Microsoft has been playing hard to get with information on Xenon (XBox 2) but thankfully, its partners are more forthcoming about the company's next-generation console.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, in a press conferance, announced that development of Xenon chips, designed by ATI, IBM and SIS, is on schedule. The news came as a reply to recent rumours suggesting that the company was experiencing difficulties which resulted in delays.
There is more than meets the eye in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's announcement. Senior Vice President Kenneth Kin was very eager to say that manufacturing is proceeding according to plan... since timing is seen as Xenon's biggest strength.
Although unconfirmed, plans call for XBox 2 to be launched in Fall 2005, almost a full year ahead of Sony's PS3 and Nintendo's Revolution console's. This could, potentially, give Microsoft an advantage similar to that enjoyed by PS2 when XBox launched. Whether realistic or not, that Fall 2005 date has helped create a positive spin on Microsoft's upcoming console project and the company would definitely not want to ruin that, especially when we are still a year ahead of that date.
For the time being however, the best guess for Xenon's launch remains Fall 2005 since developers are planning titles for that date. Microsoft is expected to shed some light over the date in spring 2005, possibly around E3 time.