In a new interview with the Financial Post (via CBC), Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, talked about the great support his company has garnered for Project Natal, which is now confirmed to launch next holiday.
"Part of the reason we showed Natal at [the Electronic Entertainment Expo video game trade show] — which is actually a little bit risky to be honest because it’s a new technology, very cutting edge and relatively early in its development — is that we wanted third-party publishers to know that it was real and we wanted them to have developer kits and to get them working on it. We have something like 70% or 80% of the publishers in the world already doing Natal-based games," he said. "Our first party studios are [also] very focused on this. We want to have a few titles from Microsoft that show the way and then we want the breadth and power of the ecosystem from our partners to bring lots of new ideas, new innovations, new concepts to the marketplace. Xbox games don’t go away; you have to think of all this as additive. I think it adds to the beauty of what’s going on."
One of the reasons Microsoft already has strong support for Natal may be that the company has made it easier for third parties to profit on the Xbox platform. Bach proceeded to take a jab at Nintendo, noting that third parties historically have always had more trouble on Nintendo consoles.
When Bach was asked if he's at all worried about Natal seeing a dwindling third-party situation similar to what Nintendo is starting to see with the Wii, he responded, "I think it has a little to do with the trend towards natural user interface and much to do with differences in the business models between Nintendo and Microsoft and Nintendo and Sony. Our model is certainly about third-party publishers making money. We design our system for third-party publishers. We use our first-party business — Halo, Alan Wake and those sorts of things — to show people the way and to drive innovation. Nintendo, and this is no disrespect, just has a different model. They make most of their money through first-party games that Nintendo produces. That’s absolutely their business model. And it’s a great business model, it’s just different, but it makes it hard for third-party publishers."
7 Comments
January 12, 2010
This 70-80% figure gives me pause. It seems unsupportable. How is he definine "Publishers in the world". I don't think 70% of publishes worldwide even are doing XBOX360 titles, let alone Natal-based titles.
And what constitutes support? Having a devkit? Registered for dev support? Or does it mean having a funded title that is through the concept approval process with MSFT?
A more relevant figure would be how many third-party Natal concepts have been approved by MSFT and are in active development.
But even 70% of all worldwide development studios making a legitimate effort to release a Natal-based game? That statistic doesn't pass the sniff-test.
January 12, 2010
With waggle, the much lower console prices, and the ability to do HD, the PS3 and xbox 360 actually have a chance to start stealing market share from Nintendo. Granted they will not have Mario . . . but they can create their own cute mascot characters.
Bring back Banjo-Kazooie in a 3D platformer! That is such a no-brainer considering the success of Super Mario Galaxy and the lack of a comparable game on the HD consoles.
January 12, 2010
Nintendo has a monopoly on cute.
January 12, 2010
For me, an online action-packed FPS multiplayer leveling and huge single player tough-challenge RPG-ish nut boy, honestly, Im releived that the regular hardcore conventional-controller based HD games on my Xbox 360 won`t dissapear. :D
January 12, 2010
Wii is hard on third parties. You have to make either super casual games or really crappy games. Both seem to sell much better than core games from established franchises(not including Nintendo's titles of course).
February 3, 2010
My, that's some interesting spin on the part of M$. 54 million is not almost double 33 million. 12 million is a bit much to round up. And averaging out units to include the shovelware... just shameful. He may as well include the average scores of all games, include piles of shovelware. People don't play every game on a system, they play the good ones or the ones that appeal to them.
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March 15, 2010
the much lower console prices, and the ability to do HD, the PS3 and xbox 360 actually have a chance to start stealing market share from Nintendo. Granted they will not have Mario . . . but they can create their own cute mascot characters.
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