From Martin and Lewis to Penn and Teller, this city has been no stranger to Mutt and Jeff comedy teams. But no stranger comedy team may ever have played the Strip than Gates and The Rock.
Appearing before an enthusiastic crowd that overflowed the Las Vegas Hilton Theater as part of the recent Consumer Electronics Show, madcap Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and the world’s most popular professional wrestler killed with their wry wit, hilarious banter and some of the wackiest slapstick this side of the Silicon Valley.
“You know, Bill, the Xbox is everything the Rock is: cutting edge, powerful and exhilarating,” observed the World Wrestling Federation star before an audience of tech-heads and software junkies. “I mean, the Rock doesn’t impress easily, Bill, you know that, but I’m pretty damn impressed with what we’re seeing here today … especially considering that this Xbox, at this moment, is only running on one-fifth of the system’s available power.
“Bill, do you have any idea what the Rock would be like if he were only running on one-fifth of his power?”
To which, Gates — who could crush the buff bruiser with his wallet — stammers out, “Well, I think that …”
“It doesn’t matter what you think, Bill. … No, the Rock — even at one-fifth of his power — would blow everybody out of the water, just like the Xbox.”
OK, maybe you had to be there.
Like the Rock, Microsoft’s chairman and chief software architect draws a crowd wherever he turns up these days. The two of them together, with a prototype of one of the world’s most advanced and anticipated video-game platforms, were a publicist’s dream come true.
By exerting $500 million worth of marketing muscle to launch Xbox this fall, the Washington-based software giant will attempt to put a hammerlock on the reigning champions of video gaming, Nintendo 64, Sega Dreamcast and Sony PlayStation 2. In doing so, Microsoft finally is admitting what a generation of wrist-flickers understood from the beginning: PCs may produce terrific spread sheets and electronic mail, but gaming platforms they’re not.
Given the softening of the PC market, though, Microsoft had to do something dramatic to impress consumers and investors. Creating a new gaming technology that promises several times the raw computing power of other comparable platforms, high-speed Internet access, DVD playback and simultaneous support for four players was one sure way to raise eyebrows.
No suggested retail price or exact release date was announced at the CES (competing units cost around $300), and it was impossible even to find a prototype unit on the exhibition floor. A handful of impressive new games were given a sneak preview, albeit in the form of videotaped demonstrations.
Still, the console’s enhanced graphics created a palpable buzz.
Microsoft’s presence at the CES also included a huge booth, where the company’s home networking, Pocket PC, Whistler and Ultimate TV technologies were put on full display. But, it was the promise of a Texas Death Match, come autumn, between Xbox, PlayStation2, Dreamcast and Nintendo’s new Gamecube (formerly known as Dolphin) that got everyone’s juice’s flowing.
The stakes couldn’t be higher.
“Today, in homes where there’s a teenager, 8 out of 10 of those homes have a video-game presence,” Gates explained. “There’s actually 40 million homes in the United States that have more than one gaming device, so this is a mainstream activity. The video-game business is about the same size as the motion-picture industry.”
All gamers will have to do with Xbox, he added, “is push the eject button, slide in the disc and, boom, within eight seconds, you’re up and running in the game. . . . It has a hard drive, so information about a game can be stored.”
The Xbox allows up to four players to participate in a game, and the device includes a “rumble capacity.”
“So, as you’re sitting there holding it, you’re feeling what’s going on,” declares Gates, barely able to contain the excitement in his Kermit-the-Frog-like voice. “You’re feeling that explosion or that crash. The intensity actually comes through the controller itself.”
Fully digital, Xbox is ready to accommodate HDTV, as well.
Gates has long predicted the merging of the television with the PC, and it might even happen . . . someday. But in the meantime, Microsoft is hedging his bets by working with other high-tech companies to build a more PC-compatible TV.
When it arrives in electronics showrooms in the spring, Ultimate TV will offer viewers a fully merged set-top box that provides access to the Internet via WebTV; a TiVo-like recorder that can tape two shows simultaneously, even while the kids play with the Xbox; and DirecTV’s many channels of satellite-delivered digital entertainment.
WebTV, with only about a million subscribers, has yet to capture the fancy of consumers. When the technology finally allows high-speed Internet access — via a DSL line, instead of bulky 56K modem — WebTV will look a whole lot more attractive. This pits Microsoft against not only TiVo and Replay, but AOL-TV, which promises similar interactivity with the Web and programming simplicity. Hard-core gamers already are setting their sights on this May’s E3 convention, in Los Angeles, where titles for this next generation of platforms will begin to emerge and players will again be asked to choose sides. Fasten your seatbelts.
