Shane Kim Interview ( 7 more years?)

[AlNom]

Disregarding the usual PR bits, I thought these were of some interest:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=188949

• Gears of War has sold at least 5M units
• Sam Houser is pushing the GTA4 DLC as a standalone game
• Too Human trilogy to come out over the next 7 years -> Kim believes the 360 will have a long life compared to Xbox.
• regarding DVD size: we might see "additional capabilities to the current format" - no decisions made yet. (I think they're probably looking into VMD... but I don't know if it's viable for a firmware update).
• we may see more multi-disc games, onus is on developers to reduce the need for disc swapping
• Halo Wars and Alan Wake are simply not ready to be shown
• regarding the Peter Jackson project: It is not about a movie guy making a game. It is about how to introduce episodic interactive story-telling via Live.
• Japan: hoping on developers to consider making 360 titles based on the global success of the platform. i.e. Capcom's current model, in that they still have a business to run.
• Kim implies that they may be developing their own versions of Singstar/Buzz.

 

[pipo]

Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[AlNom]

hm.. interesting:

NME's HD VMD PC technology will enable consumers to make their current PC DVD drives compatible with VMD playback format through a simple download of firmware

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=19926

If it's as simple as a firmware update, all they need are a supply of discs. The transfer speed for the other layers though... I wouldn't bet on anything great.

 

[Nesh]

What are VMDs?? Never heard of them

 

[AlphaWolf]

What are VMDs?? Never heard of them

High capacity red laser optical discs. Up to 30GB per side. (versatile multilayer disc)

 

[itch]

High capacity red laser optical discs. Up to 30GB per side. (versatile multilayer disc)

In case anyone else is interested, 5 GB per layer according to wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versatile_Multilayer_Disc

 

[liolio]

In which way using VMD would affect :
seek time (go through more layer have a cost but you may use more redundancy)?

transfert rate?

 

[Carl B]

I just want to point out that the VMD thing is AlStrong's own theorization - let's not have it spread that this came from the mouth of MS!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Aye, B3D moderators are sometimes presented as Apostles of the Console Truth throughout the Intarwebs. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility!

 

[liolio]

Both of you were right to remember it (especially as I read to fast the first time )

Anyway my question still stands, what would be the impact on the perfs (real or estimiates )

 

[AlNom]

edited that part to make it clear it was just a thought of mine.


The 7 years thing just seems so... Wow. I mean, consider that there are other big trilogies that have only just begun (Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed)...

More importantly, what will actually trigger the *need* for a shift in generations? Is the answer simply, "when people are no longer buying it" ?

It was easy this time for Microsoft due to the nature of the Xbox hardware, but both MS and Sony will want to milk the hardware this time around. Had the 360 not appeared, Sony may not have been keen to release the PS3 for awhile longer. Just looking at PS2 sales & profits, one would think Sony was silly for releasing the PS3 "so soon".

 

[22psi]

I think you mean 7 year life span total not 7 more years?

In any case, 7 years sounds great for the 360. We're not yet halfway there even and a tremendous amount of great games has come out.

edit: LIPS is 360's Singstar?

 

[AlNom]

I think you mean 7 year life span total not 7 more years?

Nope, read the interview. The question states clearly -

CVG: Dennis Dyack mentioned that the Too Human trilogy would unfold over the next seven years - do you see the Xbox 360 being around for that long?

Kim: Absolutely. We said from the beginning that we expect the Xbox 360 to have a long tail.

 

[22psi]

Nope, read the interview. The question states clearly -

Microsoft is "confident" that the Xbox 360 will live out at least a 7 year life-span, accommodating all three games in the Too Human trilogy, Microsoft Game Studios boss Shane Kim told CVG.

That's not what I am getting out of it.

 

[AlNom]

Well... that's quite a completely different interpretation of the question that was asked... Unless Dyack made that statement 3 years ago, of which there was no indication...

 

[22psi]

Well... that's quite a completely different interpretation of the question that was asked... Unless Dyack made that statement 3 years ago, of which there was no indication...

I got the quote here: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=188943

Marked today. Maybe CVG translation got lost between interviews.

 

[AlNom]

heh, even Shack News is unsure:

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52690

It was not clear if that seven-year figure included the two years the Xbox 360 edition of the trilogy has been in development. If not, that would put Kim on record as saying the Xbox 360 will be supported until 2015.

*sigh*... shoddy reporting...

I mean, just reading the question and answer, it seemed like Dyack made the comment recently or else a prior interview would have covered it... And if Dyack had said that awhile ago, CVG should have mentioned it.

bugger.

 

[22psi]

I am going to go out on a little limb and say total lifespan for 360 is an expected 7 years not 9. hehe

 

[AlNom]

Sounds more plausible

 

[aselto]

Who cares anyway? I'm sure anyone here will be more than ready to jump to next-gen by 2012.

And is it me or Shane Kim pretty much confirmed motion-based controller? He always answers "I never heard of that" when he is asked about soon-to-be-expected announcements.