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 Postcard
From GDC 2005
Microsoft
Keynote:
The Future of Games -
Unlocking The Opportunity
Microsoft's
keynote at the 2005 Game Developers Conference, presented by chief XNA
architect J Allard, was a heady blend of big ideas and a few tantalizing
specifics on Microsoft's plans for the next generation, with a big, showboating
prize surprise at the end which left many attendees literally speechless.
As an introduction
to the 3,000-strong crowd packed into the Grand Ballroom at the Moscone
West, GDC show director Jamil Moledina was ushered onstage, and introduced
the keynote with a brief speech explaining that this year's GDC debuts
the vision track, emphasizing free thinking. With those words, he introduced
Microsoft's corporate vice-president J Allard.
Striding on stage, Allard started by congratulating Nolan Bushnell and
Shigeru Miyamoto for being the inaugural inductees in the Walk of Game
over at the Sony Metreon, an event that Allard had attended the previous
evening. He noted: "Meeting Nolan was a special thrill", and commented
that his heroes didn't come from film or music, but were, in fact, Evil
Knievel and Nolan Bushnell, going on to argue that both personalities,
although very different, took incredibly big risks and really changed
a generation.
In fact, Allard suggested: "Nolan really brought this industry to life
by founding Atari", and particularly pinpointed the classic commercial
whose tagline was: 'Have you played Atari today?' In fact, he posited,
Atari changed our culture and birthed an industry. He went on to pinpoint
the single change he thinks that relates to gaming that is almost an Atari-sized
change, which he explained when describing the occasion when he and his
wife recently watched the Super Bowl in a bar on HDTV. As more and more
people get exposed to the HDTV medium, visual expectations ratchet way
up.
This introduced the main theme of the talk - the 'HD era'. For Allard,
however, the 'HD era' is not just about the HDTV aspects of resolution,
but defined all parts of the next-gen experience that Microsoft hoped
to give consumers. Unfortunately, it's somewhat difficult to define the
next step after 2D to 3D in any concrete way, so it seems that Microsoft
are using this umbrella term to signify multiple facets related to game
innovation. For example, in the 3D era, Allard argues, one size fits all
as far as game content, but in the 'HD era' means connected communities,
and "consumers will expand online worlds in places we can't imagine."
He also discussed the possibilities of multiplatform games where, on Windows
systems, gamers were giving orders, but on consoles, people were carrying
out those orders, as well as talking of 'polymorphic IP,' as opposed to
plain licensing.
This relatively grandiose talk segued into a video montage, which showed
'new friends' who were "anxious to make the HD era come to life" These
included Terminator and Titanic director James Cameron,
who commented: "What people want are worlds", and revealed that, for his
next unannounced film, he would be simultaneously developing the movie
and the game to share characters and inform the audience. Markus Maki
of Max Payne creators Remedy Entertainment commented: 'Now we
can surpass Hollywood', and the montage also included rock band 3 Doors
Down, enthusing about the possibility of playing to millions of people
at once on Xbox Live, and representatives from Alienware (discussing the
HD boom) and Samsung (which has shipped 7.2 million digital televisions
last year, up 75% from the previous year.)
The video sequence ended, and Allard strode onstage again with a cautionary
note: "We have the power to blow it." He wondered: "What's it going to
take to make games top of the list?", and then went on to list three main,
if broad aspects that needed to be dealt with comprehensively if games
were to succeed. These three aspects were software (including runtime
tools to hit the hardware), hardware (displays, devices, and silicon),
and services (those things connecting the players.)
Focusing on software first, Allard told the story of a game with a great
concept, great art, and a great game hook, which bogged down due to 'minor
changes' needed by publishers, technology tweaks, and a whole bunch of
small changes which begat larger changes, dependency issues, and allowed
the game to get caught up in a negative cycle. What Allard wants to see
is a situation where "successes are repeatable, and the process rational",
and he slipped in the fact that Microsoft had already shipped over 3,000
Xenon development kits to developers to help with this for the company's
next-generation console development.
But Microsoft's XNA Studio, a Windows application which will launch in
2006 and was announced earlier in the week, is the company's solution
to the next-generation workflow issues. The application, built on Visual
Studio 2005 Team System, allows uses to create all content in native formats,
and then push everything through a unified build environment, including
asset management, bug tracking and managed worklists. Allard also revealed
that, in XNA Studio, developers can push a button and submit the final
build of their title digitally, and that he was hoping to debut copies
of the XNA Studio beta for all attendees at the Microsoft keynote next
year.
