Si, esta en ingles, pero menos es nada.
IGN: If we were having this call a couple years ago about the first Xbox, the mood might be a bit more somber. What changes has Microsoft made in its approach that's made the 360 successful?
Peter Moore: I think the Xbox v.1 was obviously the company's first foray into hardware -- not only just the videogame console, but the first end-to-end experience that we developed. There's always a lot to learn when entering something with entrenched competitors like Sony and Nintendo.
Now you have in Redmond and around the world a battle-hardened team that has been through one cycle and now we're very enthused about where we're going in the next cycle. I think we learned about building a brand. I think we learned about building relationships around the world with developers and publishers. We needed to build relationships with retailers that we didn't have going into this. When you think of the entire ecosystem, all of that had to be built from scratch.
I think the thing we've learned a lot was consumer brand-building to a demographic that typically Microsoft has never spoken to. And that's primarily the 14-34 year-old male. The Xbox brand did not exist six years ago and here we are today with one of the top 20 youths brands in the world.
IGN: Where do you see Xbox 360 a year from now?
Moore: Obviously we have the intent to grow the lead we have. The attach rate is very important as well and making sure people are buying lots of games for their console. The rate of 5.1 here in America is very, very healthy. I think if we sat here a year from now we'd be able to say, we took advantage of the critical mass we got, there are more games being made than ever for the Xbox 360. Xbox Live continues to be the key differentiator between our platform and the other guys. I also think you're going to see our ability to really grow our global business, which has huge opportunity upside -- even more aggressively than we're doing right now -- and we're already in 37 countries.
IGN: Clearly, Xbox 360 is the leader online. Is the strategy to focus on that strength or is it more important to bolster Xbox 360's weaknesses?
Moore: I think the online strength that we have needs to evolve. We're now over 5 million people on Xbox Live. We need to continue to build on a great experience, but we also need to continue building the business model of Xbox Live. [It's] equally importantly for consumers to play games in ways they never dreamt. Live needs to continue to evolve, and evolve very aggressively, to bring in more and more consumers who may have different gaming tastes.
A lot of people love to play Gears of War, but a lot of people would just love to download content. We need to be cognizant that there are different consumers that have different needs for Xbox Live and we continue to evolve the service accordingly. It is a huge advantage for us. I think that is very difficult for Sony and Nintendo to catch up with right now.
IGN: Obviously there's a lot Nintendo and Sony can look to Xbox 360 for in terms of inspiration for an online service. Is there anything Wii or PS3 does that you can adopt for Xbox 360?
Moore: The innovation that the Wii is, I'm certainly a big fan of. It ties in exactly with what Nintendo needs to do. And it ties directly into their strong intellectual property that is more youth oriented and more family oriented. The PS3, I really don't know what I would look at there that we're really missing. I look at the games and I feel really good at where we stand from a portfolio point of view. The online service, [Sony's] still trying to get it up to speed and there's nothing really there that I can really point to that I wish we had. You know, certainly the price point of the PS3 isn't something that I want to emulate. It's very difficult for me to point to anything there that I think we're missing right now.
IGN: Does Microsoft need to change the strategy at all towards Japan?
Moore: I think we need to continue to be a competitor as aggressively as we have been since the day we launched [in Japan]. Little things make your day a little better. This morning when I woke up, seeing Gears of War as one of the top ten selling games in Japan, on top of Blue Dragon's success over the holidays, is vindication of a company that understand what it needs to stick to the task. I think we are seeing progress in Japan. With Lost Odyssey still to come, I think we feel real good about our ability to compete and compete aggressively in the Japanese market. It's not easy, let me make that clear. It's not easy. But we're not going to back down just because it's not easy.
IGN: Are the next few years laying the groundwork so that when the next Xbox comes out, you can sincerely attempt to win Japan?
Moore: No, I think we need to compete in Japan [now]. I think there's a tremendous amount of benefits, both direct and indirect, of being a good partner. Whether it's the sale of consoles themselves to what is a very rapid fan-following; whether it's our ability to work very aggressively with the publishing and development companies in Japan, and I think we're seeing the fruits of that with games like Dead Rising and Lost Planet; whether it's [learning] about how to really structure game mechanics and our teams on the ground in Japan provides a lot of inspiration for what we do around the world. There are a myriad of different things that provide benefits for us for being a competitor in the Japanese videogame market and that's something we'll continue to do.
IGN: How does the restructuring of E3 change Microsoft's strategy?
Moore: The timing now of the new E3 in July is a little more optimal for what we need to do to make some announcements for the holiday period, maybe show some games that are a little further along. It's still something we see as an important part of the calendar for the business in each year. I think having it in July makes things a little easier for us. I think you can expect some big announcements at E3.
IGN: Will we see a new tattoo?
Moore: (Laughs) I've certainly run out of arms. Who knows? I don't know.
IGN: You've mentioned that building IPs is very important. Does that explain in some fashion the decision to include an invitation into the Halo 3 beta with copies of Crackdown?
Moore: No. Crackdown is a tremendous game that stands on its own rights. The ability to deliver the beta on a disc was something we wanted to do. With Halo 3 potentially being an M-rated game -- though it [hasn't yet been] rated -- we needed to deliver it with a game that was also M-rated. We looked at Crackdown and thought there was an excellent opportunity to do something.
In terms of building IPs [we have] Gears of War, Halo, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Project Gotham Racing, Viva Pinata, Mass Effect, Forza, and I could go on and on. I think we're in a pretty good place with the IPs we now make ourselves.
IGN: Do you have concern that, with many strong IPs, they might cannibalize each other?
Moore: No, I think the key is -- I like to be in the position to have a lot of great games and I think we're there. Gears of War and Halo are a great example. Here you've got Gears of War and I'm delighted it came out and blew the doors down Holiday '06, but I'm still here ready to have Halo 3 ready to pull out of my back pocket at a time when I probably need it in '07.
We do a lot of portfolio planning, not only with first part, but also with third party. On top of those this year both BioShock and Splinter Cell 5 are exclusive to our platform. And also having the power of a franchise like Grand Theft Auto day-and-date [with the PS3 release] on Xbox 360 helps enormously as well. Yeah, you have to do a bit of portfolio planning, but it's a high-caliber problem to have.
IGN: How will the Games for Windows initiative going to help Xbox 360?
Moore: Well, I think ultimately that isn't the goal from the get-go, but that will be the end-run is that they will both feed of each other very well. And of course the ability to play Shadowrun on a cross-platform basis helps bring the two platforms much closer together. Our number one goal was to help reinvigorate this category, because it had fallen into a little bit of a slump. With Microsoft putting its money where its mouth is and creating the brand that is Games for Windows, we're now rolling out the Games for Windows brand in 9000 stores in the U.S. Over 2000 stores will have interactive [kiosks]. This is all on our dime and it's something we believe in.
You know the third-party publishers are also with us. We're seeing more and more games carrying the Games for Windows branding. We're sorting out some of the messes at retail. We're getting a sense of order and continuity in the retail space. It's something we needed to do as a company. There's a reason they call it Games for Windows. It's Microsoft's Windows. We've kind of have neglected Windows over the last few years and it's time to stop that.
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