Platform holder’s Jeff Bell says next-gen system can emulate Sony console’s success
Top Microsoft exec Jeff Bell has revealed that the format holder plans to make Xbox 360 ‘this generation’s PS2’.
Bell, corporate VP of global marketing for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, also said he was hopeful that 360 would become popular with Wii owners who had ‘graduated’ above Nintendo’s console.
Speaking to 1Up about how Microsoft saw 360 in comparison to Nintendo’s Wii, Bell said:
“We very much are positioning ourselves to be the choice console of this generation, much like the PS2 was in the last generation.
That's] Great value for money from a price standpoint, all of the games that you want to play, a huge variety of games, and now, not only a DVD, but the ability with Xbox Live to have great community relationships, as well as downloadable television shows and movies - not only here, but around the world.
“We're positioning ourselves to be ready if, in fact, gamers find they're ready to graduate from a certain experience potentially with the Wii, either because it's limited on the type of gameplay that's available or the technology in that box.”
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/29466/Microsoft-360-can-be-this-generations-PS2
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Sitting Down with Microsoft's Jeff Bell
Gates, future of Mass Effect -- he even talks about that message board incident.
Near the end of CES 2008, 1UP was given the chance to have some one-on-one time with none other than Microsoft executive Jeff Bell (he's their Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, to be exact). The gaming community was first introduced to Mr. Bell at Microsoft's Electronic Entertainment Expo conference last summer during a maybe-too-scripted segment about Madden NFL 08. The unintentionally comical bit prompted expected ribbing and Photoshops from the gaming peanut gallery -- which then resulted in an otherwise insignificant comment on a message board becoming a thing of gaming legend.
In any case, as one of the guiding hands for the Xbox brand over the next few years, we were certainly interested in understanding where Bell believes Xbox 360 is headed in 2008 and beyond, whether Warner Bros. Blu-ray exclusivity announcement changes their plans in the ongoing format war, knowing his thoughts on if the Wii "bubble" will burst in the next 12 months and we might have even picked up some honesty about that whole message board thing.
Read on for more.
1UP: What has been your CES experience so far?
Jeff Bell: This is my first CES. It's super exciting for me. It has such a legendary [appeal]. I got to see Bill Gates last night [Editor's Note: the night before CES 2008 started]. It's kind of a funny back story; I started with the company and [in] my first meeting with Bill Gates, he announced he was retiring. I didn't take it personally, but now my first CES is sort of his last, it's a little unsettling. [smiles] I'm really having fun. People work hard here. You know better than anybody.
1UP: What impact, if any, will Bill Gates have on the gaming division? He seems to be on more of the high-end, philosophical visions for Microsoft, but does that have a trickle down effect on you guys?
Bell: Well, you know, there is a word of caution: 20% of Bill Gates is probably 150% of most normal human beings. He'll still be around and setting strategy. Bill is a gamer; he does more MSN games than Xbox games or Games for Windows, but he's an avid bridge and texas hold 'em player, he's kind of legendary for playing Warren Buffet over bridge on MSN. So, he's intrigued by this -- he also has young children and he's been a big proponent of driving a lot of our social play, our physical play development that we're going forward with -- Guitar Hero being a big success, Rock Band now a big success. He's very interested. His kids obviously like to play games, so I think he's going to be very much involved.
1UP: Going into 2008, what do you see as Xbox 360's road block, the biggest thing you haven't been able to accomplish yet?
Bell: We've really been on a steady and consistent strategic plan. We think we gained some credibility with Xbox. We clearly had a brand that with Halo and with some other first person shooters [we] were very prominent in that action adventure genre.
With the 360, we wanted to keep our credibility there, whether it's a Halo 3 success this past year, but grow consistently into the sports franchises. We've done very well with Madden, stronger with FIFA and Pro Evo Soccer now in Europe and Asia, NBA around the world. Stronger in racing: we've got our own two with Forza and PGR franchises, but also Need for Speed. We're growing, kind of one after another. RPG -- we really won a very big presence in that, whether it's Elder Scrolls and now Mass Effect, but also Blue Dragon and now Lost Odyssey just joining in with Sakaguchi-san, coming to Europe and US in 2008.
[We're] just kind of slow and steady gaining share against our competition in each of the major genres, and then social play and family IPs are kind of the last two we [need]. We outsold both Wii and PS3 on Shrek 3, Spider-Man [and] Pirates of the Caribbean 3. And then we're doing great with Rock Band and Guitar Hero III, so that's kind of a first entry into physical play. It's not the end; it's just the beginning for us to continue in that. Being able to be seen as the new definition of fun -- not "the" definition of fun but a new definition that allows people to feel like there's joy and fun in all genres of games on the 360.
1UP: How does having Electronic Arts acquire BioWare and Pandemic affect your relationship with the Mass Effect franchise going forward? Does that mean you wouldn't have a say in, for example, Mass Effect 2 going multi-platform?
