2008 Another Landmark Year for 360, Claims Shane Kim
Posted by Chris on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 1:00 pm under Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Games, Games Industry, Gears of War, Microsoft, Microsoft
We’re over four months into the year, but Shane Kim still believes that 2008 will be another landmark year for Xbox 360. Speaking with GI.biz at yesterday’s Microsoft event, the head of Microsoft Game Studios pointed to the exclusives we’ll be seeing this year as proof of his claim.
“What we’re really trying to communicate is that this is going to be another landmark year for Xbox 360,” Kim said.
“Mainly because we are really focused on the strategy of tremendous exclusive content. Titles like Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Banjo, et cetera. as well as the continuing leadership we have in the online space with Xbox Live.”
He claimed the battle between Xbox 360 and PS3 in Europe was a “horse race no matter what,” but also said, “I understand that Sony has declared leadership already. We’ll let the data speak for itself.”
Kim admits that Europe has always been a dominant market for Sony, and claims that with that in mind, any progress Microsoft has made is great progress. Japan, however, has few bright spots for the 360.
“Look, we’ve acknowledged for a long time that we probably wouldn’t win in Japan and that it was going to continue to be a tough market for us.
“We took some different steps in this generation - our partnership with Sakaguchi-san produced two very well-received and critically reviewed titles in Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. Unfortunately, it remains a difficult market for us.”
With that in mind, Microsoft isn’t about to give up on that market. Kim knows it’s critical and that there’s nowhere to go but up.
“I’m not going to go out and say our hope is to win in Japan because that’s not realistic. Do I think we have room for progress and improvement? I absolutely do.
“So, no, the battle is not over.”
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May 14th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
"Kim admits that Europe has always been a dominant market for Sony, and claims that with that in mind, any progress Microsoft has made is great progress"
What progress? Correct me if I'm wrong here but they wont have actually made any progress in the EU until they overtake the Xbox's EU total which they haven't done yet.
May 14th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
"Mainly because we are really focused on the strategy of tremendous exclusive content. Titles like Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Banjo, et cetera. as well as the continuing leadership we have in the online space with Xbox Live.”
What's the et cetera? As far as I know the three he mentioned are all they have left, Gears 2 will kick ass no doubt about that, Fable 2 will do well for fans of the original, but Banjo 3 just looks terrible, (seriously? square character models?)
The only thing I can think he is referring to when he says "et cetera" is Too Human, and after all of the admitted cuts to the game and lengthy delays, I lost interest in that one.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Sk8man, have you even played the other Banjo games? They were square models. It's meant to be square models. Rare is giving a bit of a fan service, keeping the models square-ish. The game still looks amazing.
Besides those 3, 360 still has Ninja Gaiden 2, Supreme Commander, Alan Wake, and Halo Wars, among others. I know someone is going to quote this and say "thats it?", but there ARE many others. This is just as I'm typing, I'm thinking of it. If I wanted to have a long list, I'd be able to look it up and have it done in roughly 10 minutes. Also keep in mind that if you want to point out that article by Jonathan saying that Alan Wake and Halo Wars are being delayed, he also says that those are rumors. There's no guarantee yet that they've been delayed.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Yeah, the square models are obviously intentional. I absolutely love the way this game looks.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:53 am
Fan service? If you guys say so…. But with new systems I expect a graphical upgrade, bears aren't square. That's all I'm saying, no need to get all fanboy there Evismang.