Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg Comments by Ellie Gibson

screw this, how about some deux ex 3 news. Even specualtion...

Widge

No I qualified that by mentioning the Wii - if it hit £99 - the other two would suffer massively - and clearly the thing I didn't state (as it's obvious) is that even at £179 it's stomping on the other two.

At £99 - the 360 now becomes a second purchase (probably it is at £129 for many) as oppossed to the Wii for early adopters - and also the £99 moves the 360 into the realms of what little Jonny can save up himself with Birthday/Xmas money and weekly allowance.

Plus the general apathy that falls upon any young gamer who begins to mature in taste and realises many of the big hitters are on PS3/360 - and so they buy whichever is the cheapest to experience those games - plus the odd exclusive.

I have to admit to pitching Banjo N&B to all my young nephews resulting in 3 360 purchases - doing my lil' bit for Rare and showing them there are things other than Drive and Shoot (although ironically that's what you spend most of your time doing in Banjo N&B but at least you build the stuff you do it in)! ;-)

Thanks for the info on the guide button!

Excellent interview.

Stuff like primetime sounds interesting, but no doubt it'll be US only at first, and then extended to only the UK. I still have no video marketplace over here, despite Microsoft constantly claiming that their console is such an all round media machine. No, it isn't, Microsoft. A machine that allows me to play games and watch a trailer of Pirates of the Caribbean - Curse of the Black Pearl is not an all-round media machine.

Good line of questioning in there Ellie. Typical contradictory responses from the exec level bosses:

"There's only two best selling consoles" followed by "we don't make comparisons against the Wii".

Until and unless it suits you that is. Still, he didn't do too bad considering the pap people at his level can generate.

(comapring NXE to the launch of colour TV would be an adequate example)

BadBoyBonner, I'm not convinced another price drop for 360 to £99 will have as much of an impact as you believe. I think the console is at it's optimum price now for mass market consumption. The consumer that buys a console for £99 isn't the type of consumer that walks into Game a month or two later to buy a new release for practically half the price of the console (or even a yearly online subscription for 1/3). I think MS will be aware of this and so will hold off making such a drastic move unless it was the very last thing on their list of things to boast hardware sells.

I reckon before that MS will do away with the Arcade and bring the Premium down to £129.

Its not just the youngsters... there are people my age (30) who fell out of gaming post Megadrive era and for whatever reason have had their interest perked by the Wii.

For our age, 360 and PS3 cater wonderfully to people like us because they are the results of evolution over the years, for people who have missed out that progression find whats on offer a total turn off regardless of it being deemed a big hitter.

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.

Damn. Xbox Live and amazing games are the only things going for an online games console? MS is doomed! ;)

TBH I think for MS the 360 is now on cruise control. It will continue to sell well and bring in a good amount of money. They will probably focus now on how to get more mainstream people onboard. Price wise they are in a good position and can go much lower if wanted. And everybody and his dog is supporting the console games wise they are in a much better position than last gen.

@Widge

"For our age, 360 and PS3 cater wonderfully"

Like fucking hell it does. Where do you get the idea that becoming 30 means you want to play shovelware shite or kids games?

All the 30-40 years old I know that regularly game choose 360 or PS3. Their girlfriends or kids play Wii, or the Wii comes out on party nights or when parents or nephews/nieces visit.

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.

MS is fucked then. Official. Even with all the media streaming stuff I use it for, they're dead in the water.

Dizzy

Agreed - think the only thing M$ are really surprised at is just how bad the PS3 (relative to PS2) is faring.

M$ apparent lack of effort this year does seem to indicate that they are moving more towards the Next Xbox - but that they have realised that PS3 wasn't doing so well so slowed launch down significantly.

I think it is also fair to say that MS could quite easily include a Wiimote style controller with the 360 at the same price as the Wii's - heck they could even band a Gyroscope in it a la Wii motion plus.

Think the big questions over the next machines launch is if 3D TV is going to take off - Sky and the BBC are filming in it, most new high end TV's are supporting it, the film industry is embracing it - would be a real boon for backwards compatibility - "now play old 360 games in 3D at a higher frame rate and resolution in most cases" - apart from Crackdown no doubt.

Bang in something like a TrackIR device as standard - and viola head tracking in 3D for the masses - and as the 360 leads in Gun & drive gameplay it would seem the obvious choice.

If the Wii has shown one thing - it's that it isn't always the graphics that win the war but how you interact with the machine.

Note - anyone who isn't sure what head tracking could bring check out this Grid video using it - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JBWLb3Ac-H...

