“What I can tell you is we remain confident that Xbox 360 will not only outsell PS3 for the full calendar year, but for this entire generation,” Greenberg told Game Informer. “It is similar to a game of baseball, it is not about just winning one inning, but instead being able to win the game by consistently delivering across all nine innings.” Wonder what inning we’re in now…

Previously Greenberg has discussed the price cut sales spikes, stating that he thought they were short term.

“I actually think the story here is about much more than just hardware sales,” Greenberg continued to GI. “It’s about the entire ecosystem and investing in the future; something we are very focused on. There is also the whole financial side of the equation that people rarely seem to pay attention to.”

Interested in extra innings? Full interview with Greenberg in the link below.

Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg Looks To Holiday, Beyond [GameInformer] [Pic]

But how long does that sales increase last?

“I don’t believe the price cuts that both companies have made will impact the market dynamics too dramatically in the long term,” says Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg. “We typically see a month or two of lifts and share adjustments, but then things tend to settle back to roughly the established market ranking.”

Microsoft expects these lower price points will bring into more consumers — who might have been hesitant to purchase a console because of the cost.

Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg Interview [Eurogamer]

“We feel like our system has done very well for us in the current form,” said Greenberg, director of product management for the Xbox 360. “We have no plans for a slim.”

Instead of reinventing the outside of the console, Greenberg says that Microsoft is intent on continuing to reinvent the way people use their system.

That includes things like adding the ability to stream movies through NetFlix, the upcoming addition of Facebook, Last.FM and Twitter connectivity. Greenberg also points out that Microsoft’s motion-detecting Project Natal, an interface he calls very next generation, is coming to this generations console.

“We feel that we’re not even at the halfway point (of the Xbox 360’s life cycle),” he said. “That is something we believe in strongly. People have invested in these consoles, and we have massively connected communities and we have storage. I think what we did with the New Xbox Experience is a sign of what we want to do with the console.”

“The Xbox 360 has plenty of future.”

It’s been nearly four years since the Xbox 360 released. If we’re not even at the halfway point of the console’s life cycle it sounds like the Xbox 360 will indeed be around for ten years.

I can imagine that eventually platform holders will get to a console that never needs to be replaced. It will be a system that can rely on firmware updates to bring new interactions to gamers.

The question is, is this that generation? My guess is no. But I think that the extension of this cycle certainly points to such a platform eventually arriving.

While Ballmer’s casual mention of a new Xbox 360 hardware iteration at the Executive’s Club of Chicago seemingly confirms a rumour originating from 1UP, Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg told us “There will be no new console.”

“We’re not going to be launching a new console any time soon,” Greenberg said during a phone call today. “I really believe he was speaking about Project Natal.”

“We want to make sure people know that we’re excited about Project Natal,” Greenberg noted, “But we’re barely halfway through this generation. We’re happy with the Xbox 360, so there are no changes from that standpoint. For the time being, we’re really just showing a whole new category of gaming.”

Asked if Microsoft was at least considering putting the hands-free motion controller technology into a new Xbox 360 configuration, Greenberg said “Yes, we have looked at that, but we haven’t announced any details for something like that.”

Nor has the company announced a ship date or final name for the motion-sensing camera tech it debuted at E3 2009, Greenberg added.

“We are saying that the Natal will run on the Xbox 360, so there’s no new hardware to purchase,” Greenberg said, reiterating the company’s position on its current generation platform. “What we’re doing that’s unique is, instead of asking you to invest in a new generation of hardware, a generation that’s already well established, extending the experience even longer by adding this whole new category of experiences with Project Natal.”

“We’re changing the rules a little bit just like we did with the New Xbox Experience,” he said.

We’ve requested a transcript of Mr. Ballmer’s speech from Executive’s Club of Chicago and will follow up when and if it becomes available.

Xbox director of product management Aaron Greenberg has told Eurogamer “I think part of the excitement about this announcement is that in many ways we are delivering a next generation experience this generation. With that said, I can confirm that Natal will run on Xbox 360 so no new console investment will be necessary.”

Seems to pour cold water on the suggestion that it would be an all-new console. But you know what? With these PR statements, the devil is in the detail.

On Friday we toned down the speculation a dial, and figured that were a new console to launch next year alongside the camera, it would simply be a rebranded, repackaged Xbox 360. A 360 slim, if you will. Greenberg’s vague statement leaves that possibility wide open.

Microsoft sources play down reports of new Xbox in 2010 [Eurogamer]

Xbox 360, PC, Wii, doesn’t matter, everybody loves online user statistics. Especially when, they get into the billions, as was revealed by Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg last week.

Contributing to a Gamasutra piece on achievements, Greenberg revealed that, as of this month, there have been 2.5 billion achievements unlocked by the Xbox Live user base.