Bell: Obviously, we couldn't have a better partner acquiring one of our partners. EA is really strong in our relationship, whether it's on the sports side or on their other incredible franchises like Rock Band. We do very well with them, they know us very well. [With] Chris Satchell's group with SDK and development kits, [we have] very, very deep relationships to make sure their games play best -- 60 frames per second on Madden versus 30 frames per second on our competition, etc.
Whatever the future holds for Mass Effect, we know it's going to be part of our future, as well. We just look forward to making it an even better game that what is obviously an extraordinarily great game right now.
1UP: Though the holiday season was a success for you guys, it was also a success for the competition. Going into 08, looking at the PlayStation 3 and the Wii, what do you see as their greatest strengths and weaknesses that you will be able to capitalize on?
Bell: Obviously, we look for a very healthy industry, first and foremost. The role that we've played, and we would challenge everyone to come to our level, is that we're selling a lot of software [that's] not just our own. Secondly, Xbox Live, now with 10 million members around the world, is providing an environment with Xbox Live Arcade -- 200 titles available, 191 are E or T-rated -- and more always coming [with] independent development, as well as XNA games now being launched onto it. And then the TV and movie downloads; we just announced ABC and Disney on TV and MGM on the movies side.
We would like to invite everybody to make sure that when we win, everyone wins, not just one person wins and nobody else benefits from their prosperity. That is the Achilles Heel. History has shown that the console that sells the most third-party software, whether it's a download or it's on disc, is going to be the winner. We are definitely in the lead in that regard right now and we have no reason to do anything but to continue to progress in that regard.
1UP: Would you say games like Scene It are a response to the increased casual space? In Japan, Nintendo DS and PSP are clearly some of the more dominant machines there. If Scene It's a response to that movement, what else can we expect in 2008?
Bell: You know, the one thing that I would say, as Robbie Bach [President of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division] iterated last night, this isn't a hobby for us. We aren't perfect, we don't always get it right the first time, but we are incredibly committed to trying to bring fun, great games, great forms of entertainment to all of our customers. Scene It -- it's maybe not the most innovative thing, but it is a lot of fun to play, and the one thing wonderful about Scene It is that's not the last version. It's perfectly structured, ultimately, for downloadable content, being able to choose films from different genres or different periods of time, to be able to continue to have fun with that trivia and to use the big button and scale those applications. That's one trivia type of application, there may be more in the future.
It's just the beginning for us. The one thing I've always said is that we have to be thankful for is that Wii has sort of opened a lot of peoples minds to thinking about gaming in a new way, whether it's Brain Age and the DS or the DS Lite, or whether it's the Wiimote -- that's good for the gaming industry. We're not going to simply say "well done, game over," we're going to continue to push and press for natural interfaces, like Bill Gates was talking about -- Wiimote is one example of that, it's not the only one. We're going to continue to innovate and progress in that regard.
And the other thing that I have to acknowledge is that education is back in vogue, so we need to be socially responsible. We are going to be very forthright in explaining the types of controls families have over time limits on the Xbox 360 -- we're the only console that has a time control feature. It's not for everyone, but it's there for people to use. We're going to be continuing to press into education and social issues for gaming development. The Games for Change content and the Imagine Cup -- we've got 9,000 university teams now competing to develop games with XNA Express around the theme of global warming. That's just the beginning, more to come.
I think the main thing is the industry in many ways is still a very young industry. If you think about the movie industry, we're probably in the 30s or 40s of the 20th century. There's just so much more to come -- documentaries didn't begin in films until the 70s and 80s. We're moving in that direction and we would like to be responsible, a corporate citizen clearly, but also more than anything else, we want to be focused on the consumer, whether it's young children, tweens, teens, young adults, families, adults -- we want to bring great joy experiences that are fun, friendly and easy for everybody to play.
1UP: Microsoft's seen some good success with the release of the HD-DVD add-on for Xbox 360. With Warner Bros. recent announcement to go Blu-ray exclusive, clearly it's not a knock-out punch -- but a blow to the format. How do you see that changing Microsoft's perspective on the ongoing format war?
Bell: First of all, let me say Warner Bros. is a great partner. They are the number one partner in terms of downloadable content with TV shows to own and movies to rent on Xbox Live Marketplace. We were disappointed with the announcement. It has a consequence. I will tell you that we are committed to HD-DVD and still have some great partners -- Universal, Paramount, DreamWorks -- these are great participants in the format. We have sold very well the HD-DVD accessory.
We did make a specific choice; we did not impose technology upon our consumers. We would like choice to be our guiding principle, and it has worked for us. We're not demanding that people choose a format, but rather, we're with DVD in the Xbox 360. Satisfaction with DVDs, by the way, is like 96%, at least in the States. So, we continue to give the alternative in HD-DVD, we have downloadable movies and television shows on Xbox Live Marketplace, Media Center Extender is available and as we just announced, IPTV will be brought onto the Xbox 360, first with British Telecomm in 2008 for consumers. So, there's more than one choice to watch movies and TV shows.
