Xbox's Shane Kim talks more about the PS3 launch
http://www.oxm.co.uk/articles/features/role_playing_games/viva_piata_interview_-_shane_kim
OXM 360: You mentioned Sony – what are your thoughts on the announcement of the worldwide PS3 launch in November?
I think that it’s great that Sony realise how important Viva Piñata since they had to make their announcement on the same day as us! No, but seriously, I think it’s a good thing that they’re finally starting to reveal more. They’ve made a lot of promises and people want to know what’s happening with PS3. Even though it’s disappointing for people who were expecting PS3 this spring, it’s good that Sony is sharing more information. For us, it doesn’t change anything. We’ve had a very clear strategy for a long time now and we’re not going to change that. We’re not going to react to anything that they do. We know what we’re doing, we’ll be in full supply shortly, we’ve got great content on the way, and we’ve got fantastic third-party support. If Sony happens to stumble – and we know first-hand that there are a lot of challenges in a worldwide launch – then we’ll be in an incredibly strong position to take advantage.
OXM 360: Sony has never done a worldwide launch before. Do you think you forced their hand with the worldwide launch of Xbox 360?
I have a philosophy: Leaders don’t react. I don’t know what went into Sony’s minds. I think we’ll have to see what happens. They said they’ll launch worldwide? We’ll see if they can pull it off. It’s very challenging. It may be they did it because we did it and it may be because it’s what customers want. Hopefully it’s because it’s what customers want.
OXM 360: You’ll have had a year’s head start come November. Are you confident that you’ll have a huge and loyal installed base by then that could damage PS3’s sales?
I am confident that we’ll have a loyal and significant installed base. What I’m less confident about is that we’ll win. I think that’s the kind of call you can only make when the time is right. So we’re going to be maniacally focused on executing out long-term game plan. You can ask me in three or four years whether we’ve won. But I totally believe that people who have bought Xbox 360 and subscribed to Xbox Live are having a great experience and I think we’re going to get a lot of top spin momentum from that.
OXM 360: Sony will be looking to have a huge E3 with the unveiling of the console. Do you have anything planned to take that thunder away?
We’ll have real content, real games that people can go out and get their hands on. Similar to what we had last year. We didn’t want to go out there and show a bunch of rendered videos that wouldn’t necessarily reflect reality. Sony has created that expectation and we’ll have to see if they can deliver on it. For us it’s all about real content this year. We’ve got some great titles launching every week now so at E3 we’ll have some exciting announcements about games we’re working on, and games third-party developers are working on.
OXM 360: Is there a feeling within Microsoft that you need to announce something huge to blow Sony out of the water?
Not really. This may be hard to believe but we’re not really focused on what we do to Sony. We’ve got the game plan and we know what we want to do. Of course, there are strategic announcements in that game plan and if we’ve done it right they’ll have some impact on Sony. But we’re not sitting down and thinking, “okay, what’s the best way to hurt Sony? What’s the best way to hurt PS3?†We’ll do things our way, Sony will do it theirs, and the customers will decide.
