Microsoft Picks Seagate as Hard Drive Supplier for Xbox Video Game Console

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The folks at Seagate Technology sent in this news announcement:

Microsoft Picks Seagate as Hard Drive Supplier for Xbox Video Game Console

Video Game Market Offers New Growth Opportunity for Leading Consumer Electronics Storage Provider

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif., Nov. 7 - Entering another new segment in the growing Consumer Electronics market, Seagate Technology (NYSE: SEG) has been chosen as a strategic supplier of hard drives for Microsoft's future-generation Xbox video game console, due to hit retail stores in fall 2001. Employing a built-in hard drive, Xbox heralds a new growth opportunity for Seagate and ensures that deeper, richer games will be developed with its technology. As the number-one storage supplier for the Consumer Electronics market, Seagate is well-positioned to provide technology and expertise for the Xbox. Seagate's consumer disc drives, including the U Series 5, offer the best combination of performance, ruggedness and value, and will enable game developers to create breakthrough game experiences.

Microsoft awarded Seagate a multi-year contract to provide hard drives for the Xbox, beginning in June 2001 and continuing through mid-year 2003.

"As a leader in disc drives optimized for consumer electronics applications, Seagate is a logical choice to help Microsoft bring inventive technology to the lucrative game console market," said Todd Holmdahl, general manager of Xbox Hardware at Microsoft. "Seagate's innovative Consumer Electronics storage technology enhances the superior experiences that will be brought to life on Xbox."

"Because of its Seagate hard drive and other advanced technologies, Xbox will deliver imaginative and exhilarating game experiences with lifelike graphics, and faster, deeper Internet gameplay," said Duane Pemberton, editor-in-chief of CNET affiliate GamersDepot.com, a leading video game publication. "Xbox offers more than three times the graphics performance of any other game console. The Seagate hard drive will give Xbox gamers more flexibility, which will provide for a more realistic and richer game experience."

"This Seagate-Microsoft agreement is a clear boost to Seagate in maintaining its position as the number one storage supplier for Consumer Electronics," said Mark Geenen, president of leading data storage market research firm TrendFocus. "Seagate has invested significant time and resources in its consumer strategy, leading to unmatched shipments of more than one million hard drives for the CE market. While the market will be hotly contested in the coming years, Seagate's investments in both design and implementation of HDD technology in the CE market should pay dividends down the road."

"Seagate continues to build upon its leadership position within the consumer electronics market with a multi-year contract to supply its hard drives for the Microsoft Xbox," said Dave Reinsel, IDC senior analyst. "Given the success of its low-cost U Series drives, Seagate has a proven design to meet both the performance and pricing requirements related to the consumer electronics market."

"This is an important design win for Seagate as we work to increase our Consumer Electronics leadership," said Brian Dexheimer, Seagate executive vice president of Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Customer Service. "The popularity of video games as entertainment is undeniable. Currently, there are about 29 million game console players. Eighty-six percent of U.S. families with teens have one or more game consoles. As a category, games represent 50 percent of consumer PC software sales. This is an opportunity for volume growth in disc drive shipments as the Xbox attracts a large portion of this audience."

"The Xbox is a strategic product for Microsoft. As a long-time partner, Microsoft knows that Seagate provides advanced technical and operational capabilities," said Dexheimer. "Seagate has the most extensive experience helping the world's leading CE device makers innovate during product design and integration. Once again, we're working with an industry leader to help develop a new market and utilize disc drives a new and exciting way."

About Seagate
Seagate is a leading provider of the Internet Infrastructure enabling people to store, access, and manage information. The Company is committed to providing best-in-class products to help people get information when, where and how they want it. Seagate is the world's largest manufacturer of disc drives, magnetic discs and read-write heads, an innovator in tape drives, Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions and a leading developer of Business Intelligence software. Seagate can be found around the globe and at http://www.seagate.com . For automated news, stock and financial information by phone, dial toll-free 877-SEG-NYSE. Outside the U.S. and Canada, dial 760-704-4368.

About Xbox
Scheduled for release in fall 2001, Xbox ( http://www.xbox.com/ ) is Microsoft's future-generation video game console that delivers superior graphics, better audio and the most intense, action-packed gaming experiences available. All this is possible because Xbox has at least three times the graphics performance of the newest generation of game consoles. Features will include a 733MHz CPU, a custom-designed graphics chip capable of processing more than 1 trillion operations per second, an 8GB hard drive, 64 MB of total memory, an audio processor with 256 audio channels, and broadband connectivity for online game play. Xbox uses familiar architecture and DirectXR development tools so game developers will be able to create better games faster.

NOTE: Seagate, Seagate Technology, and U Series are registered trademarks of Seagate Technology. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Seagate Technology, Inc. 11/07/2000

CONTACT:
John Paulsen, 831-439-2499, or john.paulsen@seagate.com, or
Woody Monroy, 831-439-2838, or woody.monroy@seagate.com,
both of Seagate Technology, Inc.
Web site: http://www.xbox.com
Web site: http://www.seagate.com
(SEG)

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