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Well, here we go again. Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg, talking to slightly-interested party Major Nelson, says he's never seen such a "tremendous shift" in developer loyalty, and he means from Sony and to Microsoft. Guess we couldn't expect him to keep from smack talking after the Tekken 6 news earlier this week.
In mid-August, a seemingly unbelievable thing happened: The Xbox 360 sold out in Japan. Unbelievable because for years Japan ignored the Microsoft game console. But there we were, mid-August and an Xbox 360 sell out. This came just as Namco Bandai RPG Tales of Vesperia hit the Xbox 360. It got so bad that Microsoft actually had to issue an apology for the sell out. September saw a Microsoft Tokyo press conference that announced a console price cut that would hit when stores were restocked with consoles.
Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360, may not have been wearing a velvet smoking jacket, but he still had some pretty sexy stuff to show off today in a hotel room opposite the convention hall. Greenberg walked a group of journalists through a demonstration of the live and kicking New Xbox Live experience. Showing us a bit about avatar creation, how friends will show up in the 3D world and how games, movies and such will be listed. We even got to see a couple of environments.
Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg and Marc Whitten lead a Community Roundtable discussion following the company's E3 media briefing, giving us further insight into the changes coming to the Xbox 360 dashboard. Officially dubbed the New Xbox Experience, the update was said by Whitten to be a response to the glut of content on Xbox Live, a system he claims was built with hundreds of pieces of content in mind, not tens of thousands — or potentially millions, as Whitten posited.
The new look and feel for the Xbox 360 dashboard was designed to be navigable by those unfamiliar with the current "blades" interface, with the New Xbox Experience akin to a TV remote control UI. In person, it's pretty slick — the Xbox 360 logo radiates a constant pulse in the bottom right corner, with iTunes Cover Flow-style reflections and navigation giving gamers a quick clean look at their games and content.
Fans of the current "blades" interface may be saddened to learn that the update isn't an optional redesign, it's a total replacement. They'll still get a taste of the old interface via the new Guide look and feel. Hit the jump for a photo.
Ah, it just wouldn't be an Aaron Greenberg interview without a little juice to it, would it? Xbox's director of product management has, while speaking with Gamasutra, re-iterated a common and well-worn theme amongst Microsoft (and Sony) executives that, after new gamers buy themselves a Wii, they'll eventually "graduate" to a 360 or PS3. And why will they graduate? Well, because of another well-worn argument: that the Wii is a fad:
It's Kotaku After Dark. Time to set the mood. This should about do it! You may normally know him as Microsoft's Director of Product Management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, but tonight (well, at GDC, but oldies can still be goodies), no. No, tonight, Aaron Greenberg's playing the P.I.M.P. with a couple of Penthouse Pets, discussing the kinda shit he likes to get up to in the hot-tub. Yes, really. Sadly the vid's not embeddable, so you'll have to hit the link.
In Bed With The Pets: Aaron Greenberg, Part II [Das Gamer]
Microsoft is not happy. That's why it's de-listing Xbox Live Arcade titles that no one liked and no one bought. Problem? Too much stuff! Live Marketplace's cup runneth over with some 17,000 items and that makes Microsoft unhappy, says Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft's product management director for Xbox 360 and Live.
"We're feeling some of these growing pains and [the new policy] is one of those tradeoffs we've had to make," he told MTV Multiplayer in reference in sweeping XBLA rubbish under the rug. We've heard talk of another organizational and visual revamp coming to the Xbox 360's user interface, something that Greenberg is quiet on with MTV. Too quiet. *Dun dun dunnn!*
Microsoft Says They're 'Not Happy With Ability to Find Content' on Xbox Live [MTV Multiplayer]
First week sales figures provided by Microsoft, courtesy of unnamed retailers, put sales of Grand Theft Auto IV at 60% for the Xbox 360 version, 40% for the PlayStation 3 version. A win, undoubtedly, for Microsoft. N'Gai Croal of Level Up got his hands on some GameStop-only sales data, which puts the percentage more accurately at 64% on the Microsoft side, 36% on the Sony side.
Argh! Not accurate enough, for our tastes! Fortunately, we'll be able to more obsessively split hairs on the matter later this week, when NPD data is revealed, but for now we have some expertly sculpted spin to enjoy!
Ah, here's what was missing from Microsoft's post-NPD gloat: fightin' words. Speaking with Next-Gen, Xbox group product manager Aaron Greenberg has been talking all kinds of shit about how Microsoft has already won the battle for the core gamer.
I think the battle for the core user is sort of over, if you will. We're heading now well beyond 20 million in console sales.
First Mass Effect's load times, then Lost Odyssey's instability...Microsoft's reluctance to allow HDD-only games (if only for caching, ala Oblivion) on the 360 is starting to become a small problem, and will only get bigger as time goes on. So are they looking at changing this? Uh, no. Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg:
