DrunknMunky Veteran Posted January 12, 2009 Veteran Share Posted January 12, 2009 CES is the first major trade show of 2009 and we wanted to catch up with Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft's Group Product Manager for Xbox 360, to talk about 2008 as well as what they have planned for the 360 in 2009. We asked about the Xbox 360's holiday performance and found out where Microsoft sees its console's position with regard to the Wii and PS3. We learned some interesting things about Microsoft's recent push in Europe, which led to a lead over the PS3 in the region. Even though Microsoft hasn't announced too many big, exclusive games for 2009, Greenberg explains that Microsoft is looking to take a different approach to hyping up games. There's a lot of great info about the New Xbox Experience and what the future holds for the Dashboard as well as the console in general. Hint: We might not be seeing the next console from Microsoft anytime soon as the Xbox 360 has a "very long life ahead." Aaron chats about Sony's Home, the chances of a PS3 price-drop in 2009, the differences between both company's digital distribution strategies and much more in our in-depth CES 2009 interview. G4: Before we get into the future, could you wrap up the Xbox 360's performance in 2008? Aaron Greenberg: A lot of people have asked us how 2008 went, and there was a lot of anxiety about the economy retail spending and all that. We saw reports of the worst holiday spending in six years. What?s very fortuitous for us is that, as a category, video games have done pretty well. It was growing year over year through November and all of our anecdotal things we?ve heard from retailers is that December was tremendous, which is great. So we think that we?re one of those industries that since consumers are staying in for entertainment, looking for gifts that the whole family can enjoy, we?ve benefited. ?We? by the way - that?s us and Nintendo. Both the Wii and the Xbox 360 are really the two big winners. Actually, the only two winners right now if you look at holiday sales year over year. We?re seeing record software sales. Obviously the November sales with Gears of War 2 at number 1 and then Call of Duty: World at War. We?ve heard that Call of Duty has continued to do really well, Gears has done well, Left 4 Dead is doing really well, so games - record attach rates and all that - and then at the same time we?re seeing this rapid transition to online and digital distribution that is taking off well beyond our expectations so we expected the Live community to grow and it has at a very steady pace. We added 7 million more members this year so we?re now atG4:n members. G4: How many were during the holiday season alone, do yGreenberg:re? Greenberg: Yes, we added 3 million Live members since Tokyo Game Show in October. It?s mind blowing how fast that community is growing. Even though we?re now at the $199 price point we?re still seeing the majority of new buyers connecting to Live and we?re still seeing - of our 17 million - the majority are gold members. We?re still seeing record transactions. We saw year-over-year online consumer spending on Live grow 84%, well outpacing any other segment. And that?s a business that we already said at E3 in three years had achieved a billion dollars since we launched. So you know it?s sort of this silent phenomenon because NPD doesn?t report it, retailers don?t talk about it, but we know, and our 3rd party partners know, and they?ve been talking about it in their earnings. But it really is happening at a pretty impressive speed. Plus the fact we ended the year at 28 million Xbox 360s driven by tremendous global success, our top priority market this last holiday and for 2008 was Europe. That was where we significantly overinvested. We had two price drops there. We did launch level marketing, and we had our largest marketing campaign in the history of the company. I can tell you I spent a couple weeks in Europe, and you couldn?t watch 5 minutes of TV without seeing 3 Xbox ads. You couldn?t open the newspaper... it was everywhere. And it paid off. While we had a pretty large lead - around 5 million plus in the US over PS3 - we were very neck and neck with Sony heading into this year in Europe. Now, we ended the year with more than a million unit lead over PS3 in Europe, conservatively an 8 million units global lead, so that was a big focus for this year - so we feel good how the year ended. We think now, going into 2009 with mass market price points for the full year to be able to add more value to our offerings, more entertainment content, more games, we?re starting to hit that sweet spot of the generation where Sony was with the PS2 and sold 75% of their consoles, right? The strategy is: deliver great games for the core and then continue to broaden the variety of games and entertainment that bring in new buyers that are looking for that value, and so thaG4:big focus and we feel good about 2009. G4: Can you just quickly clarify the 1 million lead over PS3 in Europe, Greenberg:ll base or sales during 2008? Greenberg: Install base. In Europe we get weekly sell-through data from Chart Track and GFK and so we?re actually able to, across Europe, verify that is a 1 million unit lead [ed: over the PS3]. G4: Nintendo?s obviously shipping way more hardware with the Wii and DS, but you guys have the attach rate. Do you think that?s enough? Or iGreenberg:ocus on moving a lot more hardware? Greenberg: Well, I think Xbox 360 delivers more games and entertainment at a great value than any other device out there. So I think if you think about retail games, Xbox Live Arcade games, now Community Games, movies, TV shows, music videos, Netflix, and all that, and we?ll continue to grow those offerings. With a console starting at $199, I think we feel like we have tremendous value in the market and what we?re seeing is that both the Wii and the Xbox 360 are seeing a lot of success as a result of that. Obviously we?re delivering uniquely different experiences and we?ve focused on delivering the broader experience of games and entertainment and at the same time building an online social networking community. I feel we?ve invested in the right areas. I think what?s interesting about this business is there seems to be this perception sometimes that there can only be one winner. I look at retail outlets and car companies and airlines? you know there?s more than one. I think what we?re finding is that there are two platforms that are clearly having success. Xbox had it?s biggest year ever. We?re selling a lot of hardware, now well north of the original Xbox. And we?re the platform that sells the games and that?s where 3rd parties make G4:money. And then online is now becoming a major part of our business. G4: As far as games, the two big exclusives that we know about for 2009, are both Halo related. We get Halo Wars early and then we got Halo 3: ODGreenberg:e some of the other big exclusives we?re looking at for 2009? Greenberg: We think the Grand Theft Auto 4 downloadable content will be huge for us in the Spring. We've also got Xbox Live Primetime which is something that we?re really excited to launch and that?s going to be a really big. It?s an entirely new category of gaming. Yes, it's a big year for Halo fans starting with Halo Wars and then Halo 3: ODST, but if you look back at January 2008 when we started the year you'll see that as a company, our philosophy is that we try to under promise and over deliver. We tend to save things until they?re much closer to being ready to be brought to market, and I think that that is a little different than traditionally how this industry has worked. Not just Sony, but how 3rd-party publishers work, how this industry historically has worked. People tend to like to talk about games for years. I mean we?ve been waiting for games you know for four, five, or six years to come to market. Take the NXE for example. We showed it at E3 and a few months later we launched. We announced a lot of games at E3 that came at holiday ? Lips, You're in the Movies, Scene It. We have aContinues....e.html?utm_source=g4tv&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=XPlay"]Continues....[/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spenser.d Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Very nice interview. Lots of good tidbits and some healthy teasing, of course :laugh: -Spenser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defiantly Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Nice. I really do believe that MS is looking out not only for itself (obvious) but for the gamers as well. i mean, while they can't make EVERYONE happy at the same time, they sure are getting close. My gaming nights used to be four hours of gaming. Now it's four hours of gaming, then an hour or so of watching Netflix content. ...particularly, old shows I used to love as a kid. Macgyver, A-Team, Airwolf, Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider, Steven Seagal & VanDamm Flicks, it's ALL THERE!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricardo Gil Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 our philosophy is that we try to under promise and over deliver. We tend to save things until they?re much closer to being ready to be brought to market How it's supposed to be:yes:s: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts