Microsoft X-Box fan club starts early

Games enthusiast website GameSpy Industries has launched a site dedicated to X-Box, Microsoft's forthcoming video game system - even though the console will not be available for another year.

PlanetXbox.com is designed to provide gamers with information and updates about the system as soon as they become available.

Ellie Winkleman, director of events for GameSpy, said: "Anything and everything that's public knowledge [about X-Box] will be on the site."

Although X-Box is still in its early development stage, Microsoft claims it will offer the most realistic home gaming experience ever. It will include broadband internet connection, a 3D audio processor and three times better graphics than any system currently available or planned for the market, said Microsoft.

The console's structure will be similar to a PC's, complete with an Intel processor, an 8Gb hard drive, 64Mb of RAM, 3D video graphics chip, DirectX application programming interfaces, a DVD player and support for high-definition television. It is expected to be on the market by autumn 2001.

PlanetXbox.com is the company's third website to focus on a single gaming system. The company also runs PlanetDreamcast.com, which gives information about Sega's Dreamcast console, and PlanetPS2.com, which concentrates on Sony's Playstation 2 console.

Other GameSpy sites include gaming portal GameSpy.com, action games sites PlanetQuake.com and PlanetHalfLife.com, and FilesPlanet.com, which the company claims is the largest game file download site on the internet.