Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg Comments by Ellie Gibson

He's no Holly Valance.

He looks like Rafa Benitez.

We sustained profitability through our entire previous last fiscal year. That's partly due to being first to market, being able to cost-reduce our console, and being able to get to mass market price points.

and partly due to writing off $1billion+ repair bill in 2007.

"He looks like Rafa Benitez. "

lol! I thought that! I'm trading my PS3 in for a red 360 stat!

Good interview btw. Good questions and the guy didn't come across knobbish like some I've read.

Nintendo are a insult to gamers this gen and don't deserve 1 sale of that piece of shit Wii

Brought plenty of family and friends who were previously non-gamers into the fold, which can only be a good thing.

Plus, it's not all terrible ... 'World of Goo' on the Wii is great for one example.

Edit: darn that brought and bought schoolboy error :(

But Coin-op. Nintendo have never released game after game for any of their systems. Surely you knew what you were getting into?

Also I'd say that Nintendo have gone back to their roots with the Wii, its the new Famicom innit?

Eurogamer: Sony recently put out a press release attacking you for "putting a burden on the wallet" with Xbox 360. What was your reaction?

Aaron: LOL

Made me chuckle.

"Brought plenty of family and friends who were previously non-gamers into the fold, which can only be a good thing."

No, it means more shovelware and shit games selling bonkers. Introduction of mainstream into a niche means that everything will be dumbed down so it appeals to everybody.

hmm, comes across as a bit of a typical American self important knob, not as bad as the other M$ dude, the one who i can never the remember the name of...looks like a car salesman and generally gets called the "Not Peter Moore" guy..

plus this whole "we are price competitive with the Wii" thing has to stop, you are only competitive if you buy nothing to go with the console, which would be pointless.

good interview though.

"I'd say that Nintendo have gone back to their roots with the Wii, its the new Famicom innit? "

To be fair, the Famicom was actually good though ;)

I wish Microsoft stopped talking about NXE. Yes, thank you for the party function, it's nice, but apart from that, NXE is just another dashboard (and not even really a good one) with shitty me-too Avatars.

Eurogamer: Sony recently put out a press release attacking you for "putting a burden on the wallet" with Xbox 360. What was your reaction?

Aaron: LOL

haha made me laugh too! the only burden that it puts on my wallet is the amount of good games available for it, which therefore means I must buy them. Once Sony release more games to the quality of MGS4, then I'll start buying more for the PS3

I'm confused over the NXE rhetoric as well. It has barely changed my 360 "experience". The install to HDD option is probably the best card in its hand, plus party forming is pretty cool. The avatar stuff is just fluff in my eyes though.

"plus this whole "we are price competitive with the Wii" thing has to stop, you are only competitive if you buy nothing to go with the console, which would be pointless. "

Nah, My Wii setup cost me more than my 360 set up, so what you've said is not accurate.

A good interview.

The way I see this generation going is that the Wii will win but sales will slow as the market becomes saturated and those families who bought one at a novelty start to lose interest in it. I think the Wii survives because it's innovative and games like Mario Kart remind some people of their youth (I've seen evidence of this with people I know). The Wii Fit board, although unpopular with true gamers like those of us on this site, was nevertheless a great business move. However, there's no mistaking that people do often look like utter prats when using it and Nintendo will find it hard to convince people to buy any future upgrade to it, just as I suspect they'll have a hard time convincing people to go for the new Wii Motion Plus peripherals.

The PS3 and 360 will fight for second place and monthly sales will swap round a lot during this year. Killzone will help shift some PS3s and help the PS3 to outsell the 360 by a month or two but probably not by much. Resident Evil 5 will sell better on the PS3 in Japan, better on the 360 in the US but probably fairly equally in Europe. I don't think the DLC for either Halo 3 or GTA4 having much impact on 360 sales. But if the PS3 does get a worldwide launch for God of War 3 this Christmas, as well as a Japanese launch for FFXIII, together with the almost inevitable price drop for the PS3 down to £199 or close to it, I think the PS3 will outsell the 360 this year, especially as the 360 does seem a bit devoid of must-have exclusives coming out.

I do see the PS3 outselling the 360 in the long-term. Good exclusive games for the 360 have helped it a lot but it's real weapon has been constant price drops which just can't continue. A £199 PS3 will be very tempting this Christmas for many people, especially with so many not yet having Blu-Ray players by then. I think there's little Microsoft can do to prevent the 360 finishing in third.

Excellent interview! Great questions, objective answers. Good job.

"you are only competitive if you buy nothing to go with the console, which would be pointless."
Who decides that? I'm the boss at my place...

"I do see the PS3 outselling the 360 in the long-term."
I bet he doesn't care much about that, if that ever happens. I think he digs profit more than a virtual silver trophy. He should be allowed some "bravado", as the xbox 180 was crushed by PS2. How things changed...

@Gradius

I really have to ask, what the hell did you buy for the wii then?

Or did you spend nowt on your 360?

Surely for the 360 to be half way usable, you need a second pad and HDD at least?

