Tag Archives: keynote

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.

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.

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.