1UP: In the event that HD-DVD no longer becomes a viable alternative in the retail space, how do you think Microsoft will respond to that? Peter Moore had at once said, before you released the add-on, that he was open to the possibility of releasing a Blu-ray drive if that became the consumer choice. Is that something that's still on the table for you guys?
Bell: You know, interestingly, we have a long history of partnership with Sony. Obviously, they run our software on their personal computers and other devices, so we have a 'coopetition' -- a word I learned at Microsoft when I joined. We've been talking to Blu-ray all along because we have the best piece of software in the business, called HDi. It is the backbone that powers interactivity in HD-DVD and we have that available to potentially partner with others.
You never say never. I think we'd like to see how things evolve. Our commitment, however, to HD-DVD is profound and consistent, and we have done very, very well in term of our accessory sales. We have 400 HD-DVD movies from great studios available. It's a long time between now and June.
1UP: You mentioned IPTV via British Telecomm. Is that something we can expect for the US anytime soon?
Bell: Well, we do have Media Room partnerships that are already in place in the US and other European markets. BT was the first to say they'd offer IPTV in the Xbox 360, but that is available to our other partners, so we're hopeful that it's successful and we believe it will be. From that, others will most likely join suit here and around the world.
1UP: A couple of weeks ago, Activision's CEO made some waves saying it was crucial for both Microsoft and Sony to hit $199 in the next couple of years. I remember talking to Shane Kim at E3 and he mentioned $250, but that's fairly close to Activision's number. How do you see Xbox 360 in heading towards that mass market price point?
Bell: We were really pleased when we launched the price and value change last Fall; the Core went to $279, the Pro was at $349. Obviously, for the holidays, when we launched the Xbox 360 Arcade, we retired the name Core because we added a wireless controller and a memory unit for the same price -- and five games, including Pac-Man World Championship Edition, which some rated as one of the better games of last year. I'm personally a huge fan; I've played a lot of Pac-Man on the Xbox Live Arcade. [laughs] We also added two games -- Forza 2 and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance -- to both the Pro and the Elite, and so we've added content, we've lowered the price for last Fall and we really did well with that. We're confident that if we do make anymore value adjustments, the market will respond very well. Clearly, history has shown a lot of volume at the $199 -- quite frankly, I think half of the PS1's volume was at $99.
Price matters. I hope that's not new news for everybody, but we want to make sure what we do is correctly paced, strategic in its intent -- we lowered price in the United States around the Madden launch, we did it in Europe a little bit later because of their holiday schedules for summer breaks. We learned in the Xbox that we need to be very diligent on quality and on cost control and as we go through this lifecycle, we're prepared to be competitive on value for our consumers.
1UP: One of the things I'm curious about is Microsoft's approach to the hardcore interested in picking up new hardware iterations, such as those with the Falcon chipset. Why isn't Microsoft more forthcoming about how people can pick up these versions? Are you willing to become more open?
Bell: I don't tend to talk a lot about my last professional experience in automobiles, but I will tell you that there's a lot of complexity in an automobile. There's a lot of models for any brand and you have them all around the world and what not. I think, perhaps, my expectations of complexity management were one of the most interesting things that I had to adjust when I got to Microsoft and to work on Xbox because it's just different. We actually had dealers that were dedicated to the automotive franchise, so we could manage complexity in a much more granular fashion, but obviously in the world of Xbox, there are retailers, some of whom are huge -- like Wal-Mart -- and then others that are relatively fragmented. For example, the way retail operates in Europe.
Being able to manage the transition from a Core to an Arcade or from one iteration of the Xenon to a different version, there's not as much control in our hands as you might expect. We try to partner as best we can with our retail affiliates, we try and use training to prepare the retail sales force. So, we'll try and do a better job, but it's not as if we have all the degrees of freedom completely within our control. We are committed to improving quality and performance and cost all the way through this cycle, so it's not always that we make a clean break, as well, like model years in automobiles. Sometimes, the changes simply come when the pre-testing and reliability testing is all finished and we're ready to go and sometimes it's just a continuous improvement, so it's not always a clean break.
I don't know if that answers your question -- I'm not trying to be evasive -- it's just I found that it is a more complex situation in some ways than I would have anticipated. It's not quite as regular as the world from which I came.
1UP: One of the questions that comes up every month: when is the Wii bubble going to pop? I don't think anyone could have anticipated -- I don't think Nintendo could have anticipated -- their runaway success. Do you believe Wii will eventually run out of steam in the marketplace?
Bell: I think the Wii is a wonderful idea. We very much are positioning ourselves to be the choice console of this generation, much like the PS2 was in the last generation. Great value for money from a price standpoint, all of the games that you want to play, a huge variety of games, and now, not only a DVD, but the ability with Xbox Live to have great community relationships, as well as downloadable television shows and movies -- not only here, but around the world. We're positioning ourselves to be ready if, in fact, gamers find they're ready to graduate from a certain experience potentially with the Wii, either because it's limited on the type of gameplay that's available or the technology in that box.
