Regarding the voice communicator, I had some serious reservations about the wisdom of such a device. My concerns were multiple. How will the service cope with the extra bandwidth required with voice transmission? What about swearing or offensive language? What about annoying players? How will voice communication work in games where typed communication is the established norm, such as in MMORPG's? And with the demonstration at Seville, everything made a bit more sense, and I can now see where MS is coming from. The fact that Live is broadband only allows them to use voice without hogging all the bandwidth. There are plans for a voice swear filter, and the gamer tag system allows for the of player reputations. Annoying players cannot hide behind anonymity - very soon they will become marked and no one will want to play them. The communicator can be muted at any time, of course, and it also allows you to selectively mute particular players. Voice communication is a natural development for games like Unreal Championship and Mech Assault - I can say first hand that it works and works well.

Indeed, Allard freely admitted that there were risks with voice, and that he cannot predict how well it works with all game types. If he is prepared to admit that, then I am prepared to give it a chance.

My other major concern centered on broadband penetration levels, which have been disappointingly low in general, and very low in the particularly. MS announced at the show, however, details of several deals with ISP's, including BT, Telewest and NTL, that aim to help Xbox owners secure broadband access. A similar deal has been made with Wanadoo in France, and MS did announce that they were close to securing the same in Germany. Jay Allard did point out that the goal of Xbox live is not to push broadband; initially, all MS want to accomplish is to get as many Xbox owners who already have broadband to sign up to Live. Put this way, it seems absolutely achievable.

I have a distressing tendency to play devil's advocate in any given situation. MS bashing is now such a staple of the internet that I'm going to put my head on the chopping block here and come down firmly in favour of Xbox Live. From everything I've seen and experienced, and from the candid and honest answers those involved gave at X02, I believe that MS are attempting something admirable and all too rare in the games industry. They're taking a risk. They're not sure it'll work quite as planned, but they're willing to forge ahead and try something new. If you're reading this, then you're using the internet, and therefore there's a high chance that you've been involved in gaming. I would say this - don't let that colour your judgement. are not trying to recreate PC online gaming on a console. They're trying to give console online gaming a firmer foothold than it found on the Dreamcast, and is as good a formula as any yet seen to do just that.

By Nick McCrea