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Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg

On money, Kinect, and Milo & Kate.

EurogamerWhat impact do you expect Kinect, the new console and the new bundles will have on sales of the Xbox 360, and looking ahead, the rest of the Xbox 360's lifespan?
Aaron Greenberg

It'll do a couple of things. All of our research shows there's a massive market opportunity for this to drive new console sales to new consumers. Obviously, where we're at in the life cycle, we're talking to a more mainstream casual consumer that's coming in at this point in time.

This is - quite frankly - the exact type of experiences they're looking for, that have that broad appeal, that enable you to experience games and entertainment in whole new ways. We'll have 15 launch titles covering everything from sports to dance to things like Adventures, which will be available at launch this November.

As we think about the life cycle, this generation has been quite a bit different than what we've had in prior generations. The fact that we've got the majority of our console owners connected online, that we're able to provide new updates and new experiences without requiring you to buy a new console; it's quite a bit different than what we've seen in the past.

With Kinect and what we're doing there, a lot of people have talked about this being the type of leap you would typically see when you went to a new generation. But the nice thing is we're able to bring that next generation experience to market this generation.

We already have storage. We already have high definition gaming. We already have a connected online community. So adding the sensor to the experience enables us to unlock a whole new variety of games and entertainment. We're pretty optimistic this will provide multiple years of life to the current life cycle.

EurogamerYou haven't announced a European release date for Kinect.
Aaron Greenberg

In North America it's 4th November. We haven't said anything beyond November. So the date in November has not been announced for Europe yet. This bundle will launch in November. It's essentially the launch of Kinect. The date has not been announced.

EurogamerHave you saturated the hardcore market?
Aaron Greenberg

It's a good question. Our approach is, it's not an or, it's an and. We can deliver our best core line-up we've ever had and deliver whole new experiences for a broader consumer.

We have that unique ability, that's unique to us in this marketplace. We are that two-sided coin, if you will. We can deliver games and entertainment. The best core experiences and new experiences for the broad market.

So if people are going to buy one system, we offer the most for that value. Just core gamers alone this holiday, we have Halo: Reach, we have Fable III, we've got new blockbuster third-party titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops. We've got our biggest core line-up that we've ever had. At the same time we're launching Kinect. There hasn't been any sacrifice as we think about the core market.