@designerheadache - of course it's competitive. You can get a 60GB 360 Premium pack for £159.99. Or an Arcade Pack for £129.99. A Wii costs £179.99.

So you can get a 360 with all the bells and whistles, wireless pads, massive HDD, and probably a couple of games in a bundle, for less than the price of a Wii with Wii Sports. Why's that not competitive. And it doesn't take long to realise that there's little to play on the Wii. I bought mine, kept it for a year, played a handful of games for the 1st few months, then nothing new came along so I flogged it this Christmas gone. If anything, thanks to the games pipeline and the reasonable price, the 360 is better value.

the most difficult thing to achieve : "continue the momentum"
they had there peak last year.
Sony will lower the price (suppose march-april) AND have a ton of exclusives !
Nintendo will sell like pancakes. Maybe lower ?
how will ms counter this ? if ms can somewhat lower the price it will not be enough.
I don't know what there previsions are ? Prevision towards competition ? No real statements here...
As we look now , this year they will end in last position.

Yes I have a 360 with a HDD and a second pad, I have a Wii with a second wii-mote. The Wii was more expensive.

@zerolight

although i can only find a premium one at £169.99, i take your point.

was always under the impression they were a bit more.

Finally, this Ellie character actually does a good interview.

Nintendo are now officially a joke. The dog-euthanising and pony-grooming and COOKING SIMULATORS were bad enough... but nobody except total f'ing c's would buy that ridiculous "100 Classic Books" travesty.

"There's new, up-and-coming talent in this industry. Music and movies have an indie scene where people are able to create unique types of experience and get discovered. Videogames have never really had that because it's been so cost prohibitive. We're excited to have that in place."

Erm... isn't that how it started? Isn't that the sort of thing that's continued on the PC, particularly in the wake of Steam? Isn't that a dumb statement?

Unless you, god forbid, want to read. I realise you could read the books, but try buying them all, in a format that is easily portable. Pricey.

I paid £169 for my 60GB premium with 2 controllers + lego indi + kung fu panda + dead space before Xmas from Amazon. As good or even better packages are there for the taking if you are patient!!!

Good interview, some interesting questions there that I didn't expect to be asked.

That article told us nothing. I don't know why you bother with these people. You might as well have talked to the accountant.

"Kaz Hirai recently announced 1.3 million copies of the game have now been sold ..."

/pantomime
Oh no he didn't.

@Spooke : you can't just look at the pictures (they're conceptual...), you must *read* (note: it's an interview, not an article, btw).

I think COIN-OP is about right . the Wii is a bit of a joke . the best game (bowling ) came with the console . its got grafix that are not Hi res and it appears that Nintendo are selling a controller add on this year that may or may not make it work properly .
Yes , its nice that at xmas grandma got to play Wii bowling with the kids ( after 73 minutes of tuition ) but Who really cares that Grandma Hilda can play a game console ? . I assume that we are mostly avid/hardcore gamers and in my opinion making games accessable to ' Grandma ' takes the focus away from ' real ' games .
Its all about the games , not the hardware . I dont care what system I play games on ( Had them all except PS3 ) I'm a game whore , pure and simple .

Our philosophy for this generation was that we didn't believe the marketplace was about a one-size-fits-all solution any longer. That's why we designed a variety of different console offerings, in the belief there are different sets of consumers who want different levels of experience at different price points.

Blah, blah, blah. I wonder how that level of experience 'differs' when it comes to overly loud ventilation systems, cheap drives that scratch your disc when you barely move the thing and having to throw in another healthy amount of dough for a battery recharger because you are tired of having to swap them every two weeks in the middle of a game. And I am not even talking about that luxurious feature called WiFi which will cost you the equivalent of another half 360.

You gotta love PR folk.

They can say so much without actually saying anything of interest, meaning or relevance.

i wish people would let go of this idea that wii has no "proper" games for us gamers. it's quite an old theory, that's getting disproved with each passing month.

my highlights for this year on the console are: Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Madworld, Monster Hunter tri (needs euro date) and Sin and Punishment 2. That's a more varied and interesting list than what's been announced for 360 so far.

I like to think of games consoles as, erm, women of the night.

Wii: Fun and flirty, always eager to please even if she looks a little old these days. Backwards compatible and good at waggling your wand.

XBox360: Cheap and dirty, always desparate for your attention and willing to do anything cheaper than the others. Nothing is impossible for this one, however, you have to pay for extras.

PS3: High class and pricey. Can do anything you want as everything is inclusive. Sure the price is high, but you get what you pay for.

I could really use a fourth console right now so that I could compare it to a nasty ladyboy hooker :)

Introduction of mainstream into a niche means that everything will be dumbed down so it appeals to everybody.

How is a global hi-tec billion dollar industry a niche? Gaming has ALWAYS been mainstream, going all the way back to Space Invaders and the Atari 2600.

@Rash agreed, would also add Project Zero 4, Fragile, Sky Breakers, Tales of Symphonia 2 and Cursed Mountain, the size of the userbase for the Wii in the end will ensure it has the most varied catalogue of videogames that cater for the widest variety of people, just as marketsize did with the PS2.

