Tag Archives: John Schappert

Speaking to MCV, Xbox Live boss John Schappert has said that New Xbox Experience will offer up a retail space that traditional brick and mortar sellers can’t provide.

“There are games coming that would not get the space at retail, and that’s a big part of why we’re refreshing the system,” he said.

“We want to widen the content to make it more accessible for different users. It’s pretty hard to get retail distribution these days, and shelf space continues to be a challenge and people are opting for that – Penny Arcade is a great example of that.

“Look at Geometry Wars 2, Castle Crasher and Braid.

“They’re seeing tremendous success. That’s exactly what we want on our service – when retail gets pressured, you can go online.”

He added: “We’re going to continue to see a great mix. At retail, you can find casual games, RPGs, action games. We are like an online retailer in essence with our Arcade, and you are seeing those titles.”

Just a hunch, but we suspect the phrase “retail gets pressured” may take on a slightly different meaning in the next few years.

There’s a full interview here.

Scooparama. MCV’s posted a quote from Xbox Live boss John Schappert saying 360 has enough grunt to handle MGS4.

“I can’t speak on behalf of Konami, but I can shed more light on the fact that we definitely have the power to run MGS4,” he said.

“I’m certainly in the fan club that would love to see Kojima-san’s masterpiece come our way,” Schappert added. “It would be wonderful to play Metal Gear Solid on the Xbox. It could become another of the many franchises that started their life on another console that are now coming our way.

“There are a lot of recent examples that are in true high-def on our platform and aren’t on PS3. We’ve got an amazing amount of horsepower and graphics power.”

This is so happening. More through the link.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal at TGS, PlayStation boss Kaz Hirai has issued a note of caution to recent quotes saying the games trade will easily ride the wave of global recession, but has said it will be more resilient than standard manufacturing industries.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say we’re recession-proof, but we expect to be hit much less than an auto company, for example,” he said.

“We expect to do very well in the year-end shopping season.”

Microsoft’s John Schappert added that the financial downturn is likely to make people wary of spending, pointing to recent 360 price cuts as a boon for the system.

“When you look at people, who are certainly more price-conscious than ever, that price is something people are going to be looking at,” he said.

More through the link.

According to this IGN story, Xbox Live boss John Schappert said at TGS today that there aren’t any plans to remove badly performing titles from Live itself.

If you recall, Microsoft said in May that XBLA games that were either selling poorly or had received bad review scores would be removed from Live.

“We have no immediate plans to act on de-listing,” he said, adding that the firm had merely “set parameters by which we can delist” games.

More through there.

Oh dear. Xbox Live boss John Schappert, speaking to Eurogamer in Tokyo, has claimed that the release date for GTA IV’s DLC is a mystery to him.

“Frankly, I don’t know,” he said. “Rockstar are the people to ask for that.”

Yeah. Supposed to be autumn, isn’t it?

“I hope as a gamer, just like I’m sure you do as a gamer, the sooner the better,” he added. “I can’t wait for it.”

Just don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Xbox Live boss John Schappert has reacted sternly to accusations that Microsoft is a follower as opposed to a leader in the console innovation space, saying he finds the notion “ironic” and that he gets “riled” by the idea.

“The innovation criticism is almost ironic to me,” he told Eurogamer. “You’ve got the Xbox, which is the console that pioneered hard drives, broadband gaming, online gaming, Achievements and gamercards.

“It’s the console that arguably pioneered first-person shooters in your living room, wireless controllers… I could go on.

“I think we’ve earned our chops in terms of innovation. The games division has some brilliant people who have done amazing things, and who have shaped the industry forever. I think we’ve done a great job of innovating and we continue to lead.”

And don’t say Avatars are ripped off Miis, for God’s sake.

“With respect to Avatars – Miis are wonderful,” he added. “Nintendo has done great things.

“But Avatars are just a logical extension of what we’ve had already. We’ve had a gamercard and a gamer pic; I want to take that to the next level. Now we’ve got Live parties, we launched the first video store…

“So I get a little riled there. I think we’ve done some great things for the industry and for gamers.”

Plenty more through there.

Speaking to Reuters in Tokyo today, Xbox Live boss John Schappert has confirmed that Microsoft is raising its 360 hardware forecasts in Japan.

“We’ve done better than we forecast. We are finding that we have a shortage of hardware,” he said.

“We are raising our forecast” for Xbox 360 hardware shipments to Japan, he added, though he declined to give specific figures.

Schappert delivered Microsoft’s keynote at TGS today, all the news from which you can find here.

Microsoft just confirmed that Xbox Live membership has now hit 14 million.

Xbox Live boss John Schappert confirmed the figure in his TGS keynote.

Also confirmed tonight was the release of New Xbox Experience for November 19.

For all the news from the keynote, hit this.

Speaking at TGS08, Microsoft’s John Schappert has said that “Xbox 360 is the best platform for Japanese publishers.”

On the subject of sales he added: “By the end of this holiday, we estimate total worldwide spending, on games developed in Japan, will top $1 billion dollars on Xbox 360.”

More from the Microsoft keynote as it happens.

By Mike Bowden

Microsoft exec John Schappert is about to take to the stage at Tokyo Game Show to deliver his keynote. There’s about 15 minutes to go. We’ll be bringing you all the news as it happens. We’re expecting big bangs from the firm, including a first proper look at Bungie’s next Halo game. Don’t go changing.

According to this Destructoid piece, Microsoft’s John Schappert is to keynote TGS. From the story:

The keynote will be hosted by Microsoft Corporate Vice President of LIVE, Software and Sales, John Schappert on Thursday, October 9 at noon. Called “A Canvas for the World,” Schappert will focus “at how Xbox 360 will bring more people together than ever before to enjoy the next wave of interactive entertainment experiences.”

