Peter Moore speaks his brains!
Q: The epic episodes for GTA IV that Rockstar has planned – is there anything to stop them doing something similar with other systems? A: It’s an exclusive deal. When I said those episodes are exclusive to Xbox 360, that’s what I meant. All I worry about is making sure that I give Xbox 360 gamers content that’s exclusive to the Xbox 360 platform, and build a system that can deliver it. Q: We’re not seeing much of the quirky/fun stuff from Microsoft – titles that have an appeal outside the usual gamer demographic. Can you tell us anything that’s in that line? A: Well, there’s stuff that we’re looking at – we’re still only, what, nine or ten months into launch. Some would argue that Viva Piñata is quirky. Our goal is to boost what we have from a broad content point of view, and then continue to look at Xbox Live Arcade as a way of delivering innovative content – either the stuff that’s new or some of the retro classics. But we do recognise that as we move into year two or three and into the next consumer segment that we do have to deliver different experiences. We have a lot of plans to do that, but no announcements to make today. Q: How do you view Nintendo’s Wii – as a competitor or a complimentary gaming system? A: That’s a very good question. The infamous “Wii-60” movement seems to be growing like a trade union. It once occurred to me that you could probably buy a 360 and a Wii and still have maybe £50 in your pocket. It certainly seems to have turned out to be close to that. Many gamers are going to ask the question is owning the Wii, and the Wii alone, enough of an experience that they’re willing to put up with? Clearly when you look at the Xbox 360 and the PS3 you can see a lot of similarities more than you can differences. I think that dual platform ownership could be as much as 40%, so you have to wonder which two are they going to buy? I think there’s a pretty good chance they’re going to buy a 360 and a Wii. That’s just one man’s opinion of the future. I’ve always been an admirer of the innovation that Nintendo brings and the controller is innovative, but it remains to be seen how innovative your shoulders are feeling an hour later! Q: Any release dates for Blue Dragon or Lost Odyssey in Europe? A: They both involve a huge localisation effort. When we ‘loc’ something the Japanese game has to be finished – we don’t ‘loc’ parallel. It’s not easy to do. You lock down the code for the Japanese game first and then work out the ‘loc’ schedule, ‘cos these things are monsters! I learned something very interesting about Blue Dragon – the mouths are actually synched in English. Apparently a lot more Japanese games are doing this. Just a little interesting quirk that I found out when I was in Tokyo! Q: Is the Peter Jackson/ Wingnut project an effort to broaden the appeal of Xbox 360? A: He wants to tell compelling stories to people – not to gamers, not to movie-goers, not to people who read books or magazines – people! He sees our industry as where technology and entertainment are colliding. Movies just aren’t big enough for his ideas any more, and he’ll tell you that. The making of movies frustrates him greatly and he’s not a big fan of the studio model either. This is a guy who is a pretty hardcore, passionate gamer. It was personally thrilling for me last night when he bounced on stage, shook my hand and said “I can’t believe all these great games!” And that was our lot. Doubtless Peter had a million other things to do and other people to impress with the incredible bombshells that he had dropped in his keynote speech. Either way it was enlightening, exhausting and, as always, thoroughly entertaining – thanks Peter! | Related Links |