They all add up to a whopping 52 billion gamerscore points. Or, if you break that down across the install base, around 150 achievements per user.

Unlocking Achievements: Rewarding Skill With Player Incentives [Gamasutra]

Three flashing red lights on the Xbox 360 represents “general system failure.” Nicknamed “The Red Ring of Death,” this system failure has plagued the Xbox 360 console for years.

While Microsoft pegged a low percentage rate of system failure in the early moments of the Xbox 360’s launch, the numbers of customers suddenly experiencing the system failure continued to rise. A class action lawsuit was filed in California in late 2008, and earlier that same year Microsoft extended the Xbox 360’s warranty.

Those days of hardware headaches are a thing of the past says Microsoft exec Aaron Greenberg. “We’ve improved that [repair] process,” he told Edge. “It’s very quick, and they may upgrade your system with the latest technology. So that works really well.”

“What it comes down to is isolating and figuring out the issue,” Greenberg added, “fixing the issue, and the more that we can fix the issue, and know it’s fixed, then we’re good going forward. We’ve put the worst behind us on this, but we know there are a few lagging systems, and so we want to take those and make it right.”

Can Gamers Stop Worrying About Red Rings? [Edge Online via VG247] [Pic]

Gentlemen, gentlemen, please. Why don’t we stop all this console manufacturer bickering and make peace? Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says that PlayStation boss Kaz Hirai and Xbox 360 director Aaron Greenberg are both right.

How can that be? Surely both mouthpieces, whether they’re boasting “official leadership in this industry” or whether they’re claiming the other is “out of touch with where the industry and consumer is today” can’t find common ground. Or can they? Pachter speaks!

“Aaron Greenberg is right that Sony likely won’t catch Microsoft in the U.S. until at least 2014. Kaz is right that Sony will likely catch Microsoft globally,” said Pachter. 2014! That’s probably not what Sony’s thinking.

Mr. P puts both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in a “dead heat” by 2011, according to his comments to GameDaily. He also points out Sony’s besting of Microsoft in Japan year after year, as reason why this global fight isn’t quite over.

The analyst expects that upcoming price drops from Sony on the PS3 will certainly help the console’s chances.

Pachter: Aaron Greenberg and Kaz Hirai Are Both Right [GameDaily]

Gotta love this harsh economic climate. It’s dragging executive shit-talking back to its 2006-07 heyday. Latest example? Aaron Greenberg’s response to Kaz Hirai’s “console leadership” quips to the Official PlayStation Magazine.

Not liking what he’s read, Greenberg does not politely rebuff the Sony man’s point of view. He does not choose to ignore the man. No, he bares his corporate fangs, 2006-style, and goes straight for the FACE, Peter Dille-style. Face-biting is messy (as is making up a face milkshake!), so please, excuse the blood.

Here’s what the Microsoft man told The Bitbag:

This sounds like an old hardware company that’s comfortable with its market position. That complacent attitude is out of touch with where the industry and consumer is today. This generation won’t be won over just hardware specs, but who can out-innovate when it comes to online and software. This is the kind of stuff that’s in our DNA, and frankly moves the console war onto our home court.

I’m confident we will outsell the PS3 throughout the entire generation by providing more innovation and building the best and broadest games library while growing our entertainment experiences on the leading online network. With a U.S. install base lead now of more than 7 million units (according to NPD), I can’t imagine any scenario where the PS3 can catch up with us. In fact, even if you doubled the current PS3 sales and Xbox 360 remained flat, they couldn’t close the gap until 2014.

Please, Aaron, tell us what you really think!

Aaron Greenberg Responds To Statements Made By Kaz Hirai [The Bitbag, via VG247]

[Image]

We caught up with Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg, Director of Product Management for Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE, to chat about the console’s presence at CES, the year ahead and the number 17 million.

While Greenberg was appropriately coy about the Xbox 360’s upcoming line-up beyond what has been announced — yes, there are more games coming for the thing — he didn’t shy away from talking about the numbers war between Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, specifically Sony’s claims that it too has 17 million accounts.

Read on for a taste of what Greenberg had to say about Microsoft’s plans for the Xbox.

What are you getting out of CES, Xbox-wise this year?

Greenberg: CES this year was, I think, the main focus was about Windows 7. We definitely took a back seat from a Microsoft corporate standpoint.

It’s not a show where you get a lot of big game news. But it is interesting to see what’s happening in technology, what innovative things are going on. For us, we usually talk a lot about how things are going to work and integrate across the company and I thought Windows 7 looked pretty good… even though I know Kotaku is a Mac house.

Well, Crecente is a die hard Windows guy. He’s has a deep Apple hatred.