The Xbox 360 is outdated and completely unattractive when compared to the PS3 nowday's... Microsoft is Legitimately scared.

I alway's knew the PS3 was the best product by far...

"The Xbox 360 is outdated and completely unattractive when compared to the PS3"

With a better games catalogue, better controller, better online service, better price point, etc.. etc...


"Microsoft is Legitimately scared."

When their sales lead is now increasing again... I think not.


You are talking shit Apologie, as usual. Your precious PS3 is sadly doomed to finish last this gen.

You've misread what I've said

>You are talking shit Apologie

Just pop him on ignore like 99% of us and be done with it, just like Vorlon or whatever his new name is.

WIll this 'Wii has no games' bullshit ever stop? It's just not true.

I have to say that I feel the PS3 will end up outselling the 360 in the end. It seems the Playstation brand is still just too powerful.
Microsoft have done a fantastic job in staying on top of the PS3 so far, but despite the year's head start and the massive price difference, they're only a few million ahead. In fact, if we look at only Europe (which is what I suppose we should be concerned with here) they're maybe only a million or less ahead - depending on how exactly you define Europe. :o)

Both companies will continue to cut prices, that's inevitable, but the price difference will be cut too. I think the difference between a Premium 360 and PS3 is about £100 on the High Street at the moment. That'll be down to may £50-70 by the end of the year and even less by next year. I can't see the 360 going below £99 - it begins to look too cheap. If the PS3 is at £130 or even £150, that difference is no longer a massive stumbling block.

I don't think there's massive amounts of people out there wanting a 360 but holding off for a lower price point. However, I think Sony still have a large number of sales to pick up with the next price cut or two.

That said, I also think that Microsoft have every right to be happy with this generation. They got their foot in the door with the XBox, but the 360 brought them fully into the room. Financially, I suspect they'll be happier than Sony at the moment and will probably be happy to make the jump to a new console sooner Sony. I'm actually wondering if we might not see more than a 1 year gap between the consoles next generation and how this will affect the market.

Coin-Op wrote:I own all three consoles this gen, and the way I see it is pretty simple. MS and Sony are delivering the goods. MS more so than Sony up to last summer, Sony have got their act together and PS3 now has the games and the credibility.

Yup... I agree completely with that opinion.

@Widge

Apologies, I did indeed misread your post. In a fit of retardation I even quoted the bit I misread...


I'll go eat a bowl of empty prawn shells as pennance.

Hmm, I can't see Sony finding £150 to shave off the PS3 price in the next 18 months, especially given the relative currency stuff happening right now.

Post lunch ranting is part and parcel of EG in the afternoon, I missed it over xmas so feel free to carry on!

I wish you would have asked about some Movie Streaming feature. I'm so envious of Netflix integration on US Marketplace... That's the one feature I'd really want.

Also, all of Europe is in recession, you britgamers!:)

Decent interview...wasn't too much of a snob or any of that.

I know MS likes to keep their cards close to their chest regarding new games and such, but how about a morsel of information - because '09 is looking very slim! People buy the console because of the games they can play on it and it would be nice if MS made it known what games we'll be playing down the line. Now, I'm not asking for them to be like Sony and announce stuff 27 years in advance, but COME ON NOW!

kILLZONE 2, GOD OF WAR 3, UNCHARTED 2, GT5, SOCOM ETC... on top of everything else that have been released alredy like LBP, REsistance 1 and 2, Warhawk, Bioshok, Uncharted1, Motorstorm 1, 2, MGS4 etc... and you still have the nerve to say that the XboX 360 have a better library??? that's at least debatable.

Plus, better on-line features (for free) with Home, better reliability, better longevity in terms of supporting software and continuous investment from the manufaturer, true HD, Blu-Ray player... well, i can go on and on and on...

By the way, february cant come soon enough, Killzone 2 is the most impressive game i've ever seen... true next-gen.

dont get me wrong, the Xbox is cool, i even bought 2 because my 1st one got broke... but the Ps3 is here for the win, and is shaping up big time...

ronuds

lol... your scared, relax men, im sure the Xbox will have good games in 2009, just dont expect anything as impressive as God of war 3, killzone 2 or even Uncharted, for example, i cant wait for Forza 3.

I also use the main interface very little, find it annoying to navigate, as someone else said, for viewing active downloads I use the guide or mini-blades (whatever you wanna call it!)

NXE wasn't a complete waste as i've now got some games installed to HDD , so hopefully will help keep the DVD-drive going a little longer, also cuts out the noise of reading the disc.

