Tag Archives: steve mcgill

UK Xbox boss Steve McGill’s told CVG that both “adventure” and “horror” games will be shown for Kinect in 2011.

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Seriously. The guy flies.

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Xbox Europe entertainment boss Steve McGill’s told MCV that he expects Halo 3: ODST’s Reach beta promotion to be more successful than the Halo 3 multiplayer beta entry given away with Crackdown.

“The only way to access this beta will be through the Halo 3: ODST disc, so we feel there’s another extremely compelling reason for both fans and newcomers to the franchise to experience Halo 3: ODST,” he said.

“We saw the success of this mechanic with the Halo 3 multiplayer beta that came on the Crackdown game disc and the continued sales momentum and excitement generated around that title throughout its lifecycle, and we fully expect Halo 3: ODST to exceed that achievement.

“It’s a great way to extend the shelf life of the title at retail, and allows us to deliver some cool and creative sustained marketing activity around the game throughout 2010.”

ODST ships next week. Reach is planned for a 2010 launch.

Xbox UK head Steve McGill’s told MCV that PGR4, Mass Effect and Halo 3 – the latest three games to be included in 360′s Classics range – are “perennial” titles. He may well be right.

“These latest three additions are some of the very biggest and best blockbuster games available on any platform,” he said.

“Classics as you’d expect don’t normally generate the kind of pre-orders you’d see on triple-A new releases, and are instead steady, valuable and evergreen titles that we know customers will perennially be interested in and will continue to engage with.”

The titles are now £20 a pop in the UK.

Steve McGill, Microsoft’s head of entertainment, has told Videogamer that he simply doesn’t believe Sony when it said “the cumulative number of registered accounts on PlayStation Network has exceeded 20 million as of February 20, 2009,” in a recent press release.

“Sony do what Sony want to do and if they think that’s right for their business to say those kind of numbers then they can do and will do whatever they want to do,” he said.

“Do I believe them? No.”

Further, McGill said there were “a lot of questions” yet to be answered about Sony’s claim.

“When we talk about our numbers we feel they’re active users who are actively engaged in all the forms of entertainment we offer on Xbox 360. I think if you look at the comments made on the forums, or the comments made by analysts at Screen Digest then there’s questions over, well what does Sony’s numbers really mean? Are they duplicates? I think there’s a lot of questions there,” he said.

“All I’m really worried about is, I know I’m the largest online video on demand service in the UK, we are worldwide, we’ve got a great online service the others can’t come close to. They’re not right now. When you think of our heritage as a company Microsoft has proven we are probably the only company in the world that can offer great online experiences for millions and millions and millions of people. And that’s what we do every day with Xbox Live.”

More through there.

Speaking to Videogamer, 360 UK boss Stephen McGill’s indicated that the pricing of Microsoft’s console in Britain has bottomed out.

“We’re a great price now,” he said.

“I’m not dropping the price for many, many years in the future I would suspect.”

He added: “I’m not going to speculate where [the price] might go in five or ten years time, whatever.

“But we’ve obviously just reduced the price and that’s because we can pass the costs reductions we have straight on to consumers. That’s the right thing to do, obviously from a business point of view it helps it sell even more.”

More through there.

Microsoft Europe is preparing a giant marketing push for GTA IV, the company confirmed this morning, with a spend on a par to Halo 3′s advertising budget last year.

“We can’t wait for the game on Xbox 360, and with recent reports stating consumers should go for the 360 version over the PS3 and talk of the GTA launch being ‘the biggest entertainment launch of all time’, we’re complimenting it with a launch campaign along the same lines as Halo 3 last year,” Steve McGill, head of gaming and entertainment, Xbox UK said in a statement.

“Microsoft sees GTA IV as a fantastic title to showcase how great Xbox 360 is, what with it’s amazing graphics and gaming experience, coupled with playing with your friends on Xbox Live, Achievements and of course the exclusive extra episodic content for GTA IV that will be downloadable this autumn and will only be available on Xbox 360.”

Media overload starts this Friday this week so batten down the hatches, close the curtains and lock the front door – the MS hype train is coming to an orifice near you.

By Mike Bowden