Gamerscore Blog

This blog is moving to a new server, with a new URL:

http://gamerscoreblog.com. 

(RSS)

So what happens at a day-long Sales & Marketing Summit?  Most of you can go ahead and take a snooze, but if you care…  J

The day started with Peter Moore kicking off the meeting to a room full of employees from around the world.  In fact, I’d guess that at least 60% of those there have a non-American accent.  Every subsidiary has somewhere between 1 and 50 employees working on Home & Entertainment products (think “things sold at retail,” and you get the idea).  Managers from those subsidiaries came together to hear from executives and product teams, as we finalize our plans for the next year (or more). 

Peter introduced Robbie, who gave us his thoughts about his new role (he recently added Devices to his division, including things like smart phones), and his commitments to the company.  If you’ve had a chance to hear Robbie speak, you know he’s somewhat different than other execs at Microsoft.  He’s confident, genuine, and inspiring, but not quite as, uh, enthusiastic as his boss (Steve Ballmer). 

We then heard from VPs Mike Sievert, who talked about Windows Vista (including a bit about its strength in gaming), and Chris Capossela, who went into detail about Office 12. 

Peter then took the stage for about 90 minutes, where he went in depth about upcoming plans for the games group.  He showed several demos that have never been seen before (though I expect updated versions will be made public in the weeks (GDC) and months (E3) ahead).  The demos included gameplay from Gears of War (holy smokes, I can’t wait for that game!), plus a closer look at Rise of Legends, and several others coming soon. 

Later in the day, we split into two groups: those that work on games (Xbox and Games for Windows), and those that work on other consumer stuff sold at retail (Windows, Office, Mac Office, mice, keyboards, Digital Image Pro, Encarta, Money, etc.).  The games group then spent a few hours dissecting recent customer research, and then finished the afternoon hearing plans from the global marketing team (including a presentation from our friend, David Reid). 

All in all, an inspirational Valentines Day.  This room full of MS employees are all focused on getting cool stuff out to you all.  2006 is going to be an amazing year! 

Interesting article by David Walker, at eHome Upgrade, called “Could the Playstation 3 Kill Sony?”.  Some of the article is based on rumors and speculation (for that matter, isn't every article about the PS3?), but it poses some interesting questions.  David writes:

In order for Sony's Trojan Horse strategy with Blu-Ray to work, the Playstation 3 has to succeed as a gaming console. As a game console, the Playstation 3 has to deliver on several fronts. In pure horsepower and graphical ability, there's little doubt that the console will impress. There are serious reservations as to Sony's online strategy (compared to Xbox Live) and we'll cover that in a bit. However, one aspect of gaming that is often ignored, but can become a major issue is load times.

One of the complaints of the Xbox 360 (come on, you know who you are…) is the noise during gameplay, especially if your wife/husband/kids/parents/roommate/SO doesn’t let you turn up the 5.1 Dolby surround sound.  It seems like a lot of us are explaining to our friends that the Xbox 360 DVD spins at 12X speed during disc gameplay, and that any 12X drive is going to be loud, because it’s spinning pretty darn fast.  What I hadn’t really thought about until now is how the disc transfer rate compares to future formats.  The article points out:

Until now, it's been widely assumed that the Blu-ray drive that will make it's way into the PS3 will be single-speed. If true, this choice could be disasterous. Blu-ray single speed transfers data at a constant rate of 36Mbps (Megabits per second) or 4.5 MBps (Megabytes per second). Sound impressive? Think again. DVD single speed is rated at a little over 1.32MBps max. A 12X DVD, such as the one in the Xbox 360, transfers data at rates between 8.2 and 16.5 MBps for an average of around 13MBps. This article from Gamespot provides all the details on transfer speeds, but simple math should show that there are some serious concerns looming with a single speed Blu-Ray drive. So, all things being equal, a 20 second load-time on the Xbox 360 would equate to just under 60 seconds on the PS3!

Interesting.  Personally, I can’t wait for spring to arrive so we can see what the PS3 can really do! 

By the way, I found the link on Nintendo Style blog--nice site, with some good industry analysis (in addition to lots of Nintendo news).

Kotaku, that's who.  Jen sits two doors down the hall.  Our team has its share of "beauties" to go with all us "geeks." 

“HOT” Mystery Gamer on Live Tonight

TriXie says Microsoft has a “hot” PR girl named Jen set up to play Perfect Dark Zero tonight from 6-8 EST. That gives you guys enough time to play PDZ searching for the mystery gamer and then you can still take your own V-Day sweetie out for dinner.

