Microsoft's Shane Kim talks MGS4 on 360, Halo movie (page 2 of 3)

One advantage that Sony has is the size of their downloads [due to the PS3's larger stock hard drive]. I know Xbox Live Arcade did increase yours with the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but will that continue to increase in the future?

SK: Yes, especially as we continue to add more storage options. One of the things that we need to do since we launched with a 20 gig hard drive was to help manage that experience. But now that we have the option of a 120 gig hard drive now we can loosen that up.

Is there a day when a game like The Elder Scrolls will come out and you can just download it on Day One?

SK: I believe it is. The day I don't see coming is when it's only online. I just think customers enjoy the physical shopping experience. Those same customers, and I'm one of them, like having the choice and convenience of going online whether it's to buy clothes, to rent movies, or whatever it maybe, but I want to be able to do both. Our only constraint today is bandwidth, not the capabilities of our service and that's a very important thing.

There was a rumor that Grand Theft Auto IV is not going to be compatible with the Core system because the game may require a hard drive. Is incompatibility with the Core model something Microsoft can't allow, or are you flexible on issues like this?

SK: No, we want to support all of the Xbox 360s, otherwise it becomes very confusing. We really want to avoid that as much as possible.

So what would you say if Rockstar Games demanded you have a hard drive if you want to play GTAIV on the Xbox 360?

SK: We get to make the call on who gets published on our platform...[inaudible] we'd push back on any publisher saying things like that.

Is the Xbox 360 too hardcore, and are there too many hardcore games for it?

SK: I think we're doing a really good job of broadening that range of perception. There's no question that to date, Xbox has stood for excellence with hard core gamers, and that's a heritage we're very proud of. But if we want to win with this generation we have to expand past that group of hardcore gamers. That's why we've taken some extraordinary steps of our own. We launched Kameo and Viva Pi?ata and now we've got Scene it and Viva Pi?ata Party Animals...we're doing lots of these things to make the Xbox 360 a great consumer entertainment device, not just a hardcore gaming platform.

Next Page: The Halo short movie,Viva Pinata, and getting what you want!

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