We caught up with Shane Kim at the recent DICE summit to talk about the various issues surrounding first and third party Xbox 360 development. Not surprisingly, we wanted to talk about Halo 3, but Kim points out there's a whole lot more going on at Microsoft than that game...
Next Generation: Let's talk about Halo 3. What are we up to?
Shane Kim: I call it The Mythical Halo 3 - we haven't announced any such game yet! Obviously the Halo franchise is very important to us. When you have Bill Gates being quoted fairly constantly, talking about a game, you know it's important to the company. But his recent comments reflect the position accurately. Which is that, if there were a Halo 3 we would be careful about how we announce and introduce it.
It's exactly the same way we talked about Halo 2, where people wanted it a year after Halo. That would not have accomplished anything.
Is it coming out this year?
It depends. If it's the game that everyone is expecting then, yes. For us it's about making a proper impact on the platform. It has to be something with huge significance, so we won't be rushed.
moscalloutWhen you have Bill Gates being quoted fairly constantly, talking about a game, you know it's important to the company./moscallout
We don't want all the hype and speculation to overshadow some of the great titles that do have coming this holiday and thereafter. Gears of War has an incredible level of anticipation. I think it has more anticipation than Halo did before Halo came out.
If you remember the E3 before the launch [of Xbox] a lot of people were not sure that Halo would be so great. We learned a lot of lessons at that E3. We chose not to show a lot of titles at this past E3. For people in the industry, their first assessment of a title is based on the visual impact.
PlayStation 3 announcements are coming. When they do, will you guys be making amendments to your plans?
I don't think anything is going to change. We've had our plans in place for some years now. The development of titles, of hardware and of Xbox Live takes many years. Our portfolio for the next few years is well on the way.
Those guys [SCEA] tend not to share their plans with us, so we pretty much develop our own strategy based on our vision and where we want to go. Leaders can't afford to be reactors. We have a very good plan and we will execute that.
What have you learned in the last few months since the launch of Xbox 360?
Some of the innovations on the platform have created new opportunities for us that were not available in the first generation of games. Xbox Arcade is an example of that where we are learning new ways to extend our relationship with customers.
We are starting to stretch the way we imagine what the platform is really capable of delivering as are developers who have spent more time with the hardware for the next wave of titles. They are really showing the power of the platform and the power of Xbox Live.
What are the big bets coming up?
We made some pretty significant announcements at X05, but the attention then was focused on the [hardware] launch. We talked about the Crackdowns and the Too Humans or the Mass Effects, and you'll be able to see more from those titles soon, as well as Gears of War.
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