Re: Nintendo lowers unit sales forecast

April 10, 2003

On Wednesday, April 9, 2003, at 03:23 PM, Bill Kearney wrote:

"Seeing PC-like devices, programmable without being beholden to /any/ proprietary vendor would be a HUGE improvement for the consumer game, set top and 'home hub' market. Time will tell if the clone vendors get wise to this idea and start pumping out Xbox-like devices at Xbox-like retail prices. That would kick ass."

This news is a step in that direction:

SeattlePI.com: Microsoft shares Windows CE source code

However, if what Microsoft is offering with WinCE doesn't include
DirectX, I don't know if an PC-class console-vendor would have an
reason to choose it over Linux, other than, maybe DirectX could be
licensed on top of it for a reasonable price.

I'd still rather see these things be Microsoft-controlled-API-free, but
this move is sure to step up the competition in this area.