In true salt of the earth fashion, Peter Moore is making it clear that Microsoft is very much open to the idea of doing their part to help out the research community with a Foldating@home-like project of their own, powered by none other than the Xbox 360 and its subsequent installed base.
“If we truly believe that we can in some way marshal the resources of a much larger installed base of Xbox 360 owners, with a processor that’s of equal power to the PS3, then you have my commitment that we’ll look at that,” commented Moore, corporate VP of interactive entertainment at Microsoft, to The Mercury News.
And if we believe we can add value to solving a gnarly problem such as medical problems and the health problems that Folding@home seems to be doing, then we’ll certainly look at that very strongly.”
The last time anybody bothered to take a count, the total number of PlayStation 3 users who were participating in this numbered in the 250,000+ range. Whether or not this is making a real difference is being monitored closely by Moore and the crew.
“I’m not quite sure yet whether we’re seeing real tangible results from the PlayStation 3 Folding@home initiative. We continue to look at this and see whether there’s real value,” he added.
I’ll go on record as saying you can bet the farm that if Sony starts seeing some real results from this, then you will see it (or something like it) on the 360. Expect Reggie to burst on to the scene too and throw the Wii’s name into the mix in some capacity. Since their hardware is a bit limiting for this sort of work, there is no reason why they can’t be involved in great things — on some other grassroots level.
Let’s see … how about donating a ton of Wiis to various nursing homes or children’s charities? Nevermind, I got it! How about a Celebrity Deathmatch between Reggie and our own Robert Summa? Admit it, you’d pay big money to see that one take place.