We think that we could live very, very well in the same household as the Wii, and we're trying to make sure that when there is that choice for a second console that it is the Xbox 360. I do think that Nintendo has flipped and has become the first console for this generation for a lot of families who did have a console history. What I still don't know is how many absolute new households have been brought in because of the Wii, I don't know if anybody knows. Maybe Nintendo does, but we haven't been able to discern that. I think that may be an even better thing.
I am thankful that the Wii has been able to open up a lot of people's minds that gaming is fun for everyone.
1UP: What games are you looking forward to in 2008?
Bell: Well, you know, what we have talked about and what I'm looking forward to from Microsoft Game Studios is Too Human. Now, this is a game that has been sort of off again and on again, but as we come to the final stages of testing and what I've been exposed to, I'm actually looking forward to this in the same way that Crackdown was a bit of a sleeper. It was a bit of "what's going on?" [with this game] I've beaten Crackdown. I've completed that game two times on two different gamer tags, mostly because my one son stole my gamer tag, so I had to play it again to get the points, but I enjoyed it the second time through.
I'm looking forward to Fable 2. Peter Molyneux has become a good friend and I think he's a tremendous visionary. I think that's going to be improved tremendously in many, many ways and look forward to launching that. Halo Wars, basically a strategy game onto the console, is something we enjoy pioneering and that's a great IP and that's a great opportunity for us. There's more and more to come; we've got to save a little bit of powder for GDC and if we do X08 or E3 announcements. I'm also looking forward to Splinter Cell: Conviction, and Grand Theft Auto IV is absolutely the critical launch of the first half of the year, so we're really looking forward to that. [Also] just continuing on the success and rhythm of Rock Band and Guitar Hero III in Europe and Asian when it launches there. It's gonna be a good year.
1UP: Finally, I would get kicked around by my own staff if I didn't at least bring up, with a little bit of reservation, about how you are kind of infamous on the Internet.
Bell: Yes, I know! [laughs] I don't get to watch your shows as much as I should and I apologize for that.
1UP: You're actually known for a certain quote on a message board. How do you feel when you're interacting with these communities? It's a bit a different level when you're such a high-ranking executive. Do you think there's a way to bridge that gap? When that incident occurred, I think you actually gained a lot of credibility with people for becoming more -- I don't know -- human, if you know what I mean.
Bell: It's funny that you say that. I'm not a mean person. I love games, by the way. I play a lot of games. In fact, some people on my staff think that's one thing that people don't really understand is that I play a lot of games. I just do, I have for a long time. I had Pong when I was a kid.
And I've got three sons -- 18, 15 and 11. They are very avid gamers and they still have a balanced life of chess club or theater or playing soccer or football or lacrosse, whatever the case may be. My interest has always been about being approachable; I'd like the Xbox brand to be approachable. When I was working for Ford in Spain, I never conducted a meeting in anything but Spanish. That made me much more "cercano" as they say in Spanish -- near or approachable. It helped bring down that barrier between "here's a gringo running an operation overseas" -- it just released that tension and allowed a lot more openness and honesty.
I find the intensity of the community in gaming very, very familiar. I worked on the Jeep brand, but I will tell you something: gamers are a lot more intense than even Jeepers! [laughs]
1UP: And they know how to use Photoshop. It's a totally different world.
Bell: Yeah! I'm not certain that it exists anywhere else -- music, movies. I probably wasn't as prepared as I should have been, but I was never really interested in anything but trying to connect appropriately. I don't want to be in an ivory tower, I don't want to be anything other than one of the guys that's trying to make games for as many people as possible in the world and bring entertainment vision to a reality.
I'm just glad that I'm still here and I got a chance to meet with you.
1UP: I think you'll find that people do appreciate that, especially with Xbox being so community oriented. For people to have that level of personal appreciation, it shows the companies actually are paying attention to you. For whatever came out of that one situation on the Internet, I think gamers may have gained a certain appreciation you can't get when you're talking from the typical executive level. You always wonder, "do they really pay attention to us on this microscopic level?"
Bell: I will tell you, and I know Peter Moore's skin will crawl if he actually hears this [as] he is very sensitive to having a stellar relationship with all communities, that in some strange way, he really had encouraged me to try and get closer to all of the dedicated sites like 1UP and your competition, etc. and to understand it. Like I said, I didn't get a training class on what to expect, etc., etc. But, you know what, I'm here, I'm better, I'm much more connected to the industry and it will make me a better executive and it will make us a better business to be close.
I rode around in our hummer truck today with bloggers for about an hour. And you know what? I want to hear it. I couldn't make great Jeeps if I didn't talk to people who lived and loved Jeep. In the same way, I can't make better hardware, software and services -- or at a minimum, market them well -- if I don't know what really makes people passionate in that area.
1UP: People will appreciate that.
Bell: I'm out there, dude. What you see is what you get. [laughs] Sometimes I gotta get reined in a little bit.
1UP: Well, same things happen to me too. You can't write anything without being called biased.
Bell: If you don't have 10/10 360s on your most wanted list, you're biased!