My mate bought a 360 off somebody at his work for bugger all a while back because the guy thought the machine was faultly as it was loud!

@ apologie

Killzone 2 looks good enough, but the 360 has it's fair share of shooters atm. GoW3 and Uncharted don't really interest me. I'm more into RPG's, shooters and sports games.

I'm not scared so much as I am anxious.

"I know MS likes to keep their cards close to their chest regarding new games and such, but how about a morsel of information - because '09 is looking very slim!"

You can find plenty of 2009 "lists". Check NeoGAF or maybe even *gasp* VGChartz. They do this feature every year.

"and you still have the nerve to say that the XboX 360 have a better library???"

Yes, because it does. Your shitty list of maybe-released-sometime-next-decade vaporware does not count for anything.]


"Plus, better on-line features (for free) with Home,

Wrong, XBL offers far better online features. This is not opinion, this is a cold hard fact.


" better reliability"

Not anymore. Jaspers are reliable, whereas PS3's are starting to fail at an alarming rate.


"better longevity in terms of supporting software and continuous investment from the manufaturer"

Wrong. There has been more OS support from MS than there has from Sony. Does NXE ring a bell?

By continuous investment, do you mean events like the Cell manufacturing division being sold off? Oh yes, Sony obviously fucking loved that investment.


"true HD"

Just like the 360 you mean? Yes.


"Blu-Ray player"

Non-gaming related, expensive, dying format. More of a hinderance than a help to the PS3's fortunes.


"... well, i can go on and on and on..."

We know, and it's all wrong.

kILLZONE 2, GOD OF WAR 3, UNCHARTED 2, GT5, SOCOM ETC... on top of everything else that have been released alredy like LBP, REsistance 1 and 2, Warhawk, Bioshok, Uncharted1, Motorstorm 1, 2, MGS4 etc... and you still have the nerve to say that the XboX 360 have a better library???

Eh, but it does. Not to say that PS3 doesn't have a great library, too, but a year longer on the market coupled with the fact that Xbox 360 got quite a bit more third-party exclusives gave it a library with far more breadth. Now, it's up to each individual to decide which console has more games catering to his/her tastes, but just looking at the sheer amount of solid to great exclusives on Xbox 360, I think it's fair to say that it has a richer library at the moment. That might change in the future, but for now I'd say that's a fair assessment.

farticusmaximus

lol men, your really are something... so, the Xbox have better reliability then the ps3 now??? ps3 fail at an alarming rate??? very funny dude, really :)

"Blu-Ray player"

Non-gaming related"

tell that to killzone dev's, mgs4 dev's 4 etc... im sure you know a miracle form that they dont, to make thouse games in a simple dvd... and i love my blu-ray's.

better longevity in terms of supporting software and continuous investment from the manufaturer"

yes, for how long have the Ps2 been around??? and the 1st Xbox??? well... keep prayin because as soon as they launch the xbox 720, your hardware will be outdated in the minute... while my Ps3 will be around for years and years to come.

ohhh, and there is nothing remotely close to killzone 2 and the upcoming big titles for the ps3 in terms of graphical and production values goodness... or you dont admit that too??? :)

keep rejecting facts like that men... lie to yourself all the time, and be happy with your xbox, yes, the ps3 is a failure, total waste of time lol

Im not so sure Sony can manage to steal 2nd place anymore... if you'd have asked me in the first year of PS3's life Id have said its pretty likely but not by much, even though things werent looking that good at all for Sony... for one reason only: brand recognition.(360 is the better games console in the majority of traditional gamers eyes but that doesnt matter to the casual or the "in crowd" who make choices based on what they think their peers would approve of but even thats changing for the better now... Xbox as a brand has become alot more accepted accross the board IMO attitudes are changing)

The reason is, MS have actually increased their lead over Sony, now its funny how some are keen to point out that even a lower price point doesnt matter if the consumer isnt attracted to whats on offer in the first place when it comes to Wii and quickly forget that 360 easily has more of what their consumers want than PS3(see software and DLC sales data).

Sony's strategy of announcing titles far in advance(so far that some never even got fully underway in development and were scrapped) has been LESS successfull than MS' who have for the last two years sprung their must haves closer to the time. That has even had their gamers complaining that they have too many good games to buy(this is a fact and one of the best complaints a platform holder can recieve)

Sony's 2009 release list doesnt seem all that appealing to me, I know this is subjective but for the sake of sales and critical acclaim:

Lets get the biggest one out of the way... Ive got to ask is anyone else actually bored of hearing about Killzone2 too? I have an inkling that it might be one of those games that suffers over its own hype in conjuction the length of the wait(I can see a lot of "3 years for this?" type reactions).

