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Microsoft's Chris Lewis

VP of Europe talks Kinect, 360 slim, 3D and the "embarrassment of riches" to come

GamesIndustry.biz When you first announced Project Natal there was a fear in the core crowd that you would abandon the hardcore market, the consumer that has made Xbox 360 what it is today. Do you think you're addressing that with Kinect for Forza, and titles like Metal Gear Solid: Rising?
Chris Lewis

We remain committed to that hardcore audience, and that's also about bigger landscapes, more intricate gaming. We make no apology for the fact that audience defined us and you saw that we started our E3 press conference with a huge plethora of hardcore games from first and third party partners. That audience remains very buoyant. But we've said it before – we have an ambition to get into the casual space and we will target our communication, our marketing, our price point – everything in terms of appeal to that audience without alienating our core audience. And our publishing partners are committed to that in the same way, they love the fact that we're opening up more opportunities and going into new experiences that we weren't able to do before.

GamesIndustry.biz Can we expect games for Kinect to retail at a lower price than the regular games, something closer to software pricing on the Wii?
Chris Lewis

We haven't talked about specific software prices for Kinect experiences. Again, we'll make sure we offer great value for money, we keep seeing that, but we have to make sure we're committed to it. Our audience won't tolerate anything else. The experiences we bring through the games and entertainment will be top quality and the people who will benefit from that will be the consumers.

GamesIndustry.biz Aside from motion control, a lot of buzz around E3 this year has been on 3D, from both Sony and Nintendo. But Microsoft doesn't seem to be interested in that market – why is that?
Chris Lewis

Xbox 360 is 3D ready now, it works and we have games out there already. There are two things I'll say about 3D. You need an installed base of 3D technology in the home, the screens and the preparedness to wear the glasses. You can't have the revolution without the army in terms of the installed base. Certainly for this Christmas the timing isn't yet right. Over time there will be a lot more interest as the price points get more realistic, we'll see family's feeling better about having that kind of infrastructure in the home. I think we'll see in 12-18 months from now that will become more important. From our point of view we're very well placed and we'll listen to what our consumers want and we can enhance the experience accordingly.

GamesIndustry.biz Do you expect that the time next year we'll be sitting here having a deeper conversation about Xbox 360 3D?
Chris Lewis

It will become a deeper part of the conversations we'll have, yes, but for this Christmas in particular it's too early to be having that conversation. We're really happy with the assets we've got, we've got the new SKU, Kinect, and when we went through the assets we've got for the E3 press conference we've got an embarrassment of riches in terms of new experiences, partnerships and services. With Xbox Live, the mere fact that we can completely change the user interface and enhance the experience without the need to force people down a new hardware purchase route I think is incredible for the consumer.

GamesIndustry.biz You're also making the Xbox Live connection more accessible now with built in wi-fi – there's no extra costs for the peripheral and it's a plug in and go experience.
Chris Lewis

That's the fastest wi-fi available out there in this platform space, completely. There's a lot of excitement out there and it's something we take very seriously. We centralise what we're trying to do there around what the consumer tells us we want and what we see in testing, and that's true for Kinect as well.

GamesIndustry.biz Aside from the Kinect software, can you assure people that there is other new first-party software in the pipeline? Because at E3 on stage you were showing Gears of War, Forza, Halo, Fable titles, and apart from the Project: Kingdoms from Crytek there was no new announcements or surprises in that area.
Chris Lewis

One of the reasons we're really excited by the number of games we attach – and we attach more games than anyone else out there – is it makes us a great partner for third parties. Those guys have a huge ongoing catalogue of games that we know about to give the consumer hit after hit after hit. From our point of view in Microsoft Game Studios there's a lot more stuff coming. It goes back to my embarrassment of riches point. We had to select the one's that we thought would resonate best in the time available without extending the conference too long. And that's quite a tricky balance. The job I've got in Europe is as much about third-party content as it is our own content, I like the fact that we really share the stage with those guys and there's a lot coming from them.

GamesIndustry.biz The Crytek announcement was a surprise – how long have you been working with them on that?
Chris Lewis

We're not specific about timing but it's not happened in a short time frame. They are typical of the wholesale enthusiasm out there that there is to work with us. That's not some floppy gesture, but they love the platform and I think we're good partners. They are healthy and mutually beneficial relationships.

Chris Lewis is executive VP of Interactive Entertainment in Europe for Microsoft. Interview by Matt Martin.

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Matt Martin

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Matt Martin joined GamesIndustry in 2006 and was made editor of the site in 2008. With over ten years experience in journalism, he has written for multiple trade, consumer, contract and business-to-business publications in the games, retail and technology sectors.