1UP: Thanks for your time, Jeff.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3165627
Top Microsoft exec Jeff Bell has revealed that the format holder plans to make Xbox 360 ‘this generation’s PS2’.
Bell, corporate VP of global marketing for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, also said he was hopeful that 360 would become popular with Wii owners who had ‘graduated’ above Nintendo’s console.
Speaking to 1Up about how Microsoft saw 360 in comparison to Nintendo’s Wii, Bell said:
“We very much are positioning ourselves to be the choice console of this generation, much like the PS2 was in the last generation.
That's] Great value for money from a price standpoint, all of the games that you want to play, a huge variety of games, and now, not only a DVD, but the ability with Xbox Live to have great community relationships, as well as downloadable television shows and movies - not only here, but around the world.
“We're positioning ourselves to be ready if, in fact, gamers find they're ready to graduate from a certain experience potentially with the Wii, either because it's limited on the type of gameplay that's available or the technology in that box.”
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/29466/Microsoft-360-can-be-this-generations-PS2
_______________________
Sitting Down with Microsoft's Jeff Bell
Gates, future of Mass Effect -- he even talks about that message board incident.
Near the end of CES 2008, 1UP was given the chance to have some one-on-one time with none other than Microsoft executive Jeff Bell (he's their Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, to be exact). The gaming community was first introduced to Mr. Bell at Microsoft's Electronic Entertainment Expo conference last summer during a maybe-too-scripted segment about Madden NFL 08. The unintentionally comical bit prompted expected ribbing and Photoshops from the gaming peanut gallery -- which then resulted in an otherwise insignificant comment on a message board becoming a thing of gaming legend.
In any case, as one of the guiding hands for the Xbox brand over the next few years, we were certainly interested in understanding where Bell believes Xbox 360 is headed in 2008 and beyond, whether Warner Bros. Blu-ray exclusivity announcement changes their plans in the ongoing format war, knowing his thoughts on if the Wii "bubble" will burst in the next 12 months and we might have even picked up some honesty about that whole message board thing.
Read on for more.
1UP: What has been your CES experience so far?
Jeff Bell: This is my first CES. It's super exciting for me. It has such a legendary [appeal]. I got to see Bill Gates last night [Editor's Note: the night before CES 2008 started]. It's kind of a funny back story; I started with the company and [in] my first meeting with Bill Gates, he announced he was retiring. I didn't take it personally, but now my first CES is sort of his last, it's a little unsettling. [smiles] I'm really having fun. People work hard here. You know better than anybody.
1UP: What impact, if any, will Bill Gates have on the gaming division? He seems to be on more of the high-end, philosophical visions for Microsoft, but does that have a trickle down effect on you guys?
Bell: Well, you know, there is a word of caution: 20% of Bill Gates is probably 150% of most normal human beings. He'll still be around and setting strategy. Bill is a gamer; he does more MSN games than Xbox games or Games for Windows, but he's an avid bridge and texas hold 'em player, he's kind of legendary for playing Warren Buffet over bridge on MSN. So, he's intrigued by this -- he also has young children and he's been a big proponent of driving a lot of our social play, our physical play development that we're going forward with -- Guitar Hero being a big success, Rock Band now a big success. He's very interested. His kids obviously like to play games, so I think he's going to be very much involved.
1UP: Going into 2008, what do you see as Xbox 360's road block, the biggest thing you haven't been able to accomplish yet?
Bell: We've really been on a steady and consistent strategic plan. We think we gained some credibility with Xbox. We clearly had a brand that with Halo and with some other first person shooters [we] were very prominent in that action adventure genre.
With the 360, we wanted to keep our credibility there, whether it's a Halo 3 success this past year, but grow consistently into the sports franchises. We've done very well with Madden, stronger with FIFA and Pro Evo Soccer now in Europe and Asia, NBA around the world. Stronger in racing: we've got our own two with Forza and PGR franchises, but also Need for Speed. We're growing, kind of one after another. RPG -- we really won a very big presence in that, whether it's Elder Scrolls and now Mass Effect, but also Blue Dragon and now Lost Odyssey just joining in with Sakaguchi-san, coming to Europe and US in 2008.
[We're] just kind of slow and steady gaining share against our competition in each of the major genres, and then social play and family IPs are kind of the last two we [need]. We outsold both Wii and PS3 on Shrek 3, Spider-Man [and] Pirates of the Caribbean 3. And then we're doing great with Rock Band and Guitar Hero III, so that's kind of a first entry into physical play. It's not the end; it's just the beginning for us to continue in that. Being able to be seen as the new definition of fun -- not "the" definition of fun but a new definition that allows people to feel like there's joy and fun in all genres of games on the 360.
1UP: How does having Electronic Arts acquire BioWare and Pandemic affect your relationship with the Mass Effect franchise going forward? Does that mean you wouldn't have a say in, for example, Mass Effect 2 going multi-platform?
