Shane Kim Talks about the European Battleground and More

Microsoft Game Studios corporate VP Shane Kim has been doing a lot of talking at DICE, which of course means lots of interviews. One such interview was conducted by Wired, with Kim being prodded about how Microsoft foresees itself continuing to fight in Europe, which he acknowledged is a much more key battleground for the Xbox 360 than Japan is.

He didn’t pinpoint any one thing, but instead pointed to a variety of factors – GTAIV’s launch being “owned” by Xbox 360, the Xbox Live Video Marketplace, Rock Band and Guitar Hero – as what would collectively fight Sony.

Okay, so, video marketplace, GTAIV — what are some other ways, when you talk about focusing on Europe. What does that consumer want and how do you do it better?

Something like Scene It was a very important property for us, and in terms of driving that into Europe with local content, because Buzz is popular there. So content is very important, and we’re trying to address some of those things. But we’ve known music has been important in that market in the past, with Singstar’s success, and that’s why it’s so important for us to really make sure that from a consumer perspective, they look at Guitar Hero and Rock Band as the best experiences that they could possibly get are on our platform. So when Rock Band launches in Europe… There’s no one silver bullet. You have to do all of these things and you have to be patient and ply away at it, because it’s going to take time. But we know that it’s an important market that we have to succeed in if we want to win the generation, which is still our aspiration.

Kim also talks about the possibility of motion control making an appearance on 360, as well as Mass Effect exclusivity, the audience for Halo Wars, and how Microsoft is working on a game that rhymes with “Deers of Lore.”

Read the full interview here.