to try to win the attention of independent game developers.
Game developers are key to the success of any game console and always want to sell their games to the largest possible audience. Today that's the PlayStation 2, which has outsold the Xbox by more than five to one. But Microsoft is laying the foundation for when it and Sony introduce the next versions of their game consoles. Industry speculation about the consoles' features is already at fever pitch even though the devices aren't expected to be available until late 2005 or the following year. But offering better tools that can be used to write games for both Xboxes and PCs is likely to give Microsoft a boost.
Mr. Allard, a 35-year-old Microsoft veteran with a reputation for pushing the company into new businesses, has already been helping to shape the next Xbox. But the new tools initiative -- dubbed XNA, for Xbox Next-Generation Architecture -- signals Microsoft's determination to make programming technology the key to turning the tide.
"Effectively, we're saying that the next generation of gaming starts now, with continuous innovation in software," says Mr. Allard, a corporate vice president in Microsoft's home and entertainment group, in an internal Microsoft e-mail announcing the plan.
Though other Microsoft strategies have attracted more attention, courting other software developers has always been the foundation for its business development. By understanding their needs -- as well as the internal workings of its own operating systems -- Microsoft had a leg up when it came to persuading programmers to create products that would work with its software.
A key part of that strategy is creating programming languages and development tools that help automate many of the tasks needed to create games, business applications and other programs. The next step: to get them into as many developers' hands as possible.
It is a strategy that was successful on the PC and in software for large "server" computers. It is also at work in Microsoft's more recent forays into cellphone software and so-called Web services.
In the early 1990s, for example, developing software for International Business Machine Corp.'s OS/2 and Apple's operating systems for PCs was notoriously difficult. In contrast with competitors' offerings, Microsoft's Visual Basic programming language, and tools based on it, required less technical knowledge to make sophisticated software applications. Microsoft "evangelists" aggressively promoted the tool to developers, and the number of applications for Windows soared. "It worked once for Windows so they keep applying it to other platforms," says Greg DeMichillie, an analyst at research firm Directions on Microsoft.
Microsoft sees a similar opportunity today. With the release of every new game console, the PlayStation 2 and Xbox included, game makers are faced with highly sophisticated computing machines that tax the ability of developers to write games -- a form of software -- for them. "You have more computing power than you can possibly use with the tools that are available," says Alex St. John, chief executive of game maker WildTangent.
That is one reason that game development is such an expensive and risky proposition. The costs to develop a game in the past 10 years have skyrocketed. The average cost per game now averages $5 million to $10 million, and it's expected to double or triple on the next crop of consoles.
Game makers also contend with a mishmash of specialty tools that are powerful but don't necessary work well together. Mr. Allard says he hopes to work with the makers of those tools to set standards for how their products could mesh. Meanwhile, he says, Microsoft will use its own in-house development teams to write new tools and software that could ease game development. Unifying tools for PC games with tools for Xbox games should make it easier for developers to write games that run on both types of devices more easily and cheaply.
The task of making it all work falls to Mr. Allard, who has a reputation as a strong leader with an iconoclastic bent. To help woo him to the Xbox job, a co-worker on the Xbox team sent him a mock in-house ad seeking an "energetic, maniac manager type." Mr. Allard sports a shaved head and thrives on what he calls "high-penalty" sports: Porsche racing, mountain biking and snowboarding. His most recent penalty: a broken ankle suffered earlier this year when he landed in a muddy stream while snowboarding.
Colleagues say Mr. Allard has a knack for winning support for projects from top Microsoft executives. He is widely credited with alerting Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in the mid-1990s to the threat and opportunity of the Internet. Microsoft's subsequent moves into Web-browser software obliterated the early leader, Netscape Communications Corp. When Microsoft began planning its entry into game devices, Mr. Allard sparred with Mr. Gates over the form of the Xbox. Mr. Allard's plan, for a dedicated game machine that would appeal to hardcore gamers, prevailed.
This time, Mr. Allard must win over developers outside Microsoft. At least offering improved tools gives him a fighting chance.
"If it's the PlayStation, it doesn't matter what hoops you have to jump through to develop for it," says Rolf Berteig, a software engineer at tools maker RTzen Inc. Still, if Microsoft can "reduce the pain" for developers, Mr. Berteig says, "that's the way to chip away at the PlayStation's domination of console games."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
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... aber ansonsten haut mich das nicht so richtig um...