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EA - Medal of Honor release date, Dragon Age sequel, Sims 3 on consoles | Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing demo out now | Did Dante's Inferno topple Mass Effect 2 from charts perch? | Multiple Deals of the Week on XBLA | Aliens vs Predator scores 8/10 | Free Mass Effect 2 DLC hits tomorrow | Exclusive Left 4 Dead 2 Gamerpics with OXM issue 57 | Need For Speed: Shift Ferrari DLC announced | BioWare talks Mass Effect 2 sex scenes | Sega talks Alpha Protocol delay | X10 Fable III news will make you "super pissed off" | Final Fantasy XIII DLC all but confirmed by boxart | Modern Warfare 2 'care package glitch' being zapped | Bungie has last Halo 2 hoorah on April 14th | PS3-exclusive LA Noire confirmed for 360 | Brock Lesnar the face of UFC Undisputed 2010 | Iron Man 2 trailer flies in | Grab Mass Effect 2 'Dr Pepper' DLC the free way | Dark Void gets its own Horde mode | Microsoft turning off Live for the original Xbox | Could Microsoft be raising the Friends List cap? | Just Cause 2 demo on the way | Watch Super Street Fighter IV bonus stages in action | Watch debut Fallout: New Vegas trailer | Monday Night Entertainment trailer crashes in

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Phil Spencer Interview - Part 1

2-Sep-2008 The new head of Microsoft Game Studios speaks to OXM...

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It's been a long time coming but here it is, our chat with the new head of Microsoft Game Studios, Phil Spencer. Here's part one of our interview with him shortly following the Microsoft press conference at E3.

Do you think you can attract the Nintendo fans after the Nintendo press conference, that Xbox can attract so many hardcore gamers and casual gamers?
Well I think you've just answered the question for me, that's great. I mean it is for us, we've talked about it on stage, entertainment for everyone, and we have a history of core games that have been very successful. On the 360 we focused for quite a while on continuously broadening the audience with Kameo's launch, Viva Pi�ata, and now you see this holiday with another Viva, Banjo Kazooie, Lips, another Scene It game, it's building entertainment experiences for everybody and if that everybody includes Nintendo fans that would be great as well, it's important.

The third party exclusives as well that are there, and then us getting games like Final Fantasy XIII, on 360 for the first time obviously for a Final Fantasy game coming to our platform. It gives both validation that the platform has arrived, for a company like Square making that decision but also part of our strategy, I think it's the best thing for everybody and it's where we're driving to.

You've got the Halo franchise, and you've got GOW 2... do you think you need to develop any new kind of hardcore gaming franchises? Obviously you've got Lips and you've got You're In The Movies, do you have any other kind of new platform exclusive hardcore titles coming? Do you think that's important?
I think it's very important, and the next game I'm shipping is a core brand new IP franchise. The amount of new IP that we've brought to the market on the 360, it's one of the things I'm proud of. Gears for me is an interesting case study. Two years ago, nobody had played a game like that, played a version of Gears of War. Now, people kind of talk about it as a franchise that's been around forever, as if it's an old IP or an old franchise, which I think is the strength of that brand that's been built.

Our history to date on our platform; Crackdown, Gears of War, Too Human, games that really want to focus on the core, I think our track record speaks for itself there and it can continue to be part of Microsoft Game Studios.

So you will have new exclusive IPs coming?
Absolutely, absolutely.

What will you do differently to Shane Kim for Microsoft Game Studios?
The evolution of the platform for me opens up interesting opportunities for us content creators. The new Xbox experience that we announced on Monday, Live continuing to grow, the majority of our Live customers being gold customers, allows us to push beyond just retail games, which we've already done with DLC and different experiences, with people continuing to buy maps or whatever we deliver... but stepping back and really thinking about that connecting gamers and the entertainment experiences that we can bring.

The primetime stuff that we showed, that we announced at the briefing was a great example of that, of a new gaming experience, of this idea of programming certain timeslots, and certain experiences like the one vs. 100 game, not just for that but for all types of games, creating interesting opportunities.

How long do you think it will take to position the Xbox 360 as a casual gaming machine?
Well I think about it as a social gaming machine today, from Xbox 1 we put an Ethernet port in the back...

Sorry, as a casual gaming machine.
Oh, sorry, sorry. Well I will say this, the strategy for us all along from the beginning of the 360, from something as simple as the colour of the box and the way we announce the box and our line up at launch, and our continuing push on exclusive content. It's a platform that has shown a broad array of games, that we can have success with those games.

Stats like... our partners tell us that 80% of downloaded music for the Guitar Hero and Rock Band has been on the 360. The customers are there and they are buying into the experience on 360, I think that's great validation of the casual experience.

Concerning Lips and the avatars. A lot of critics claim that Microsoft is following a lot of things from Sony or Nintendo. What do you think about that?
Well there are multiple places that we find information for our ideas. We're not saying we invented avatars. We have an experience on the 360 with a connected entertainment experience that allows us to do things like the new Xbox experience and update the complete operating system for 360; reinvent a consumer electronics piece of hardware mid-cycle and we're going to add features that match where our customers are going and the functionality that were adding to the platform.

So we take our own approach, we think online is a core component of what were doing and the features that we add are about that consistent delivery of our platform and our service.

Do you see cross-platform games as being a significant part of your future roadmap? It started with Shadowrun and then the mooted Live Anywhere. We've had the occasional cross-platformer but they're not really events. Is this something that you're gonna continue to look at or are you just going to stick with your own stuff?
Two years ago at E3 Bill Gates was here and talked about our vision for Live Anywhere, which involved many things. Cross platform gaming, viewing your gaming data from multiple devices, a sharing of that information, your persona online. The functionality that you see us adding right now through the new Xbox experience is completely consistent with Live Anywhere.

Now don't wait for the day when Live Anywhere goes from being off to on. This is a vision that we set forward and it included those sort of connective experiences and I think were delivering that, we're delivering that in steps, and you see the examples. The specifics of cross platform gaming is something that we still look at. Shadowrun was interesting step for us. I think we did some goods things there, I think we left some good things not done there but in no way are we turned away from the idea.

What about the big titles like Gears of War?
Gears of War 2 is a 360 game, we haven't talked about any Windows version of that.

But Gears of War 1 was available on PC.
Yes, Gears of War 1 was available on PC. For us... maybe Shadowrun proved it. In order for cross platform play to really work, we need to have a reason why it makes sense, why it's a part of that game. I don't want to just shoehorn a feature into a game because we can and Shadowrun was a little bit of that.

We ended up with a game where you could do it but people said it was a shooter, some people on one platform, some people on another and that was it. There was no reason behind it.

In Gears, you'd end up with the same scenario. When we're looking at new game ideas, that's where we find the right scenario that makes sense as a feature in the game is when you'll see us bring it to market. I don't want to just do it just to prove it can be done. We've done that once already, it can be done. The next time you see it will be because it belongs in the game experience that's there.

So will it be something like Spore where there's an application for the iPhone, for example.
That is a good example. We've done things like the pub games in Fable, which aren't cross platform but it's playing an arcade game, building currency that works for you in the Fable game. You could imagine doing that from another device as well.

It's thinking about the right opportunity. Where it makes sense is more important than just proving that it can be done. Technically we know it can be done. It does make sense in some scenarios. That's part of the creative process.

Come back on Sunday for the second part of the interview!

Jon Hicks