I really will feel sorry for Penguin Overlord if Sony dont ever come near enough to even claim they are second place, he's been prophecising the time of Sony will be soon for so long that if it never happens, with the amount of times he's claimed it; I wouldnt be suprised if he had to change his EG account to hide the shame(yet even he must have doubts because that post was alot less self assured and alot more subtle than a year or more back).

GT5 should be one to watch but they are taking the biscuit for the wait involved already, it could be too little too late, maybe they actually need the install base to grow to recoupe what theyve spent now.

@ apologie

"yes, for how long have the Ps2 been around??? and the 1st Xbox???"

Is it really in your best interests to talk about "support" when Sony ditched backwards compatibility on the PS3 to make more of a profit? Once they stop selling the PS2, that's it. Not that the 360's BC support is the greatest, but at least it's there.

SLIMEBALL

@ Calgon

My prediction for Killzone 2 is that it will sell similarly to Resistance 2 - good, but not spectacular. The game looks good and all that, but it doesn't seem to offer anything that we haven't seen already, nor is it riding on the success of a previous installment. It's PS3 gamers "great hope" so to speak, and they want it to be the greatest shooter ever, but the reality is that it will end up in the "good but not what we had hoped for" bin. I think hopes are WAY too lofty for them to be met. PS3 gamers and even journalists have to stop marking every PS3 game as the next great hope because it just doesn't work like that.

"lol men, your really are something..."

Oh, I'm plural now am I? In fact that whole sentence is making my english gland bleed.


"ps3 fail at an alarming rate?"

Do the research. Just-out-of-warranty failures are on the increase.


"tell that to killzone dev's, mgs4 dev's 4 etc... im sure you know a miracle form that they dont, to make thouse games in a simple dvd... and i love my blu-ray's."

In all honesty, I can't believe you still believe that line. I honesty can't.

There is NOTHING game-related on Blu-ray that can't be produced on DVD. NOTHING. All you get from Blu-ray is either slow load speeds and forced installs, or all that extra space consumed by massive data replication to overcome aforementioned shit access speeds. Blu-ray has so far proven to be nothing but a burden where games are concerned.


"yes, for how long have the Ps2 been around??? and the 1st Xbox???"

You have failed to do your research. The xbox 1 was dropped for one reason and one reason only: MS did not own the rights to the graphics chip so could not reduce the manufacturing costs.

You just love making yourself sound stupid don't you?


"as soon as they launch the xbox 720, your hardware will be outdated in the minute... while my Ps3 will be around for years and years to come."

The PS3 is already outclassed by the 360. When the 720 arrives who the fuck would want a last-gen console?


"there is nothing remotely close to killzone 2 and the upcoming big titles for the ps3 in terms of graphical and production values goodness"

Only in your mind Apologie. Only in your mind.

Rather than having to wait, 360 owners already have such games. Gears 2 is absolutely every bit as good looking and polished as what we've seen of Killzone 2. Every bit. Best of all we can already play it! Imagine that, a console with great games you can play NOW, not in X many months/years/decades time!


"yes, the ps3 is a failure"

In more ways than one. Terrible shame but it's the truth.

Why do people keep banging on about the Wii's so-called price competitiveness? Go buy a Wii - then add on three controllers (for your family members) - plus nunchucks - then maybe buy a decent cable so the picture looks a bit less shit on a HD screen. Then go and buy a classic controller so you can play some of the old GC games on download. Oh and don't forget a decent sized SD card so you can actually store the fucking things. Oh, and you'd better buy a Wii Fit balance board so you can play some of the latest games. And a Wii Zapper for the nipper.

Not spent enough? That's okay - Nintendo has the new Motion Plus gadget which you'll need to buy four of. Oh, and you might want to buy shares in EverReady while you're on... You could easily drop over £450 on hardware if you want the full 'Wii' experience.

(And why is a Wii nearly £50 more expensive from Amazon? I just checked and the standard unit is £233!!)

"(And why is a Wii nearly £50 more expensive from Amazon? I just checked and the standard unit is £233!!) "

That's because it's being sold by somebody on amazons marketplace or whatever you wanna call it.

The site is confusing...