Your Valentine’s Day Mystery Gamer [TriXie Tells All]

Xbox and games employees from sales and marketing are at a planning meeting this week, to hear from the management and product teams as we prepare for next holiday (and beyond).  To kick things off, we held our third annual worldwide soccer/football tournament.  This year, there were 15 teams representing every region. 

One of the teams featured both Robbie and Peter—sadly, they didn’t take home the “HED Cup (Home & Entertainment Division).”  Who did?  The team called “UK Little Britain”.

Here are a couple of photos from the tourney…

The Globe and Mail recently posted an article that says playing Video Games, like being bilingual, protects young people against cognitive decline. The way it works: gamers are better than non-gamers at shutting out distractions to focus on a task. The researchers took a group of 100 college students, and gave them a bunch of tricky mental tests. Gamers consistently scored higher, and bilingual gamers (como nosotros!) pwnd*

I actually found about this through our friends at Slashdot. When I say friends, I mean the cool kids in high school that barely gave me the head nod when I said "hey, where are the cool parties this weekend?"

*The article actually reads "If they also happened to be bilingual, they were unbeatable."

Brian Crecente at Rocky Mountain News (and of course, Kotaku) does a quick, but interesting interview with Bizarre Creations, the creators of Geometry Wars (not to mention PGR3...).  If you're curious about what it takes to build a game like GeoWars, you should check out "Bizarre Creations' bizarre creation..."

How long did it take and how many people worked on creating Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved?

It was mainly Stephen (Cakebread) as all the graphics are coded, although obviously we had some music written by Audio Antics and a couple of artists did the Live Arcade and achievements artwork. It wasn't an exact 'start-to-finish' project, as Stephen added in bits when he had time, but all-in-all it was probably about 3 months.

How does that compare to PGR 3?

Oh, miles apart! We had a total of 80 people working on PGR3 at one point, along with some outsourced graphics as well. The game took 2 years from start to finish, and probably averaged a team size of 40 - so it's 3 versus nearly 1,000 man months!!!

Vladimir Cole at Joystiq publishes an in-depth "Interview with Chris Early, Studio Manager for Microsoft Casual Games Group."  Definitely worth a read!  From the interview, Chris explains his thoughts about what his studio is all about:

"Our thought is that games at their core are fun, are supposed to be fun. They touch you wherever you are, so we want to make sure that you can play those games wherever you have fun--quickly, wherever you are with whatever device. That's our commitment: to deliver that fun experience to the players but also to do it in such a way that they feel they're part of a larger community, that they feel that there's an attraction and a reason to play the games here at our different sites."

Just got an email from my nephew.  He's been asking about the best way to get an Xbox 360.  A lot of folks (even internally) have been using the tool on http://untitlednet.com.  It worked for Kevin (gamertag=Pain Bringer 9)...  Great...  One more entry on my friends' list to pwn my M$ n00b @55. 

Peter Moore, in his speech this morning, told everyone that in the next 4-6 weeks, you should be able to go into a store and pick one up. I know it's been frustrating for everyone.  Once again, thanks for your patience (or at least your lack of violence) as we crank up the manufacturing machine... 

Wednesday night, Peter Moore spoke at the Churchill Club.  Brendan Sinclair from Gamespot was there to do a thorough report called "Industry Icons Get Connected", and to take it a step further, Gamespot posts a video of the event.  Worth watching! 

Peter Moore mentions in the speech:

“In the future, if your console isn't connected, it's no different than a laptop that doesn't connect to the Internet," Moore said. "It's an inferior experience and it really is a step backwards for the industry... Offline seems primitive at this point." 

Sony Online’s Roph Koster added his thoughts: 

"…People always play games together. All of you learned to play games with each other. When you were kids, you played tag, tea parties, cops and robbers, what have you. The single-player game is a strange mutant monster which has only existed for 21 years and is about to go away because it is unnatural and abnormal."

I like the way that Sinclair wraps up the article, referring to how interconnected things will be, between publisher and consumer. 

"That move to digital distribution is just one in a series of transitions to a connected era the industry is currently undergoing. Moore could easily have been addressing the sum of those changes when he referred to the Xbox 360 as "a living entertainment experience powered by human energy," but it seemed every member of the panel foresaw a gaming industry where the publishers and the games themselves were much more closely integrated with the consumers."

