Tag Archives: shane kim

In a lengthy interview with 1UP, Microsoft head Shane Kim said that the capture of Final Fantasy XIII should unlock many doors in Japan.

“Well, the Final Fantasy XIII announcement has some beneficial side-effects,” said Kim.

“The more games of this nature, and of the Devil May Crys and Resident Evils, that we secure on 360 opens doors for us in Japan, and gets developers over there interested in the 360, so it’s a step-by-step process.

“Take Capcom for example: they took a chance with us with Dead Rising and Lost Planet, and have had great success, with both of those titles selling over a million units each,” he continued.

“Japan is obviously a very unique market to crack and gain support in, but I think we’re making good headway with what we’ve accomplished on 360 so far, and we’ll continue to surprise you.”

Full interview through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Xbox boss Shane Kim’s explained the focus of last night’s E3 Microsoft conference, saying the firm’s aim is to attract non-core users with 360.

“It’s fair to say that we still have a lot of work to do to extend our appeal into the non-hardcore space, but our aspiration is absolutely to attract those people,” he said, writing on Edge-Online.

“That’s why we spent the majority of our briefing on service features and on content that will appeal to a broader audience.”

More through the link.

Newly promoted Microsoft entertainment business development VP Shane Kim has admitted that there’s nothing in the firm’s 360 line-up this year likely to top Halo 3 in terms of size.

“I think the platform is just as strong, if not stronger [than last year],” he told Next-Gen. “That’s hard to say, because we had incredible titles last year with BioShock, Halo 3, Mass Effect and Call of Duty 4. … Especially when you look at Halo 3, which was a phenomenal industry event, it’s easy to look back and go ‘you can’t possibly be as strong.’

“But if you look at the initial success of Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox 360, that’s been super, and we have exclusive [DLC] content coming too. Gears of War 2 is going to be huge, Fable 2 is going to be huge.

“So I don’t know. I believe that we’re going to have just as big of a year in terms of content on Xbox 360. Maybe we don’t have a particular exclusive that’s as big as Halo 3, but I do think that Gears 2 and Fable 2 will be really big hits.”

More through the link.

Microsoft’s Shane Kim, hot on the heels of the announcement of his promotion to corporate VP for the firm’s Interactive Entertainment business, reckons there’s still hope for Xbox 360 in Japan.

“We’ve been very realistic about our near-to-mid term opportunities in Japan, specifically with respect to the current console generation,” he told GI. “Obviously it’s a challenging market with well entrenched competitors.

“I’m excited to see developments such as the new RPGs from Japanese developers – I think that’s a recognition in the developer-publisher community that the Xbox 360 is a great platform, and we’ve got a great installed base in the rest of the world.

“From a business perspective I think they all know that they need to take the platform seriously, and my hope is that through that process we’ll start to see more Japanese content that will stimulate greater demand in Japan and start to turn our fortunes around.

“I think that’s a longer-term effort, to be frank.”

More through the link.

Microsoft Game Studios has revealed to GamesIndustry.biz that that Shane Kim will be moving to take up the newly-created position of corporate VP of strategy for Microsoft’s interactive business.

He will be replaced by Phil Spencer, who was previously head of MGS in Europe.

Additionally it has been announced that corporate VP of global marketing, Jeff Bell, is to leave Microsoft to “pursue new opportunities”.

Xbox boss Shane Kim has issued a stoical take on 360′s position in Japan, saying that even an exclusive Final Fantasy series for the machine may not be enough to boost sales in the country.

“I think there’s just as much precedent that they would leave [the franchise],” Kim told Kikizo when asked whether or not a five-year Final Fantasy exclusivity would be worth buying.

“I mean if I were Square Enix that’s what I’d be worried about, that they would leave Final Fantasy for something else. I know we’re talking about Final Fantasy here, but you really have to question, is it really enough to overcome people’s reservations about Xbox 360 in Japan? I don’t know. But I know that it would have to be a heck of a lot of money and it would be very risky to do that.”

Kim added that success in Japan isn’t necessarily going to come from sales in Japan, and that western Xbox 360 achievement will be the driving force behind the console’s relationship with the country.

