De la macro-entrevista de XYDE a Peter Moore:
What will Microsoft do to help with the marketing of HDTVs in Europe? Any type of bundle planned with Samsung for example?
There’s a lot of innovative things that were planning with Samsung; so when we think about what were doing right now although we can’t link Samsung directly to our World Cup plans because they are not FIFA sponsored. I really believe that the World Cup in Europe is going to be one of those moments that really tips the balance. I’m old enough to remember my dad buying a colour TV for the ‘74 World Cup and prior to that we all watched black and white TV’s in England there was no reason to buy colour. And guys my age said that the fact that Brazil played in a light shirt and then England in a white against them on a black and white TV it was very difficult to see who was who (smiles) and stupid things like that. Many people will tell you that the colour TVs that flip over from black and white to colour was caused by the World Cup! I read about a month ago that the German broadcasting authority plans for 32 cameras per game in high definition. It will be magnificent and some of the later qualifying games are going to be in high def. So I think the World Cup will be that seminal moment where you’ll go into a pub (bar) maybe as the draw is made in December. I’m thinking that maybe some of the later games this year might be broadcasting in high def; it will probably start off in pubs (bars) and places that will buy high def TV and you’ll go in there and say “Holy Sh**!”. I’ll never forget seeing it at CES 2 years ago and sports relief, walking past LG’s booth and seeing ice hockey and I’m not a hockey fan, but standing there for ten minutes with my jaw on my chest watching New York Islanders and the Boston Bruins because I could see the ice, the mist of ice as guys skating, just unbelievable. So we are working all around the world with Samsung. The interesting thing is our industry and this device (points at 360 console) is bringing high definition experiences this year well ahead of where broadcast television typically is. Interestingly in the US right now you go into a Best Buy and they’ve moved their Xbox interactive into the TV section so that people can see games like Halo 2 that actually show off what it looks like on a high definition monitor, because already were starting to support some 720p in the current generation. So the ability for us to be able to have games that must have 720p, must have 16:9 aspect ratio, must show in 5.1 surround sound, very important. We think we’ll be a major catalyst for that very interesting demographic the 18 to 34 year old male, who just got to have that thing hanging on the wall, they’ve got the money but this (points at 360 console) is what drives and yes sports as well but its going to be later with broadcast but then again were going to be in the market many many years with this thing. Its what is known as future proofing, we may be ahead of our time right now. It reminds me of Xbox Live where everyone said “what do you mean you are not offering a dial up modem, no-body connects with broadband” well that’s a conversation that happened only a few years ago and now of course everybody connects with Broadband. If you have a standard 4:3 standard definition curved TV in a few years from now it will look very primitive.