This type of connection is what fascinates me about being part of the community team here at Microsoft.  We’re just scratching the surface when it comes to “integration.”  Hopefully, we’re able to start sharing information and ideas in forums like this blog, as we make steps to build the systems that will be the foundation of games for decades to come:

A while ago, I wrote about my love/need for narrative in video games. Not everyone agrees. For those somewhat unfamiliar with the topic, let me sum up. There are two schools of thought here: keep story in, or. . .  wait for it. .  . wait for it. . . . take story out. Complicated, I know. Next Gen posts an article today about the importance of narrative in video games. A character's motivation. "Game Devs: Hire more Writers." Um, or don't.  

Having just finished DOA4, I'm restating my position: best games in my book will incorporate a compelling story-line to get me hooked. But I would add to this, in light of David Jaffe's point: what's the point of a good movie halfway through your game if the game sucks? For me, a good ending is only part of the appeal in a video game. I also want to blow up stuff.

Lots of coverage on the goings-on at DICE.  I’m waiting for some more info from our folks down in Las Vegas. 

BTW, Jade Empire scored two of the Interactive Achievement Awards last night, for RPG of the Year, and Outstanding Character Performance, Female.  And congrats to God of War, Nintendogs, Guitar Hero, and the other winners!

For now, here are some highlights from James Brightman, over at GameDaily.com. 

D.I.C.E.: Microsoft Must Drive PC Game Sales, says Moore

Microsoft's Peter Moore... summarized Microsoft's view on PC gaming, saying that MS needs to drive sales with a unified brand and their upcoming Windows Vista. He also briefly talked about Xbox 360; the console's availability is expected to improve soon. 

Moore outlined several important problems facing the PC games sector, including consumer confusion at retail, arduous install processes, lack of a cohesive online solution, and the need for a unified brand; that unification starts with Games for Windows, of course.

The priority for Vista will be to make games more accessible. Moore emphasized 5 goals that should make gaming on Vista vastly improved: 1) Games explorer - easy finding games; 2) Easy install - make this easier and games more like plug and play in console; 3) More stable environment; 4) Family settings - Control of what content can be viewed when and where; and 5) Managed login. [...]

Although the speech focused on PC gaming, Moore did talk about the Xbox 360 somewhat. He once again defended the decision to launch globally and he promised that within the next 4-6 weeks consumers would actually be able to walk into a store and easily purchase the new console. He then highlighted the success of Xbox Live on 360 (54 percent of owners use the service) and Xbox Live Arcade, which has had 2 million downloads. Moore was asked about persistent online worlds coming to the 360 in a Q&A session that followed and he said that that may be forthcoming. "Our teams are looking at that seriously. I think (persistent worlds/MMOs) it's still the realm of the PC; however, we may have something to talk about soon."

D.I.C.E.: Microsoft Must Drive PC Game Sales, says Moore (GameDaily) 

More DICE coverage...

D.I.C.E. 2006: Moore promises more for PCs (Gamespot)
Moore Pledges PC Games Renaissance (Next-Gen)
DICE: Moore Discusses Xbox 360 Shortages, Live Arcade (Gamasutra)
Xbox Live's Evolution (IGN)
Xbox Live Arcade Easy Money for Publishers
DICE 2006: Interactive Achievement Awards (IGN)

With all of the excitement of Xbox 360, Xbox MVP Jonathan Cragle reminds us to not forget our roots.  Jonathan will be hosting a 24 hour Xbox marathon starting at 2pm (PST) on Sunday February 12^th.  He will be conducting this annual event with his original Xbox.  Jonathan will write about his experience every hour throughout the marathon on his blog or if you want to see how he’s doing, you can always jump in a game and play along with him.  Check out Jonathan’s blog to find out more.

I just saw that BusinessWeek has posted a new story about Sony’s PS3 business, "This PlayStation May Play Too Much", by Tokyo-based Kenji Hall.  Accompanying the story is an article called "Can Sony's Kutaragi Score Big?".

The articles recognizes the importance of this launch to Sony, and take a look at everything that the PS3 promises to be: “What sort of box is this?  It could be a PC but Sony hopes it will be a PlayStation3”. ...  "Six years in the making, the PS3 is a crucial component of Sony's strategy to dominate the digital home with a full lineup of super-sharp TVs and other gear."

Don’t get me wrong.  Nobody thinks the PS3 will fail in the marketplace like the PSX did.  And I think the digital entertainment features of the Xbox 360 are pretty amazing.  But for those who love playing games, Sony needs to make sure that the PS3 is a great game console, at a price gamers can afford.