Goody. More through the link.

You know what? The PC as a gaming platform is doing great! John Schappert, Microsoft’s VP of Live and Software Services, told us so in an open letter released today.

And it’s no thanks to Steam or WoW or The Sims. No, Games For Windows, the proverbial lone soldier, has single-handedly revived the PC. Why no, we haven’t eaten anything strange today – although there was that Kool-Aid.

Anyway, the full note is after the break, courtesy of Kotaku.

By Nathan Grayson

More »

In this interview, Microsoft’s John Schappert has claimed that more than 18 million Xbox 360s have now been sold worldwide.

“I think that we’ve sold 18 million, the last time I’ve checked,” he said. “18 million hardware units worldwide.”

In a wide-ranging chat, Schappert also talks about the speed at which Microsoft has reached 10 million Live subs, what he’s going to do about southern Europe (and the fact Xbox 360′s not selling well there) and how much he loves Wii.

Take a look.

Speaking to videogaming247 after his Wednesday GDC keynote, John Schappert – “Corporate Vice President LIVE, Software and Services for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft” – said that he believes downloadable content is now an accepted part of the gamer experience, and a precursor to the advent of “community gaming”.

“No, not in any way,” he said, when asked if accruing cash through Live micropayments was more important for Microsoft than expanding the general demographic for gaming. “What I think you should take away from the 20 million [Microsoft] Points spent to date is how successful Marketplace is; that it is a real Marketplace for content, and a big driver for that this past holiday in North America was Rock Band and Guitar Hero. I think just like we saw a year ago at Christmas 2006, Arcade kind of came to fruition and it just broke the doors down. It’s doing better than ever right now, but now all of a sudden downloadable content has come of age, and now we’ve got community gaming coming. I think people want to be able to extend their gameplay and experience, so I think it’s a great thing.”

Schappert’s keynote focused heavily on community features through Live and the now “democratised” XNA, including the launching of a service to allow bedroom coders to get content out to the Live community. Some of the numbers he through around for Live were impressive, including 1 billion Achievements unlocked so far and 3 million tracks downloaded for Rock Band in the US.

The ongoing success of the service, said Schappert, is down to the previous work of “shepherds” such as Peter Moore and J Allard.

“I think the shepherds that came before me that crafted that box and created the Live service did a phenomenal job,” he said. “I have to say that I think that they were visionary and that we are all pleasantly surprised at how well [it turned out]. We certainly had high hopes and expectations, but to hit 10 million members six months ahead of schedule – that’s just good stuff.”

In case you missed anything, or you weren’t hardcore enough to be watching videogaming news on the internet yesterday evening, here’s a round-up of everything Microsoft-related that happened during and after John Schappert’s keynote yesterday. Obviously, Gears of War 2 is the story of the show, now pegged with a November release date for Xbox 360. This, and everything else, is listed below:

GDC: Microsoft keynote audio online now
GDC: Gears of War 2 announced at Microsoft keynote
GDC: First Gears of War 2 trailer released
GDC: Gears of War 2 shows red artwork
GDC: Gears of War 2 logo revealed
GDC: Gears of War 2 boxart shown
GDC: Co-op and XBLA game Keystone confirmed for Fable 2
GDC: Ninja Gaiden II set for June release
GDC: GTAIV DLC available from autumn 2008 for 360
GDC: Community games for Xbox Live this year
GDC: Rock Band downloads hit 3 million in US
GDC: Over 1 billion Achievements unlocked on Live, says Microsoft
GDC: Microsoft releases XNA Creators Club Game Launcher

Here. The whole thing’s been posted as a 72-minute MP3. Demand appears to be high at the moment, so don’t be surprised if you have to wait a while.

John Schappert, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Live, Software and Services for the Interactive Entertainment Business, has just claimed that over 1 billion Achievments have been unlocked on Xbox Live in his keynote.

“The Xbox 360 community has now unlocked over 1 billion Achievements,” he said, adding, “Gamers have activated almost 20 billion [Microsoft] Points”.

To you or me, that’s over $250 million spent online, not including Xbox Live Gold memberships.

John Schappert, Corporate Vice President LIVE, Software and Services for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, the man with the stupidest job title in the world, has finished delivering the opening conference keynote at GDC in San Francisco.

Check out full details over on Eurogamer’s LiveText report. No one streamed video for the conference this year, but Major Nelson is promising to upload an audio file of the entire thing now it’s finished. We’ll let you know when it goes live.

Chris Early, general manager of Microsoft’s casual-games program, gave a heavy hint that John Schappert’s GDC keynote today is likely to include content about how Live Anywhere gamimg will link Windows Mobile, Vista and Xbox 360 together.

“If you like that sort of thing, I would strongly recommend you go to Microsoft’s keynote opening GDC, where you’ll see a little bit of this announced for the first time,” said Early. However, he did not go into further detail. “I think I’ve kept it vague enough not to get into trouble,” he concluded.

Early was speaking at yesteday’s Casual Games Summit, ahead of GDC, which starts today. The whole idea of linking up the three Windows platforms was announced in spectacular fashion at E3 2006 in a presentation that included Bil Gates himself. Little has been heard of the programme since.

Schappert’s keynote begins today at 6.30pm GMT.

Microsoft will make tons of GDC-related video available to download through Xbox Live next week, which gives us the sneaking suspicion the company’s announcements at the show may be a “big deal”.

Exec John Schappert’s keynote, as well as game footage, interviews and the like will all be free to view from February 20. Schappert’s speech it happening at 6.30pm GMT next Wednesday: don’t you dare miss it.