READ: 'Xenon' Code Name for Xbox 2 + Interview w/Gates on XBOX2

"Xenon" is the code name for the forthcoming Xbox 2 from Microsoft, a company representative said. The game console is expected to appeal to a wider variety of consumers and contain a wider variety of features, including music playback.

The future console will also differ from the current Xbox in that the key chips inside the system will come from IBM, ATI Technologies and SIS, rather than Intel and Nvidia. Some game sites reported the code-name, but the company has not publicly touted the name, the representative said.

News source: news.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------

CNet News.com has conducted an extensive interview with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates as he talks about various topics including the Xbox 2. Here's an excerpt:

What are some of the primary goals with Xbox 2?

Broadening the market, having media capabilities that when there's a PC, we connect up to that. This whole story of the Windows Media Connect and how all the formats and rights management and that simple Media Center menu that's just got TV, photos, music right there--those are common elements we're bringing to all the home devices.

We didn't do Xbox just to do a video game; we did it to be part of our vision of the digital lifestyle, and with the next generation, we really get to go there. In the first generation, we had one simple goal, which was to establish credibility as a great video game platform. We've done that. Actually, the last few months in the United States, we outsold Sony with the PlayStation. So even though they have the biggest installed base, we are a very strong, credible No. 2 in that. As we go into this next generation, it's much broader.

Yes, great video gaming but videogaming for a broader set of people, more communications, more media, more connectivity. And at the same time, we move up to things like high-definition graphics and wireless that the chip breakthroughs allow us to get to. So just for the games alone you'd go, wow, but the concept now of bringing in your music, your media, connecting to the PC, connecting Xbox Live to Messenger--that just makes it a very big deal.