He also said that Microsoft is unlikely to ever do anything specific to Japan again in terms of Xbox 360.

“I think what’s going to help is in Japan ultimately, is success in the west, because the bulk of content that Japanese customers want to play is mostly going to come from Japanese developers and publishers, and we’ve already seen with Tecmo and Capcom that they see the success that we’re having in North America and Europe, and I think you’re going to see more Japanese content coming as a result of that – not necessarily because MGS made certain bets,” he said.

“We’ll still continue to look in Japan for new opportunities – we have some things coming that are exciting – but you probably won’t see us do something just specifically for Japan [again]. There’s a lot of great talent in Japan, but we’ll probably take more of a global perspective on that.”

Read the whole thing. Lots of good stuff in there.

Speaking to Wired, Xbox boss Shane Kim’s said that this hardware generation is still in early days and no one knows who’s going to emerge triumphant, if anyone does.

“Are we just amusing ourselves by trying to declare a winner and loser while the customers are still out there deciding? This is only the third year of our existence and only the second year of Sony and Nintendo’s existence,” he said.

“[Sony] a very good company but not a company that has won a generation in quite a long time. Will they get to expand beyond 35, 40 million to 100 million? Will anybody? I mean, that’s going to be an interesting thing to see: Will there be a clear-cut winner like there has been in the last two generations?”

Kim added that it’ll be fins to call a winner for this hardware round “when somebody’s well on their way to reaching 100 million units.”

Read the full thing through the link.

[Image courtesy of Game|Life]

Speaking at the Microsoft Gamer’s Day earlier this week, Xbox boss Shane Kim has finally put down perpetual talk of a Microsoft gaming handheld saying he’s pleased the company never entered the portable fray with Nintendo and Sony.

“I’m very happy we didn’t get into it, because launching a handheld platform is like launching another Xbox 360,” he said. “You have to be fully committed, as an organisation, from a resource standpoint, to doing that.”

“Frankly we’ve got a lot on our plate with Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. We don’t have any experience in that space. Our content assets don’t naturally lend themselves to driving success in that particular market. So we’re happy to let Sony and Nintendo slog it out.”

Read the full Eurogamer interview here.

Not content with saying he believes Gears of War 2 is the biggest 360 game due this year, Xbox boss Shane Kim has now gone on the record to say that he believes it’ll be the top 2008 title period.

“[Sony] launched with Resistance and we’ve sold nearly 5 million units of Gears of War 1. I think we won that battle,” he told Eurogamer.

“That’s why I believe it’s going to be the biggest title this holiday. Killzone’s out of the holiday, despite some of the earlier statements that were made. We’ll see what happens with Resistance 2, but we’ve gone head-to-head before. I still feel very confident in the quality [of Gears of War 2].”

More through the link.

The Eurogamer massive got a Kim interview too, the first bit of which just popped up on GI. Speaking at the Microsoft Gamer’s Day in San Francisco yesterday, the Xbox boss refused to be drawn on the states of play between his firm and Sony, saying only that the figures will tell the final story.

“I understand that Sony has declared leadership already,” he said. “We’ll let the data speak for itself.”

He also stopped the tides and rippled the fabric of universal matter by telling the site he thought 2008 would be a successful year for Xbox 360.

“What we’re really trying to communicate is that this is going to be another landmark year for Xbox 360,” he said, “mainly because we are really focused on the strategy of tremendous exclusive content. Titles like Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Banjo, et cetera. as well as the continuing leadership we have in the online space with Xbox Live.”

Hit the link for more. CVG’s already posted a full interview with the exec this morning.

Update: Sorry, our major bad. The Leipzig reference in the interview was to the game’s German showing in 2007, not 2008.

Xbox boss Shane Kim confirmed in a CVG interview last night that Ensemble RTS Halo Wars will be shown at Games Convention in Leipzig this August, but that the viewing will be in a “controlled fashion”.

“We’re not showing Halo Wars here today because we wanted to focus on these titles,” he said at yesterday’s Microsoft Gamer’s Day in San Francisco. “When we show titles we want to show them when they are ready. We’ve learned that from a few games we showed too early, like Too Human.

