Xbox Chief Robbie Bach on Cross-Platform Gaming, More

securitas writes "The Seattle Times' Kim Peterson interviews Microsoft Xbox chief Robbie Bach about cross-platform gaming, recent Microsoft game developer layoffs, the lack of profitability of the Xbox division, the threat that Sony PSP poses to Windows Portable Media Center devices, the lack of a portable Xbox gaming device, competition from Sony, mass market games, and Halo 2. It's a long interview but worth taking time to read." S!: Also, GameSpot's two-part interview with Yoshihiro Maruyama and Mike Fischer of Microsoft Japan discusses "how they plan on leveraging the hardcore gamer and cultural nuances to increase [Xbox] awareness, loyalty, and sales."

Comments

Re:Microsoft Japan

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

"one being that the Japanese are hostile to American firms"

Evidence? Can you cite one survey that shows that the average citizen of Japan is "hostile" towards American firms? People who want to offer the most shallow assessment often cite this "fact" and I highly doubt its accuracy. If anything, the Japanese market has been shown to gobble up most anything that is American. Plenty of fads have spread like wildfire in Japan that have been marketed as being 'big in America.'

As for the XBox controller being huge and that being used by trolls - the XBox is a large piece of hardware. In Japan, space is quite limited for the average person and therefore the form factor of the Gamecube has been one selling point over the XBox.

Now, let's suppose that MS drops Japan. Then game companies are making games that can only be released in 2 of the 3 major markets worldwide. Why would they want to produce a game that can't be sold like that?

Re:Microsoft Japan

[August_zero]

Microsoft should drop Japan

They could do that sure, and save money. But there is a catch: If they don't court 3rd parties they are never going to even begin to catch Sony. If they ditch the Japanese market then a lot of Japanese 3rd party companies are not going to bother producing for the X-box, meanwhile the PS2 is everywhere so producing a game on it would hit every market with only a little bit of localization and some fresh box-art.

Staying out of the handheld market is a good idea at this point, Nintendo is going to be a tough one to budge and only Sony is strong enough to try it with a realistic expectation of success.

Re:Microsoft Japan

[MMaestro]

But there is a catch: If they don't court 3rd parties they are never going to even begin to catch Sony.

True, but a step today is a leap tomorrow. Microsoft has the money, so stepping back and reorganizing themselves in North America (maybe don't region code the X-Box 2 as well for the importers) wouldn't be such a bad idea. After they figured out what games and developers works best (*cough*Halo*cough*) they could do some kinda 'special edition, once-in-a-lifetime, must-see' launch celebration for a MUCH lately arrived X-Box 2.

Course from a business perspective this is suicide.. From a logical point of view this is an excellent move instead of throwing money into a so far unsuccessful venture, an alien market, and into a culture grown on decades of systems built and developed in their home country.

Re:XNA also called "d20"

[Frenchy_2001]

I'm going to prove you wrong and with a concrete game example.
Here are 2 games that are using the *SAME* game engine. They are:
- Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
- Beyond good and evil

Those 2 ubisoft games are based on the same engine, however they are completly different both graphically (you can still see some common effects), in type, objectives, markets and playability.
Both are great games.

This *could* be one of the effect of DNA, if it is done correctly. If they give you some solid and flexible engine/libraries, then the developpers can concentrate on the game.

As always, wait and see...