No, it really isn't.

You've also personally been quite vocal in recent weeks. Do you ever worry that all this bravado could alienate some people - particularly in Europe, where there's a different mentality to the US?

Great question! Really gets down to the massive cultural chasms between both nations and game platforms.

Pity that Greenberg didn't really understand the question (or opted to not answer it)!

So... stuff will come out this year. Insightful stuff.

NXE - install to hard drive is great and I do like the interface but the avatar thing is rubbish. Its also really hard to find the currently downloading screen.

360 - it does have good value for money. Ok the fan is a bit noisy even when running from the hard drive. As for the extra bits - they don't have to be first hand and they don't have to be first party. Extra bits have always been pricey.

Nintendo - Only Nintendo I had was the 64. Games were £50-£60 and hardly any were released.

Of course the Wii is a joke; Nintendo execs admit so themselves, laughing out loud all the way to the bank ;-P

On the other hand, the fierce battle for second place goes on and on... A lot of people predict that the x360 will end up third - in fact they have been doing that for over a year now and MS keeps disappointing them. However, even if it does end up third, it probably won't be a *distant* third, which can only be viewed as Microsoft's small victory over Sony, given the undisputed dominance of the PS2 in the previous generation.

JohnnyWashnGo,

How about the PSP - good for a quickie?

retibra,

Agreed. But it would be great in Lovefilm did a service similar to Netflix imo

Penguin_Overlord

I think you would be right - if the 360 remained stagnant.

Fact is - as already mentioned in the interview - M$ are very happy to maintain the Half price point.

If PS3 hits £199 (which is likely this year) then no doubt the 360 will hit £99 - and we will see a repeat of this Xmas - 360 will win (edit - against the PS3 by a slim margin).

All this PS3 talk of it being the second coming at some point just seems misguided - it's been happening every year since before the 360's launch - the talking I mean, not the actual event - which still hasn't happened. Then Nintendo went on to show everyone was talking out of their own arse.

Unless Wii drops in price - i'd predict the 360 hitting the magical £99 price point to have very strong impact and finally start to challenge the Wii.

If Wii hits £99 - the other two are in big trouble.

Doesn't matter how cheap the 360 gets versus the Wii if it is not offering people the experience they want from it versus the Wii. You're assuming that it'll hit £99 and suddenly there will be this mass recognition of "oh my word, I can finally play Halo 3, Gears of War and Mass Effect for such a cheap price!" where in fact those people would probably rather tear out their eyeballs than play any of those titles. Regardless of what we or some Metacritic average might say.

@dmt2
Active downloads is easy through the mini-guide. Press guide button one or two lefts and it's there. Lots of stuff is very quick through the mini-guide. I tend not to use the main interface at all as it's too cluttered with adds and stuff I don't want to look at. Would be nice if you could disable channels.

Great interview.

I think the only way MS can stay in the lead is if they buy some really high profile exclusives. PS3 is coming into its own this year, and they're going to do a price drop. Pretty much the only things going for the X360 (in my view) are it's superb online functionality and how impressive the games are on the system. Now that developers are getting their heads around the PS3, low quality PS3 ports are happening less and less, and MS are going to need to have a fantastic roster of exlusives in order to prise prospective buyers away from the blu-ray appeal of the PS3.

Parity of games won't work either. C'mon Gatesy, you've got enough money to buy most development houses, buy some more bloody exclusives if you want to win.

I bet he was referring to the new Xbox you know. 5 year cycle and all that.

Looking forward to E3!

I do see the PS3 outselling the 360 in the long-term. Good exclusive games for the 360 have helped it a lot but it's real weapon has been constant price drops which just can't continue.

A peculiar thing to say when the same is true for PS3. I can't really talk about Europe as we have very little firm data for the region, but in the US it only started selling well after two $100 price drops. Similarly, currently it's lagging behind not because it doesn't have enough compelling content to offer, but because of its price point. And while Microsoft certainly can't keep lowering the barrier to entry indefinitely, they can keep adding value. I doubt Arcade will ever go lower than $99, but the next step could be getting rid of Arcade altogether and lowering the Premium to $99. Of course, that's just a single example of where they might go in the future.

I have no idea whether Sony catches up to them in the end (even though I sincerely doubt it), but by that point it might not matter much as the next generation will probably be underway already. As I see it, Microsoft's biggest gains in this generation are finally becoming profitable with the Xbox business and stealing a lot of Sony's mindshare. Of course, Nintendo did even better in both regards.

Thunderbolt, Netflix is the big selling point for NXE in US so it is disappointing that something similar isn't available here, but considering the diversity of markets in Europe compared to the US it isn't surprising. I said it before and I'll say it again, Microsoft's amibition in it's online business is starting to affect it's first party content. The interview didn't give the impression they were solely concerned with game announcements for E3, which, considering the lack of their first party devs, isn't a promising sign. And as retibra points out those amibitions are multiplied ten-fold when you consider the global market. At the moment what's kept them strong is price cuts, but this year could be pivotal in deciding the company's fortunes.