Terry Nickerson who is ATI Technologies CFO that this week they have suggested that the company"s developement work on graphics unit for Xbox 2 is almost complete.
Speaking at the Smith Barney Citigroup 2004 Technology Conference, Nickerson made a short comment about the firm"s involvement with next-generation console development for both Nintendo and Microsoft.
"The other one that"s starting to become, I think, a factor when you"re looking at it from an investment point of view, are game consoles," he told the conference. "We"re actually winding down development on some of the Microsoft product. Both Nintendo and Microsoft will be royalties."
This would tie in with the expected schedule for the launch of Xbox 2, which is expected to hit retail well before the end of 2005 in North America at least. It also suggests that developers, who are currently developing Xbox 2 titles on prototype development kits based on PowerMac G5 systems, could start seeing more advanced Xenon development hardware around the start of next year, if not sooner.
The confirmation also confirms that Nintendo will be operating a system that is licensed technology from ATI and manufactures it itself.