Bell: Obviously, we couldn't have a better partner acquiring one of our partners. EA is really strong in our relationship, whether it's on the sports side or on their other incredible franchises like Rock Band. We do very well with them, they know us very well. [With] Chris Satchell's group with SDK and development kits, [we have] very, very deep relationships to make sure their games play best -- 60 frames per second on Madden versus 30 frames per second on our competition, etc.
Whatever the future holds for Mass Effect, we know it's going to be part of our future, as well. We just look forward to making it an even better game that what is obviously an extraordinarily great game right now.
1UP: Though the holiday season was a success for you guys, it was also a success for the competition. Going into 08, looking at the PlayStation 3 and the Wii, what do you see as their greatest strengths and weaknesses that you will be able to capitalize on?
Bell: Obviously, we look for a very healthy industry, first and foremost. The role that we've played, and we would challenge everyone to come to our level, is that we're selling a lot of software [that's] not just our own. Secondly, Xbox Live, now with 10 million members around the world, is providing an environment with Xbox Live Arcade -- 200 titles available, 191 are E or T-rated -- and more always coming [with] independent development, as well as XNA games now being launched onto it. And then the TV and movie downloads; we just announced ABC and Disney on TV and MGM on the movies side.
We would like to invite everybody to make sure that when we win, everyone wins, not just one person wins and nobody else benefits from their prosperity. That is the Achilles Heel. History has shown that the console that sells the most third-party software, whether it's a download or it's on disc, is going to be the winner. We are definitely in the lead in that regard right now and we have no reason to do anything but to continue to progress in that regard.
1UP: Would you say games like Scene It are a response to the increased casual space? In Japan, Nintendo DS and PSP are clearly some of the more dominant machines there. If Scene It's a response to that movement, what else can we expect in 2008?
Bell: You know, the one thing that I would say, as Robbie Bach [President of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division] iterated last night, this isn't a hobby for us. We aren't perfect, we don't always get it right the first time, but we are incredibly committed to trying to bring fun, great games, great forms of entertainment to all of our customers. Scene It -- it's maybe not the most innovative thing, but it is a lot of fun to play, and the one thing wonderful about Scene It is that's not the last version. It's perfectly structured, ultimately, for downloadable content, being able to choose films from different genres or different periods of time, to be able to continue to have fun with that trivia and to use the big button and scale those applications. That's one trivia type of application, there may be more in the future.
It's just the beginning for us. The one thing I've always said is that we have to be thankful for is that Wii has sort of opened a lot of peoples minds to thinking about gaming in a new way, whether it's Brain Age and the DS or the DS Lite, or whether it's the Wiimote -- that's good for the gaming industry. We're not going to simply say "well done, game over," we're going to continue to push and press for natural interfaces, like Bill Gates was talking about -- Wiimote is one example of that, it's not the only one. We're going to continue to innovate and progress in that regard.
And the other thing that I have to acknowledge is that education is back in vogue, so we need to be socially responsible. We are going to be very forthright in explaining the types of controls families have over time limits on the Xbox 360 -- we're the only console that has a time control feature. It's not for everyone, but it's there for people to use. We're going to be continuing to press into education and social issues for gaming development. The Games for Change content and the Imagine Cup -- we've got 9,000 university teams now competing to develop games with XNA Express around the theme of global warming. That's just the beginning, more to come.
I think the main thing is the industry in many ways is still a very young industry. If you think about the movie industry, we're probably in the 30s or 40s of the 20th century. There's just so much more to come -- documentaries didn't begin in films until the 70s and 80s. We're moving in that direction and we would like to be responsible, a corporate citizen clearly, but also more than anything else, we want to be focused on the consumer, whether it's young children, tweens, teens, young adults, families, adults -- we want to bring great joy experiences that are fun, friendly and easy for everybody to play.
1UP: Microsoft's seen some good success with the release of the HD-DVD add-on for Xbox 360. With Warner Bros. recent announcement to go Blu-ray exclusive, clearly it's not a knock-out punch -- but a blow to the format. How do you see that changing Microsoft's perspective on the ongoing format war?
Bell: First of all, let me say Warner Bros. is a great partner. They are the number one partner in terms of downloadable content with TV shows to own and movies to rent on Xbox Live Marketplace. We were disappointed with the announcement. It has a consequence. I will tell you that we are committed to HD-DVD and still have some great partners -- Universal, Paramount, DreamWorks -- these are great participants in the format. We have sold very well the HD-DVD accessory.
We did make a specific choice; we did not impose technology upon our consumers. We would like choice to be our guiding principle, and it has worked for us. We're not demanding that people choose a format, but rather, we're with DVD in the Xbox 360. Satisfaction with DVDs, by the way, is like 96%, at least in the States. So, we continue to give the alternative in HD-DVD, we have downloadable movies and television shows on Xbox Live Marketplace, Media Center Extender is available and as we just announced, IPTV will be brought onto the Xbox 360, first with British Telecomm in 2008 for consumers. So, there's more than one choice to watch movies and TV shows.
