Microsoft To Focus On Soft-Core Content
July 15th 2008 06:47
From GamerChip: Xbox boss Shane Kim will be focusing on soft-core content to grab a sizable piece of casual gamers. In this piece written for Edge online Kim discusses the movement towards enticing more of the casual crowd over to the 360 through new IP's and the XBLA.
Kim understands the attention that is placed upon the E3 Press Event.“That’s why we spent the majority of our briefing on service features and on content that will appeal to a broader audience.” He goes on to say that "I don’t want to say that a game like Resident Evil 5 or Fallout 3 is only going to appeal to core gamers. And I also don’t want to say that core gamers won’t want to play something like Lips, because that’s just not true. What we’re doing is acting as an enabler for bringing more people into the gaming experience, across the board."
And Final Fantasy XIII of course.
The full transcript can be found below.
Shane Kim Writes for EdgeAt our E3 presentation on Monday morning, we outlined our strategy for Xbox 360, showing how our games as well as titles from our third-party partners and the new Xbox Experience are going to appeal to both core gamers and the broader market.
Whether you’re talking about avatars or Live Party or Xbox Live Prime Time or even the new interface, these are all elements we believe are going to appeal to a wide audience whether they’re core gamers or not.
Of course, there are also some announcements that are going to appeal more to one segment than the other. But I don’t want to say that a game like Resident Evil 5 or Fallout 3 is only going to appeal to core gamers. And I also don’t want to say that core gamers won’t want to play something like Lips, because that’s just not true. What we’re doing is acting as an enabler for bringing more people into the gaming experience, across the board.
It’s fair to say that we still have a lot of work to do to extend our appeal into the non-hardcore space, but our aspiration is absolutely to attract those people. That’s why we spent the majority of our briefing on service features and on content that will appeal to a broader audience.
The look and the feel; the ease of use; the approachability of the new Xbox Experience. These are all examples of how we are going to make the Xbox 360 much more accessible. And of course we talked a lot about content like Banjo and Viva Pinata, Lips, You’re in the Movies, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and so on; really fun titles which all have strong appeal no matter what your relationship is with games.
Again, it goes back to our aspiration. Our objective is to win this generation and in order to do that we have to grow beyond the hardcore gaming audience that we’ve been so successful with. That’s our focus.
Microsoft is a trusted and well-respected brand all over the world. That is equity that I wouldn’t trade away. We want to build on that, take all the good things that people associate with Microsoft, and with Xbox, and leverage that, to appeal to consumer audiences as a consumer entertainment company.
I’d also like to use this opportunity, to talk about our hardware strategy. We’re all trying to move towards mass market price points with our consoles. We know historically the volume of the business that gets done at those mass-market consumer price points. It is significant and we’re not there yet.
The price reduction we announced yesterday is not a system price reduction; I want to be really clear about that because I don’t want people to accuse us of doing something that we didn’t do. We reduced the price of the 20 GB version of the Xbox 360 at the same time that we told everybody that a 60 GB Xbox 360 is coming in August at the current price of 349 dollars.
But take a moment to think about the core system. The Xbox 360 Arcade is more successful than many people credit. We’ve seen it grow to be a meaningful part of the overall portfolio of sales and I believe as we drive towards more mass market pricing, as we add mass market mainstream consumer services, the Xbox 360 Arcade is going to continue to grow to be a bigger part in terms of our sales.
Consumers will decide for themselves which options fits them best. They might consider the Xbox 360 with the 60 GB hard drive or the Xbox 360 Elite or they may decide to add a hard drive to their Xbox 360 Arcade system. We love having a variety of choice for customers. It gives us the opportunity to add value to the offer, to differentiate and offer options to the consumer so that they can decide to make the choice that fits their needs.
Choice is part of the overall offering and consumers are reacting positively. We feel good about our position. We feel confident in our ability to outsell PlayStation 3 in this generation, and although you have to give Nintendo credit for the success of Wii, we’ll always point back to the data that shows that consumers are spending far more overall on Xbox 360 then they are on PS3 and on Wii.
We think that that’s an important measure of success, particularly when you add in the amount of consumer spending that’s happening online on Xbox Live, and which, to finish where I began, we are going to see a lot of growth in as we bring in more and more gamers.
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