CES 2001: THQ and the Xbox

Among hard-core gamers, New Legends is probably the most anticipated Xbox game scheduled to be released by THQ. But nothing can compare to the massive following that's enjoyed by the company's WWF games. So it's no wonder that the Southern California-based developer already has plans to release a professional wrestling game that bears the WWF license - tentatively called WWF Raw is War - for Microsoft's newly unveiled Xbox. After Bill Gates' keynote address at the Winter CES in Las Vegas, we caught up with THQ's vice president of product development, Michael Rubinelli, to talk about the experiences his company has had with the Microsoft console.

GameSpot: Michael, based on your knowledge of other consoles, how easy is it to develop for the Xbox as opposed to its competition?

Michael Rubinelli: The Xbox so far has been a dream to develop for. As you can imagine with the mature suite of tools that exist and a large contingency of developers familiar with the PC architecture, we have met with little to no resistance in getting fairly robust things to happen on the screen in a very short time.

GS: Hypothetically speaking, how easy would it be to port PC games over to the Xbox and vice versa?

MR: Very simple - however, we do not advocate this strategy, seeing how we feel games should be built for [a] target platform.

GS: Is the Nvidia graphics processor particularly impressive at all?

MR: Yes, the chipset is extremely impressive.

GS: What does developing on the Xbox afford you that development on other platforms don't?

MR: What we are noticing is that our first-generation Xbox software is starting to perform, look, feel, and play like I would expect most second-generation titles to.

GS: How does the console's architecture measure up against the GameCube, Dreamcast, and PlayStation 2?

MR: All of those platforms have things they do very well. The sheer horsepower of the Xbox is not to be ignored or underestimated, but at the end of the day, it truly matters what the gameplay experience is. As an example, the Dreamcast, easily the weakest of the above listed machines, is still a great platform when you consider how great Sega's library of titles is.

GS: You've seen the controller. How does its design complement the control interface of your WWF game?

MR: The controller looks awkward, but it feels so nice in your hands. I cannot disclose at this time how we are going to be using it specifically, but I promise you we are taking full advantage of its functionality.

GS: Will the WWF game make use of both analog sticks and all the buttons?

MR: Yes... maybe. I remember when the Super Nintendo first came out and its controller had "all those buttons." People felt compelled to use them all just because they could... that seemed like a bad idea then, and it still is.

GS: How will you make use of the Xbox's hard drive?

MR: In many different ways, which we'd rather not disclose at this time.

GS: Are you going to be making use of any of the console's other features, like its connectivity?

MR: Absolutely. When the original PlayStation came out, the big innovation in the gaming experience was true 3D. I do not think there will be anything as revolutionary with this round of hardware - or possibly ever again. But the addition of built-in connectivity and a hard drive will really allow us as developers to take gaming in a direction it seems destined to go.

GS: So do you think the market will be big enough to support four consoles in addition to the PC platform? They can't all survive.

MR: No way. I would love to tell you my thoughts, but not at the risk of pissing off some of our friends in the hardware business. I do think this may be the first time that you could see three gaming platforms coexist due to the expanding market, however.

GS: Thanks a lot, Michael.