1UP: In the event that HD-DVD no longer becomes a viable alternative in the retail space, how do you think Microsoft will respond to that? Peter Moore had at once said, before you released the add-on, that he was open to the possibility of releasing a Blu-ray drive if that became the consumer choice. Is that something that's still on the table for you guys?
Bell: You know, interestingly, we have a long history of partnership with Sony. Obviously, they run our software on their personal computers and other devices, so we have a 'coopetition' -- a word I learned at Microsoft when I joined. We've been talking to Blu-ray all along because we have the best piece of software in the business, called HDi. It is the backbone that powers interactivity in HD-DVD and we have that available to potentially partner with others.
You never say never. I think we'd like to see how things evolve. Our commitment, however, to HD-DVD is profound and consistent, and we have done very, very well in term of our accessory sales. We have 400 HD-DVD movies from great studios available. It's a long time between now and June.
1UP: You mentioned IPTV via British Telecomm. Is that something we can expect for the US anytime soon?
Bell: Well, we do have Media Room partnerships that are already in place in the US and other European markets. BT was the first to say they'd offer IPTV in the Xbox 360, but that is available to our other partners, so we're hopeful that it's successful and we believe it will be. From that, others will most likely join suit here and around the world.
1UP: A couple of weeks ago, Activision's CEO made some waves saying it was crucial for both Microsoft and Sony to hit $199 in the next couple of years. I remember talking to Shane Kim at E3 and he mentioned $250, but that's fairly close to Activision's number. How do you see Xbox 360 in heading towards that mass market price point?
Bell: We were really pleased when we launched the price and value change last Fall; the Core went to $279, the Pro was at $349. Obviously, for the holidays, when we launched the Xbox 360 Arcade, we retired the name Core because we added a wireless controller and a memory unit for the same price -- and five games, including Pac-Man World Championship Edition, which some rated as one of the better games of last year. I'm personally a huge fan; I've played a lot of Pac-Man on the Xbox Live Arcade. [laughs] We also added two games -- Forza 2 and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance -- to both the Pro and the Elite, and so we've added content, we've lowered the price for last Fall and we really did well with that. We're confident that if we do make anymore value adjustments, the market will respond very well. Clearly, history has shown a lot of volume at the $199 -- quite frankly, I think half of the PS1's volume was at $99.
Price matters. I hope that's not new news for everybody, but we want to make sure what we do is correctly paced, strategic in its intent -- we lowered price in the United States around the Madden launch, we did it in Europe a little bit later because of their holiday schedules for summer breaks. We learned in the Xbox that we need to be very diligent on quality and on cost control and as we go through this lifecycle, we're prepared to be competitive on value for our consumers.
1UP: One of the things I'm curious about is Microsoft's approach to the hardcore interested in picking up new hardware iterations, such as those with the Falcon chipset. Why isn't Microsoft more forthcoming about how people can pick up these versions? Are you willing to become more open?
Bell: I don't tend to talk a lot about my last professional experience in automobiles, but I will tell you that there's a lot of complexity in an automobile. There's a lot of models for any brand and you have them all around the world and what not. I think, perhaps, my expectations of complexity management were one of the most interesting things that I had to adjust when I got to Microsoft and to work on Xbox because it's just different. We actually had dealers that were dedicated to the automotive franchise, so we could manage complexity in a much more granular fashion, but obviously in the world of Xbox, there are retailers, some of whom are huge -- like Wal-Mart -- and then others that are relatively fragmented. For example, the way retail operates in Europe.
Being able to manage the transition from a Core to an Arcade or from one iteration of the Xenon to a different version, there's not as much control in our hands as you might expect. We try to partner as best we can with our retail affiliates, we try and use training to prepare the retail sales force. So, we'll try and do a better job, but it's not as if we have all the degrees of freedom completely within our control. We are committed to improving quality and performance and cost all the way through this cycle, so it's not always that we make a clean break, as well, like model years in automobiles. Sometimes, the changes simply come when the pre-testing and reliability testing is all finished and we're ready to go and sometimes it's just a continuous improvement, so it's not always a clean break.
I don't know if that answers your question -- I'm not trying to be evasive -- it's just I found that it is a more complex situation in some ways than I would have anticipated. It's not quite as regular as the world from which I came.
1UP: One of the questions that comes up every month: when is the Wii bubble going to pop? I don't think anyone could have anticipated -- I don't think Nintendo could have anticipated -- their runaway success. Do you believe Wii will eventually run out of steam in the marketplace?
Bell: I think the Wii is a wonderful idea. We very much are positioning ourselves to be the choice console of this generation, much like the PS2 was in the last generation. Great value for money from a price standpoint, all of the games that you want to play, a huge variety of games, and now, not only a DVD, but the ability with Xbox Live to have great community relationships, as well as downloadable television shows and movies -- not only here, but around the world. We're positioning ourselves to be ready if, in fact, gamers find they're ready to graduate from a certain experience potentially with the Wii, either because it's limited on the type of gameplay that's available or the technology in that box.