Greenberg: But does he even turn on his computer? I mean, that guy’s gotta be laying in a bed, being fed grapes…

No, he’s on his computer all the time.

Greenberg: Yeah, so I thought the stuff we showed with Kodu was neat. Having the 12-year old girl [on stage] was fun.

An actual 12-year old girl.

Greenberg: Yeah. We were going to go with a 12-year old Avatar, but we thought if we could get a real person, that would be more entertaining.

Obviously at CES there aren’t a lot of four year old pieces of technology being shown, but clearly you’re keeping it fresh with software updates like the New Xbox Experience. Do you ever see yourselves doing something on this level again with the 360? Do you see another NXE style revamp like that in the console’s future?

Greenberg: It’s an interesting question. When we approached the NXE, we really thought about it as if we were launching an entirely new console. When we started thinking about all the changes and possibilities, at first we thought ‘Well, we’ll update this, change that.’

Then we thought, well, ‘What if we just completely wiped the slate clean and completely reinvent the console from the ground up?’ It was a pretty massive undertaking, a massive amount of work and we’ve been very happy with the results.

But it’s kind of hard to think about if we would do something on that level again. It’s hard to say what this will feel like, two, three, four years from now, but right now it feels like we’re definitely on the cutting edge. We’ve designed it so we can continuously update it with new features, so I think we’ll be able to keep up and fine tune based on feedback from the community.

When did you start the NXE project?

Greenberg: The Live team, as soon as we launched the console, were always working on new tech and new updates, but this project has been in development for years. There wasn’t a specific day where we just said “Let’s go.”

When are we going to hear more about the 2009 line-up?

Greenberg: We take a different kind of approach to how we unveil news throughout the year than other platform publishers. We tend to talk about products a little closer to when they’re ready. Last year at CES we didn’t talk a lot about our holiday line-up, we waited until July.

We absolutely have a lot of innovation, we have new first and third-party games coming out this holiday that we have not announced yet. We’ll probably wait until later in the year to talk about those.

The team that built the NXE is a massive team that’s working on things like Xbox Live Primetime in the Spring, but new stuff, new partnerships, new content and things that we’ll be announcing throughout the year. So stay tuned. There’s a lot coming, for sure.

In the past couple years, there seem to have been some noticeable endeavours to secure specific game content, like role-playing game content tailored for the Japanese market and last year, more non-core products like Lips, Scene It and You’re In the Movies. What’s the philosophy in 2009 to expand the Xbox 360 market?

Greenberg: I think what we’ll see is, as a result of how 2008 shaped up — the fact that we had our biggest year in history and we’re now expanding our lead over the PS3 in a global basis — we went into 2008 with a solid lead over PS3 in North America, but Europe was a much closer race. Now, we’re really expanding our lead there. We’ve become, by far, the lead global platform for third parties. I think you’ll see us getting some benefits from that.

Historically, third parties would give us great support and lead developed on our platform, but they would say “In Europe, we have to still support the PS3″ but now that that has switched, I think you’ll see us get some benefits from that.

I also think we’ll have our first full year at mass market price points. We saw a lot of success this holiday as a result of that. I think this is a year where the masses really come into the industry. We know that the PlayStation 2 sold 75% of their systems below $200. The vast majority of those consumers still have not upgraded yet. So I think it’s the year where those consumers go into the store and start making purchases. We think that will benefit us tremendously in 2009. Us having the largest community of core gamers is going to drive blockbuster and core games as well.

You talked earlier about the economy, what concession is Microsoft going to make. I know you’re comfortable with the price point at $199, but are you going to do something on the games front to lure in that more price conscious consumer?

Greenberg: Well, we’ve invested pretty heavily in our Platinum Hits program and we’ll grow that, absolutely. We want consumers to have a great library of value titles, particularly new consumers that are more price sensitive. We’ve expanded that to Xbox Live Arcade and we’ve started discounting and promoting Marketplace content as well. I think we’ve gotten more aggressive about offering value. We’re also going to add a lot more value into the console by adding new content, new partners, new functionality, just like what we did with Netflix, the New Xbox Experience, and Live Party.

Microsoft recently claimed 17 million Live users and 28 million Xbox 360s sold…

Greenberg: Active users.

Active. So what’s the total of Live members that you’ve accumulated?

Greenberg: Uh… A significantly larger number than 17 million. To be clear, we are pretty conservative on how we report our members. It is active members — you have to own an Xbox 360 and if you’re not active in the last six months, we recycle the gamertag and we remove your account. It is a true number of the people we have on the service.

I think it’s important to note, if you compare those to PSN, those numbers you can have just a PSP, you can create an account on the Web. We don’t count Web accounts.

You’re an active member on PSN until you create an account. So, essentially forever. It’s definitely apples to oranges when you compare those numbers.