“I’m excited with the progress we’ve made, Halo Wars is a lot of fun to play but it’s not ready to show yet,” he added

“Here we wanted to do more hands-on time and Halo Wars isn’t ready. And I think you’ll see when we show it again, it’s evolved a fair amount. And it’s a mix of multiplayer and single-player and we want to show them at the same time.”

For the full Kim interview, see here.

Looks like an exclusive. CVG interviewed Xbox boss Shane Kim at yesterday’s Microsoft Gamer’s Day in San Francisco, in which he reiterates that Gears 2 is 360′s biggest game this year, the console’s life cycle in general and confirmation that Halo Wars will be at Leipzig. Must-read.

Speaking to CVG at Microsoft’s Gamer’s Day in San Francisco yesterday, Xbox boss Shane Kim put a hilarious boot into rumours of a motion-sensing controller for Xbox 360 by saying that he’d never heard of the device.

“I’ve never heard of a motion sensing controller,” he said. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

The rumour of a Wiimote rip off for 360 originally came from MTV, and 8bitjoystick reckoned it was codenamed “Newton”. Just goes to show.

“I will say, look, we have a lot of research and development going on all over the place, in Live and in Hardware and we have a ton of success in the accessory business – and that’s probably a story that doesn’t get told enough,” Kim added.

“We’re going to continue to look at new ways we can introduce different things – the third parties are doing this as well with the music controllers. So there’s opportunities for us there too. We’re an R and D company at heart.”

Consider yourself told.

Xbox boss Shane Kim’s gaming habits are laid bare in this GameDaily interview, and no surprises for guessing what he likes to play with his kids.

“Honestly speaking, my gameplay is limited to games from Microsoft Game Studios (MGS) for the most part, especially games targeted at more of a mass market,” he said. “At home, my kids and I play a lot of Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Both of those games have created an enormous amount of fun for our family and friends.”

There’s not too much else going on that piece, but it’s worth a look. Everything’s very confident and important, apparently.

Xbox super-boss Shane Kim’s given first hints that the Peter Jackson Halo product announced at X06 may be something properly different from the games so far.

“The collaboration’s going really, really well,” he said. “I think people are going to look at it and they’re going to realise that it’s a different experience, whether that’s in terms of the perspective of the way we tell it, the way we deliver content, storytelling… I’m just saying that I think it’s going to be a different experience.”

It’s worth noting that as far as we’re aware, Microsoft has never used the word “game” to describe the super-secret Halo Chronicles. God only knows when we’re going to see anything solid on this.

In this interview, Microsoft boss Shane Kim has apparently confirmed that Rare-developed platform update Banjo will be out in time for Christmas this year.

“I’m super-excited about what they’re doing with Banjo,” he said. “I think Banjo is going to be a big hit for us this holiday.”

Virtually nothing is known about the new Banjo game, other than the fact it’s in development at Rare’s super-secret Twycross hideaway in the UK. All we can say is please, please don’t make it mental and massive like the Banjo-Tooie, because it really pissed us off after the first one, which was one of our favourite ever games. Thanks a lot.

Microsoft boss Shane Kim has confirmed that ex-EA Chicago man Kudo Tsunoda is now heading up Epic’s Gears of War business.

“I’m really excited about it,” Kim told IGN at DICE last week. “We wanted to put more focus behind [Gears], and it’s great to get a creative lead like Kudo.”

Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, has claimed Halo 3 has passed the 8 million sales mark at Las Vegas conference DICE, and has also mentioned that a gaming handlheld from the company is possible but unlikely.

On the subject of Halo, he reiterated the fact that more content’s on the way for Halo 3, and pointed out that the series is to expand this year with RTS Halo Wars. In addition, he mentioned the Peter Jackson collaboration announced at X06, but noteable didn’t called the product’s Jackson’s involved with “games”.

“We have a collaboration with Peter Jackson, creating an interactive series based on the universe,” he said.

On the subject of a portable, he said, “Never say never,” but “launching a portable device is like launching another Xbox 360… you have to really step back and ask, devoting whatever bandwidth and resources you would have to to make the Zune a multifunction device, is that really the best way to go?”

Games on Zune? That sounds like an awesome idea.