Xbox 360 winning online battle, says Epic

By Kristan Reed Published 4 November, 2008

Bossman sings Microsoft's praises.

The Xbox 360 is winning the online battle by "adding cool stuff", according to Epic Games president Dr. Michael Capps.

Speaking in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Capps gave the launch of the Xbox Experience on November 19th the thumbs up. "The way they're expanding the Live presence - you know, they're leading right now, they're winning," he said. "And the way you continue to do that is to keep adding cool stuff that everybody wants."

But Capps admitted that he would have liked to have supported more of the new features in Gears Of War 2.

"It's tough, because we really wanted to - and obviously, being first party we work very closely with their tech teams, but they were finishing it after we were locking down a lot of our core feature sets, so we could only do so much," he explained.

"But I love the fact that you boot through the dashboard now. I understand how some gamers might not like it so much, but that's how you join into the Xbox Live experience. Your dashboard comes up, you get to see what's new, hey, there's some free stuff you didn't know about - instead of just booting into your game and missing the community," Capps added.

Head over to the full transcript on GamesIndustry.biz, where Capps discusses Gears of War 2, the Unreal engine and the company's plans for Xbox Live Arcade.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (23) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • muscleblade #1 3 years ago

    And Gears 2 will be number 1. on xbox live for a long time. At least a year.

  • teabagger #2 3 years ago

    I don't think you get a lot for your gold membership. If I want to play multi player I'll do if for free over PSN, the rest is all advertising or pay-for downloads.

  • DanWhitehead #3 3 years ago

    They should let you use your avatars in Gears of War 2. You know, just to lighten the mood a little.

  • drumbaby #4 3 years ago

    Dr Brown-nose PHD?

  • DFawkes #5 3 years ago

    I'd even pay for colourful avatars running about, chainsawing each others faces. With paint instead of blood.

    I still prefer my online experiences on PSN, but XBL is better intergrated overall.

  • Moonprince #6 3 years ago

    COOL STUFF!!!1!

  • mcmonkeyplc #7 3 years ago

    Gears 2 will not be number 1 for along time. It has to compete with Halo 3 and CoD 4/5 now. It's not the biggest fish in the sea anymore.

  • onyxbox #8 3 years ago

    what a w*nker!
    Edited by 1 at 04/11/08 @ 10:25

  • Triggerhappytel #9 3 years ago

    Wow, developer with close ties to Microsoft comes out and says Microsoft has the best online features.

    I am shocked.

  • keyboardmonkey #10 3 years ago

    hey, there's some free stuff you didn't know about

    I think more often than not it is more likely to be...
    hey, there's some more DLC which is over priced/ should have been in the original game/ and now i wish i didn't know about it.

    The amount of free stuff on Live is very very sparse, the US gets slightly more stuff (mainly Product marketing e.g. Ford and Dr.Peppers)

  • iter #11 3 years ago

    'Boot to dashboard' is not new to NXE or am I missing something?

  • Bleh #12 3 years ago

    "I think more often than not it is more likely to be...
    hey, there's some more DLC which is over priced/ should have been in the original game/ and now i wish i didn't know about it. "

    I agree with you keyboardmonkey. It's ridiculous that so much stuff is being released and you need to pay an extra penny for it when back in the old days it used to be for free. This is just an easy way to make extra money which i'm not taking part in.

  • MattyD #13 3 years ago

    Epic have certainly changed their tune since all that fuss about MS not allowing custom mods for Unreal Tournament 3.

  • Dan234 #14 3 years ago

    Let me think... what are the chances of him slagging off Microsoft if his engine only works on Direct X (+ the usual port to PS3 where the extra horsepower is put to use making a square peg fit into a round shaped hole)?

  • miiiguel #15 3 years ago

    Epic is MS 1st party? o_O

    Did something happened that I didn't notice?

    I mean I thought Ensemble, Rare, Lionhead were 1st party, but Epic?

  • butler` #16 3 years ago

    someone noticed psn is shit? wow go epic

  • glaeken #17 3 years ago

    @iter

    I was thinking the same thing. It's a configuration option in the current dashboard to say if you want to boot to dashboard or straight into a game. Bigging up a new feature of the new GUI would work far better if it actually is a new feature.
    Edited by 1 at 04/11/08 @ 13:03

  • Lukus #18 3 years ago

    "Triggerhappytel
    04-Nov-08 10:28:13

    Wow, developer with close ties to Microsoft comes out and says Microsoft has the best online features.

    I am shocked."



    But they clearly do have the best online features.

  • makeamazing #19 3 years ago

    But they clearly do have the best online features.

    But isnt that opinion rather than fact?

    Ive only used an xbox once so i dont know how good or bad the Xbox version is..., but I dont have any problems with PSN, its pretty cool, the only thing they need to sort out imho is the mixing of demos and game downloads.. i guess they will sort that when there is more content.

  • aphexstwin #20 3 years ago

    i cant see why you have to pay 40 quid a year to play on live. aside from playing goons on pc, it offers exactly nothing more than what you get for free on psn. both have good things and both have bad - anyone still playing bf2 on 360 will testify to that, dropouts and slowdown being two of many problems

  • aphexstwin #21 3 years ago

    iirc i thought microkillprozziesifyoureatruckersoft made no profit on live fees? so how do sony do it then? if its true i cant see a drop. they can say nxe will justify the price. but, someone, please tell me how much home is gunna cost.....?

  • Drogul #22 3 years ago

    Yep, Live should be free. Get money from advertising or whatever...First WOW, now WAR is the only online game service I'm willing to pay. Its just my opinion.

  • MARKIV #23 3 years ago

    "But I love the fact that you boot through the dashboard now. I understand how some gamers might not like it so much, but that's how you join into the Xbox Live experience. Your dashboard comes up, you get to see what's new, hey, there's some free stuff you didn't know about - instead of just booting into your game and missing the community," Capps added.

    Go to System settings -> Console settings -> Startup -> and choose either Disc, Xbox Dashboard or Windows Media Center.

    Says alot..
    Edited by 1 at 04/11/08 @ 19:15