Today at 2001 International CES, Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates revealed to the world the highly anticipated Xbox™ video game console during his keynote address. As the finale of his keynote, Gates showed off the Xbox console and game controller and demonstrated two exclusive Xbox games that highlight the future-generation console's rich and realistic graphics capabilities. "Xbox is the future of video gaming," Gates said. "With its breakthrough technology and incredible graphics capabilities, Xbox will set the standard in gaming for years to come. It enables game designers to create a whole new world of gameplaying experiences that will captivate the imagination and competitive spirit of gamers like no other console." "Xbox is on track for an awesome launch in fall 2001," said Robbie Bach, senior vice president and chief Xbox officer at Microsoft. "With more than 200 game companies around the world creating Xbox games for launch and beyond, the unveiling of the Xbox design is just the start of great things to come." To emphasize the power of Xbox, Gates called on The Rock, World Wrestling Federation (WWF) superstar and star of the popular THQ Inc. and JAKKS Pacific Inc. video game "WWF Smackdown! 2," to help unveil Microsoft's new future-generation console.