We think that we could live very, very well in the same household as the Wii, and we're trying to make sure that when there is that choice for a second console that it is the Xbox 360. I do think that Nintendo has flipped and has become the first console for this generation for a lot of families who did have a console history. What I still don't know is how many absolute new households have been brought in because of the Wii, I don't know if anybody knows. Maybe Nintendo does, but we haven't been able to discern that. I think that may be an even better thing.
I am thankful that the Wii has been able to open up a lot of people's minds that gaming is fun for everyone.
1UP: What games are you looking forward to in 2008?
Bell: Well, you know, what we have talked about and what I'm looking forward to from Microsoft Game Studios is Too Human. Now, this is a game that has been sort of off again and on again, but as we come to the final stages of testing and what I've been exposed to, I'm actually looking forward to this in the same way that Crackdown was a bit of a sleeper. It was a bit of "what's going on?" [with this game] I've beaten Crackdown. I've completed that game two times on two different gamer tags, mostly because my one son stole my gamer tag, so I had to play it again to get the points, but I enjoyed it the second time through.
I'm looking forward to Fable 2. Peter Molyneux has become a good friend and I think he's a tremendous visionary. I think that's going to be improved tremendously in many, many ways and look forward to launching that. Halo Wars, basically a strategy game onto the console, is something we enjoy pioneering and that's a great IP and that's a great opportunity for us. There's more and more to come; we've got to save a little bit of powder for GDC and if we do X08 or E3 announcements. I'm also looking forward to Splinter Cell: Conviction, and Grand Theft Auto IV is absolutely the critical launch of the first half of the year, so we're really looking forward to that. [Also] just continuing on the success and rhythm of Rock Band and Guitar Hero III in Europe and Asian when it launches there. It's gonna be a good year.
1UP: Finally, I would get kicked around by my own staff if I didn't at least bring up, with a little bit of reservation, about how you are kind of infamous on the Internet.
Bell: Yes, I know! [laughs] I don't get to watch your shows as much as I should and I apologize for that.
1UP: You're actually known for a certain quote on a message board. How do you feel when you're interacting with these communities? It's a bit a different level when you're such a high-ranking executive. Do you think there's a way to bridge that gap? When that incident occurred, I think you actually gained a lot of credibility with people for becoming more -- I don't know -- human, if you know what I mean.
Bell: It's funny that you say that. I'm not a mean person. I love games, by the way. I play a lot of games. In fact, some people on my staff think that's one thing that people don't really understand is that I play a lot of games. I just do, I have for a long time. I had Pong when I was a kid.
And I've got three sons -- 18, 15 and 11. They are very avid gamers and they still have a balanced life of chess club or theater or playing soccer or football or lacrosse, whatever the case may be. My interest has always been about being approachable; I'd like the Xbox brand to be approachable. When I was working for Ford in Spain, I never conducted a meeting in anything but Spanish. That made me much more "cercano" as they say in Spanish -- near or approachable. It helped bring down that barrier between "here's a gringo running an operation overseas" -- it just released that tension and allowed a lot more openness and honesty.
I find the intensity of the community in gaming very, very familiar. I worked on the Jeep brand, but I will tell you something: gamers are a lot more intense than even Jeepers! [laughs]
1UP: And they know how to use Photoshop. It's a totally different world.
Bell: Yeah! I'm not certain that it exists anywhere else -- music, movies. I probably wasn't as prepared as I should have been, but I was never really interested in anything but trying to connect appropriately. I don't want to be in an ivory tower, I don't want to be anything other than one of the guys that's trying to make games for as many people as possible in the world and bring entertainment vision to a reality.
I'm just glad that I'm still here and I got a chance to meet with you.
1UP: I think you'll find that people do appreciate that, especially with Xbox being so community oriented. For people to have that level of personal appreciation, it shows the companies actually are paying attention to you. For whatever came out of that one situation on the Internet, I think gamers may have gained a certain appreciation you can't get when you're talking from the typical executive level. You always wonder, "do they really pay attention to us on this microscopic level?"
Bell: I will tell you, and I know Peter Moore's skin will crawl if he actually hears this [as] he is very sensitive to having a stellar relationship with all communities, that in some strange way, he really had encouraged me to try and get closer to all of the dedicated sites like 1UP and your competition, etc. and to understand it. Like I said, I didn't get a training class on what to expect, etc., etc. But, you know what, I'm here, I'm better, I'm much more connected to the industry and it will make me a better executive and it will make us a better business to be close.
I rode around in our hummer truck today with bloggers for about an hour. And you know what? I want to hear it. I couldn't make great Jeeps if I didn't talk to people who lived and loved Jeep. In the same way, I can't make better hardware, software and services -- or at a minimum, market them well -- if I don't know what really makes people passionate in that area.
1UP: People will appreciate that.
Bell: I'm out there, dude. What you see is what you get. [laughs] Sometimes I gotta get reined in a little bit.
1UP: Well, same things happen to me too. You can't write anything without being called biased.
Bell: If you don't have 10/10 360s on your most wanted list, you're biased!
1UP: Thanks for your time, Jeff.
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