Moving to hardware, Allard referenced the next-generation Xbox, and simply
told keynote attendees that they were not going to be told about it, indicating
E3 would server as the official launching pad for that hardware (which
he referenced as 'Xenon' more than once during the speech, but did not
name specifically at this point.) However, he did address the concept
of hardware more abstractly, taking a number of potshots at Sony's previous
and forthcoming hardware, albeit not mentioning the rival by name. Specifically,
Allard commented, if you "design your hardware to win at science fairs,"
it takes a year after release before anything worth playing comes out;
"that's a crime." He further quipped: "The only emotion it can elicit
is frustration", a clear dig at Sony's early publicity for the PlayStation
2's 'Emotion Engine'.
In contrast, Allard suggested that the platform is bigger than the processor,
noting that "hardware's no good if you can't light it up," and referencing
the "elegant balance between software, hardware, and services." He recounted
the already-established information about IBM and ATI as hardware partners,
and mentioned that the next-gen console will have a teraflop of targeted
computing performance, designed over three years, with a thousand engineers
in nine different locations. Allard then explained the next-gen Xbox hardware
will deliver on familiarity, and can use the same tools and processes,
albeit with a symmetrical multi-core architecture.
Finally, in terms of services, Allard commented that services were vital
to "create developer-to-gamer connections" using microtransactions, so
that any developer or publisher can sell a five-cent tattoo or a one-dollar
car. The next wave of consumers are intimidated by online, and so, Allard
argues, it's vital to create a consistent experience, and not re-invent
interface all the time.
With this, Allard segued into the only game-related footage shown at the
keynote, a simulation starring the Gamertag of Seattle, Washington-based
'HiroProtagonist', of what next-generation aspects to the online user's
experience might look like. The game referenced was current Xbox title
Forza Motorsport, and it was integrated into this next-gen user
interface, which included elements such as a low battery alert - triggered
by a Microsoft API, rather than laboriously-coded by the makers of the
game. Essentially, Microsoft intends to make the idea of user alert code,
as when a controller is removed (or other generic functions), universal
over all next-generation software, leaving creators free to focus on the
more constructive parts of development.
In addition, the expanded Gamertag and next-gen Xbox Live information
includes information about the number of friends online, real-time challenges
from other users ("Doomster wants to race!"), and "merit
badges" - a manner of documenting a player's accomplishments and
achievements - that can be seen on all users' Xbox Live Gamertags, alongside
which games they've played and how long they've played them. This creates
a kind of "baseball card" for each Xbox Live user, meaning it's
much easier to size up suitable opponents and scout for worthy adversaries.
Finally, direct interaction with gamers in terms of micro-transaction-driven
game add-ons is simplified even further; game developers and creators
can sell incremental content for dime or dollar, and not worry about transaction
charges. The example he gave was extra add-on parts for Forza Motorsport
cars.
Following this, Allard soothed nerves about the complications this might
imply if TCRs (technical requirements) go way up due to this extra complexity,
indicating that Microsoft would reduce the current compulsory Xbox TCR
list by over hundred items, even after adding the extra Xenon applications.
In conclusion,
Allard cut to a final video montage with creators talking about what could
be achieved in the next generation. Maxis's Will Wright commented: "If
both grandparents and kids can play together, it's a huge win... our games
can be inherently malleable"; Sarah Chudley of Bizarre Creations noted:
"We're taking games forward with customization." Other personalities included
George Andreas of Rare, commenting it's "this... stamp of individuality..
that's really appealing to a lot of players." Interestingly, some non-Microsoft
affiliated creators were included, particularly Jeffrey Kaplan of Blizzard,
commenting: "People want to interact with each other"; Frank O'Connor,
Brian Jarrard, Zach Russell of Bungie discussed customization in terms
of stat-tracking in Halo 2: "It's cool to see people go further
than we can ever imagine."
Thus, Allard argued, although a best selling-game in 2004 would have sold
five million copies, within this decade, Microsoft wants to promote the
first 'big' title that does twenty million units. In answer to the Atari
commercial (paraphrased for the new millennium) - "Have you played
a videogame today?" Allard finished with a flourish: "The answer
is going to be yes."
But that wasn't all! As he left the stage, Allard halted, spun and returned
to the center again, grinning and addressing the audience: "I want to
thank you a little more broadly [for your support]." He then revealed
that Microsoft was giving away one thousand Samsung flatscreen HDTVs to
those in the audience who had the corresponding color lanyard of the car
winning an on-screen Forza Motorsport race, and shortly after
that, as the yellow car sprinted to a first-place-finish, a full third
of the surprised audience found themselves owners of a $1,100 23-inch
HDTV. Though certainly a publicity stunt, this gesture ended a Microsoft
keynote which revealed more details than some thought; not as much as
some wanted, yet nonetheless gave some interesting looks at what Microsoft
intends for the future of gaming, as we enter what they see as the 'HD
era'.
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