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Introduction
In
his keynote on the second day of the DICE Summit in Las Vegas,
Microsoft's Peter Moore, the corporate vice president of the
Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices
Division, was tasked with talking about Microsoft's renewed attention
to the PC market in his speech 'The Changing World Of PC Games',
something most recently exemplified by the announcement that Halo 2 is coming exclusively to Windows Vista.
Windows
Vista, Moore asserted is not a mere operating system, but a genuine
platform, and must be supported as such. This was followed by a
technical demonstration of the Windows Vista platform, and its
exploitation of the DirectX 10 technology. But the Microsoft VP was
particularly keen to leave attendees with something to reflect upon.
"We
are an interactive medium that is far superior today than TV and movies
and music", he commented. "The fact that Hollywood’s greats, whether
it’s Spielberg with EA, whether it’s Peter Jackson getting involved
with King Kong, are recognizing what our medium stands for."
He
continued: "We’ve gone from DOS all the way to the twenty-first
century. One of the things I want to encourage everyone to do is, and
certainly at Microsoft Game Studios, we take this very seriously, is
drive the industry forward in the revolution. I’m very concerned. We’re
still too reliant on sequels. We’re still too reliant on formulaic
gameplay. We’ve got to be able to drive the user experiences. It drives
the industry forward."
Moore
stated that the industry is not taking risks. "We’re getting more like
TV and movies a little bit, in that we’re taking that formula. We’re
bringing people sequels one and two and three and four", he raged.
Now You See The Xbox 360?
Elsewhere
in his speech, Moore commented in detail on Microsoft's next-gen
console, suggesting of the severe and actually continuing Xbox 360
shortage, suggesting: "Within the next four to six weeks, anybody will
be able to walk into a store and buy an Xbox 360."
Microsoft
is now focusing on a target of 4.5 million to 5.5 million Xbox 360
consoles by the end of the fiscal year in June, after its initial 90
day target of 2.75 to 3 million consoles shipped appeared out of reach,
mainly due to unspecified manufacturing slowness.
In
addition, Moore revealed that there have been around 2 million Xbox 360
Live Arcade downloads thus far, and the average conversion rate for
games is 20 percent from demo download to game purchase, with Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved reaching a spectacular 36 percent conversion rate.
This
is a gigantic figure (admittedly spurred by hardcore early adopters)
compared to the conventional 1 to 2 percent for PC casual titles, and
bodes well for the future of online downloadable content for consoles,
for which Sony is rumored to be adding similar functionality to a
relatively robust PlayStation 3 online platform.
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The conversion-happy Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
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Conclusion
But
it was particularly in inspiration to developers that Moore returned,
calling on attendees: "There is no reason we need to recycle our
talent. Many of you have created the most interactive, immersive, and
intense content ever, for any medium. When you think of all the first
person shooters and role-playing games, in particular, action-adventure
games. All of the things that we’ve done. We’ve created these genres."
While
he encouraged the audience, as developers, he also promised that he
would also push the envelope, and think outside the box. "As a platform
holder, Microsoft takes that responsibility very, very seriously.
You’re going to see us do more and more. We’ll continue to build and
innovate."
In
conclusion, Moore stated: "And I look forward to working with everyone
here. You have my commitment, and I hope I have yours."
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