Thomson to Ship Xbox Products and Components

They're choosing sides in the game box world. This week, with E3 in full swing, we're seeing daily announcements regarding who is working with whom to get the boxes and accompanying games to market. Thomson Multimedia says it will supply DVD-ROM drives that accept and read Xbox gaming discs to Microsoft. The company will also offer an Xbox DVD Playback kit that includes a remote control unit and plug-in controller accessory for those who want to watch movies using the game console. This means that Xbox won't play movies out of the box. You'll have to spend a few extra bucks to get that functionality. Thomson is currently working with Eleven Engineering to develop wireless controllers for the Xbox sometime in 2002. As for the competition, Nintendo will be offering a wireless controller as an add-on accessory when GAMECUBE ships. Thomson subsidiary Technicolor now has a multi-year partnership with Microsoft to provide manufacturing, assembly, packaging, and distribution for Xbox game disks, systems, and peripherals. To tool up for the Xbox invasion, Thomson has expanded the DVD production capacity of Technicolor by nearly 60 percent, adding 21 DVD manufacturing lines to its worldwide facilities to increase its annual DVD output to around 250 million disks.