JEO 12/46
//// Nintendo, Sony, Sega and ???
[This article originally appeared at Next Generation Online
. Reprinted with permission.]
November 4, 1997
Sony's head of R&D, Bill Rehbock, has left the company to work on VM
Labs' new hardware. Next Generation Online spoke with Rehbock where he
reveals that a fourth major player will be joining the hardware wars.
Just when you thought the market was stable and that all the players
in the industry had already placed their bids, up pops a new
technology and a "major" backer that promises to make things just a
bit more interesting again.
While Next Generation Magazine has provided some early insights into
VM Labs in its last issue, little has been said of the mysterious
"Project X" that the company promises will be "the next Mario-killing
hardware."
Friday was Bill Rehbock's last day at Sony and Monday will mark his
first day at VM Labs. Said Rehbock, "The guys at VM Labs waited to
approach me until they had something to show me so that I would have
an easy decision to make. Needless to say they knocked my socks off."
In addition to the hardware (and here's the key), VM Labs already has
a deal signed with a "major" but as yet unknown manufacturer. "Every
company that VM Labs approached was of the magnitude of a Sony. One of
them eventually signed," said Rehbock. "I wouldn't have left my
position at the 'country club' in Foster City (Sony) if this weren't a
sure thing." Already speculation as to who the backer is in the Next
Generation office is running rampant. Time frame for the system
release is said to be a cryptic "really soon".
In his new role at VM Labs, Rehbock will be the vice-president of
software development (which was a role he originally played at both
Atari and to some degree early on in his position at Sony). In this
role, he will be trying to solicit third party support for the new
hardware in addition to overseeing internal projects. Obviously one of
the major feathers in the new hardware's cap is the support from
coding genius Jeff Minter. Minter's forte is clearly in the realm of
fast action, psychedelic games such as Tempest 2000, Llamatron and
Defender 2000.
Other members of the team include former Atari employees Jon Mathieson
(known to some as the "Father of the Jaguar") and Richard Miller (who
seems to be the mastermind on the project). Despite the obvious Atari
heritage, Rehbock is keen to point out that "this is not Atari and
that it is an entirely different company with entirely new
technology."
When asked what he felt of potential technology competitors 3Dfx and
PowerVR, Rehbock commented, "3Dfx has good performance, but it's still
a bit pricey, and I don't think PowerVR will ever be a significant
factor in the market." Assuming that in his position at Sony Rehbock
also had knowledge of Sony's forthcoming hardware and Project X still
impressed him, it raises some interesting questions as to the power of
this system.
With regard to differences between VM Labs and Sony, Rehbock pointed
to the difference in developer support and tools for the systems. "I
don't think the team at VM Labs has left a stone unturned with regard
to development tools," said Rehbock. "I'm used to good tools, having
worked at Sony. But the guys at VM Labs hail from all facets of the
gaming industry and have written tools from a game programmer's
perspective. The teams we've put together at Sony, while they offered
the best support around, simply weren't gamers."
In terms of who VM Labs will be going to first for development
support, Rehbock indicated that "it will be all the obvious ones"
(clearly not wanting to give away much of his plans). "We already have
a few development systems seeded out there but for now we're going to
be working with a few select developers at first. It sounds funny, but
it's true, we need to focus on quality first. When developers see this
hardware and the tools at their disposal, I think my job isn't going
to be very hard."
To sum up, VM Labs has working hardware. It has development systems in
a few developers' offices already and probably most importantly, it
supposedly has "major backing from a company the size of Sony." The
next generation hardware wars are getting extremely interesting.
... "There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom!" -The Martian
--- JetMail 0.99beta22
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