Edit: Look at the pictures (which is displayed on the MAIN page for the Wii console) http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/... has some old shitty carpet. lol. Amazon need to change their website. No harm on linking products to sellers on the marketplace but the way it's implemented is just shit.

@farticusmaximus

"Rather than having to wait, 360 owners already have such games. Gears 2 is absolutely every bit as good looking and polished as what we've seen of Killzone 2"

no comments... its just sad that you are retardedly faithfull "retardedly blind is more aporpriate", to a brand to the point of sayin something as stupid as that, dude your not even qualified as gamer after sayin something like that...

the 1st lvl in killzone alone its 2Gb... as the dev said, they dont know how it would be possible to put that amount of data in a single DVD withought cutting the product quality, and a lot.. (i'm only refering to blu-ray as somthing relevant to games and gamers)... ohhh, and by the way, no installation is needed to play that monster game...;)

Uh, I did a few google searches, Farty, and I can't find any reports on the PS3 failing? All I could find was that it had a less-than-one-percent failure rate.

Feel free to provide a link to your research!

The things he say in the first 3 - 5 paragraphs is only true for america and a few other regions. My XBox 360 is nearly useless for anything but playing games on or watching DVDs so I don't quite agree in his comparison with the Wii.

The day Microsoft rolls out a movie rental service in Scandinavia or add better codec support, the machine might have other uses.

@ apologie

Killzone 2 looks good, I won't take that away from it. But if the single player is only 8 hours long (as reports have suggested, which I tend to believe), why is the 1st level alone 2gb and what about it taking up a lot of space has made it better or better looking than any other game? It's nice to say "well, this is a big level at 2 gb and couldn't be done on a DVD!!!" But what benefit is it being that many gb's? How am I, as a gamer, benefitting from the level being that large, or the total game being however-many gb's? It's an 8-hour long game, with visuals that are about at the same level as today's best games. It hasn't improved the game or the experience whatsoever, so who cares?

@ Skurmedel

What codecs do you want? Everything I want to play seems to.

Taking Apologies comments on face value

'the 1st lvl in killzone alone its 2Gb... as the dev said, they dont know how it would be possible to put that amount of data in a single DVD withought cutting the product quality, and a lot.. (i'm only refering to blu-ray as somthing relevant to games and gamers)... ohhh, and by the way, no installation is needed to play that monster game...;)'

If the first level is 2gb and it requires no installation then could it be that the information is uncompressed whereas it would be compressed on a DVD. Therefore its possible it could run on a 360. Just my random thoughts no basis on reality

Edit- Damn spelling

ronuds

GG DEV: would say impossible. We literally can't do this stuff on any machine other than the PS3. If you're developing a multiplatform game, and looking at your budgets, you have to find a common denominator between the systems and say: that's what I'm developing for. Whereas someone focused on a single platform can really take advantage of everything it has to offer.
"If you're not willing to make that investment then you're going to lose out on some options. To make it simple, the Xbox 360 doesn't have SixAxis or Blu-ray. PlayStation 3 does. And for us that's a really big thing. The level you've just seen is 2GB. We really need Blu-ray to make the game. I don't know how you could fit it on Xbox 360 without taking some shortcuts."
"Blu-ray isn't important for watching movies; we need it for making games.

... more storage means they can bring more geometry, better textures, more hd audio etc... its obviously better for gamers.

I'm refering only to the advantage's of BluRay because the PS3 have a revlutionary architechture that bring much more innovative things, even bigger then the subject in discussion... yes, the CELL is a beast starting now to be explored.

@Thunderbolt
The compressed / uncompressed argument doesn't really hold that well - think about your limiting factors (disc read speed) - you need the data compressed on the disc as it is quicker to uncompress once loaded. A more appropriate argument would be that there is maybe a lot of data replication on the disc to reduce seek time - bluray's bigger issue.

@ apologie

Yeah, but devs are supposed to say that kind of stuff - especially a Sony-owned one. Sony really wants people to believe their system is best and they'll say whatever they can to get everyone on board with that. It means nothing and, imo, just makes them look foolish because we all know it's a crock of shit.

"... more storage means they can bring more geometry, better textures, more hd audio etc... its obviously better for gamers."

This isn't true. They can only do what the system will allow, no matter how much storage. More audio, sure - better textures and more geometry - no. So I ask again, what about being on a blu-ray disc has made KZ2 better than any 360 game, or any game not made on a blu-ray disc for that matter?

@Shyvah: OGG Vorbis amongst others, and I can't get much of my XViD-stuff to play.

Does this guy do anything other than chat shit?!