Tag Archives: robbie bach

One time Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division head Robbie Bach has said the Xbox 360 was well positioned to profit from the PlayStation 3′s struggles.

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Head of E&D at Microsoft Robbie Bach has told TechFlash that Natal is seen as a “midlife kicker” for Xbox 360.

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Microsoft has issued a formal statement regarding the departures of Robbie Bach and J Allard, along with the transition plan for Don Mattrick and Andy Lees – who will now report to CEO Steve Ballmer.

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Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division president Robbie Bach has said that he is leaving the company in order to spend more time with his family and to focus on his non-profit work.

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Update: It’s official. Bach and Allard are to leave the company.

Original: Kotaku‘s reporting that Robbie Bach, president of entertainment and devices of Microsoft, as well as one of the fathers of Xbox, will leave Microsoft this fall.

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Microsoft’s Robbie Bach has said that new technology such as Natal helps extend the life of Xbox 360, allowing consumers access to the cutting edge without having to purchase a new system every few years.

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Speaking at CES last week, Microsoft’s Robbie Bach has revealed that over “70 or 80 percent of the publishers in the world” are currently working with Project Natal.

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Over 20 million people are now using Xbox Live worldwide, Microsoft confirmed at its CES keynote last night.

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Look! Whats that in the sky? Is it a bird? A plane? Jack Bauer? No, it’s Microsoft’s CES keynote.

You got the audio earlier, but why stop there? Try watching it.

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Microsoft confirmed at its CES keynote last night that Alan Wake will get post-launch DLC this year.

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Xbox boss Robbie Bach’s told an audience at a Microsoft’s Open House event in New York yesterday that Natal will get cheaper as it moves on in life.

“Relative to Natal, we’ll see how the pricing cost works out,” he said.

“But people should except that it will go through the usual price curve.”

In addition, Bach refused to be drawn on whether or not Natal will be the motion-sensing system’s final name.

Asked when we’ll be able to stop referring to the device by its code name, Bach said, “When we tell you to call it something else.”

Natal’s expected towards the end of next year. Thanks, Variety.

Microsoft’s Robbie Bach, president of the entertainment and devices division, said during the First Annual Microsoft Open House in NYC that gamers had changed their Avatar clothing more than 150 million times.

That’s more than Cher during a Vegas show, we reckon, which is a feat in itself.

According to the math, if you divide that by 20 million Xbox Live users, it means each person has changed its virtual clothes seven times each.

Other figures of note include the knowledge that over 425 million games were “crunched” for matchmaking, and 200,000 games of 1 vs. 100 were being played every weekend.

More through Joystiq.

Right, this is the last Halo Wars release date story we’re doing – well, this week, anyway.

It appears that Robbie’s Bach’s announcement that Halo Wars will ship in the US on February 28 was a mistake. The game wil ship at its original date of March 3, whilst the UK and Europe get theirs on Feb 27.

The demo, to be released on February 5, will be released in both regions, a Microsoft rep confirmed for us yesterday.

There.

Thanks, Kotaku.

By Mike Bowden

In an interview with techflash, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division, said that due to cost and compatibility, said that the Redwood giant has “no plans” to embrace Sony high def format, Blu Ray.

“It’s not a feature we get a ton of requests for. We really don’t,” began Bach.

“When you ask people the list of things they want to see us spending time creating in Xbox, Blu-ray is way, way down on the list.

“The second thing is, from a technical perspective, it doesn’t help us in the core of what Xbox does, which is in gaming. We can’t have publishers produce games on Blu-ray disc. Because then they won’t play on the 28 million Xboxes we’ve already shipped. So it doesn’t help us in the core gaming space,” he went on.

“The third thing, and this maps to all three of those, is that it costs a lot of money. And so the scenario is, OK, let me get this straight: I’m going to add something to the product that’s going to raise the cost, which means the price goes up, consumers aren’t asking for it, and by the way, my game developers can’t use it.”

Bach added that MS has it’s own high definition movie content to shift:

“I have an even better way for you to get high-definition content straight to your TV, between the combination of what we’re doing with Netflix, what we’re doing with (video on demand), we have a great Xbox Live solution. In a way it’s a little bit of a technology looking for an answer. We just have no plans in that space.”

Full interview through the link.

By Mike Bowden

After the break. Watch as the ‘actual 12 year old girl’, Sparrow, help Robbie Bach along with Kodu, Microsoft’s new game-creating game revealed yesterday.

To top it off, IGN has some screenshots for you.

What more could you want from your Friday?

By Mike Bowden

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Found something: Speaking at CES 09 at the Las Vegas Convention centre last night, Microsoft’s president of the Entertainment and Devices Division, Robbie Bach, said that 25 million Halo games have been sold so far in the franchise.

He went on to say that the average Halo 3 Xbox Live players average at about 150 hours of gameplay.

Bach also added that 3 million people signed up for its Live service within the last three months.

Thanks, IGN.

By Mike Bowden

Microsoft’s president of the Entertainment and Devices Division, Robbie Bach, told a news-hungry – read: starved – crowd at CES 09 last night that Xbox Live Primetime would be arriving in the Spring.

However, Microsoft had already announced that the service (including the game quiz game 1v100 where you can apparently win real prizes) would be delayed delayed until Spring back in October last year, so let’s call Bach’s “announcement” another confirmation of that fact.

Tough crowd.

Thanks, Destructiod.

By Mike Bowden

During last night’s CES 09 keynote, Microsoft’s president of the Entertainment and Devices Division, Robbie Bach, unveiled a new Community game entitled Kodu.

The official blurb reads:

“Kodu” is a pick-up-and-create game where anyone can build their own unique world in just minutes using a simple image-based creator menu that makes game creation simple for anyone, from ages seven to 70. “Kodu” created playgrounds are expressed in physical action-reaction terms, using basic concepts like vision, hearing and time to control your character’s behavior.

Bach apparently demoed the game live on stage with a 12 year girl called Sparrow.

Full release after the break.

By Mike Bowden

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By far the most popular piece of news to emerge from last night’s CES 09 Microsoft Keynote was that Ensemble’s 360 exclusive RTS, Halo Wars, will be released on February 28 with a demo scheduled to hit Live on on the 5th of the same month.

Microsoft told the world last year that the US would get the game in March whilst Europe could grab it on Feb 27. This new date now brings parity between the regions.

Microsoft will close Ensemble Studios post Halo Wars release.

By Mike Bowden

Robbie Bach personally got on the phone on Christmas day last year to sort out the fact Xbox Live was flattened by demand, Xbox Live product unit manager Jerry Johnson has told Eurogamer, and that he was actually passing on the heat from Steve Ballmer himself.

“I can tell you that when Robbie Bach is on the phone on Christmas Day calling people asking what the hell is going on, and that’s coming down from Steve Ballmer,” said Johnson.

“That’s the kind of attention it got last Holiday.”

Live won’t fall over this Christmas, we’re assured.

“Many things have changed since then, and we realised the kind of growth trajectory we were on and had to prepare for it,” Johnson added.

Look at the image to this story. We took that at CES this year. Bach stood in front of that word on purpose. We know he did. He told us so mentally. Take this picture, he said. It will display the inner workings of my character for generations to come.

Man that sees Christmas Day as tier-one action point: we salute you.