Microsoft's Shane Kim on All Things Xbox

"I've been around the industry long enough that I've experienced the launch of Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3, the Xbox 360. [Project Natal] feels as big, if not bigger, than any of those things."
6/18/2009 12:11 PM | 0 Comments | Page 3 of 5

Kim: It's the flagship franchise. It's what launched Xbox. And Halo 2 really drove Xbox Live. We were lucky and found Bungie, who was developing this exclusively for the Mac. It was lucky for us that we recognized the potential there and ultimately bought the company. You may or may not remember that at E3 of 2001, we showed Halo here on the floor and it didn't look so good. That's because the hardware wasn't at that point where the developers could really work their magic yet.

Crispy Gamer: In retrospect, should you have waited?

Kim: You can argue whether or not we should have shown it, but we did. Thank God the hardware and software came together, and the rest is history.

Crispy Gamer: You were trying a variety of things when Xbox launched, like Shrek, which was not so hot.

Kim: Right. We were so glad Halo took off. The studio's job is to push the envelope. You can't really rely on third-party software, certainly not anymore.

Crispy Gamer: The 360 has arguably been the most innovative box of this generation --

Kim: People usually don't give us that much credit. So thank you.

Crispy Gamer: You have everything from Xbox Live to Netflix and now Natal. But then you have this phenomenon with the Wii, which took so much market share. How do you regain some of that market share?

Kim: You don't focus on that.

Crispy Gamer: You don't?

Kim: We don't focus on that. Project Natal is not about Nintendo, as much as everyone will want to draw comparisons between Natal and the Wiimote. Project Natal goes way beyond what the Wiimote does for the Wii.

Crispy Gamer: How so?

Kim: We're talking about full-body gestures, full skeletal tracking, the ability to move around in space with your entire body, facial recognition, voice recognition. None of this is possible with the other boxes. Sony has not come out with its motion controller, and people will talk about it as derivative. We're not even in that conversation.

Crispy Gamer: So if you're not concerned about taking their market share --

Kim: We're more concerned about this question: How do we unlock the potential of 60 percent of the households who have a videogame console? That's the real opportunity. We know we have a tremendous entertainment experience to offer with the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. But the controller is a barrier to people. That's what Natal will change.

Crispy Gamer: So how did Natal come about?

Kim: We've been working on it for a long time. The reason I say a long time is because being a part of Microsoft is a real commitment for managers. We get to take advantage of technology in other parts of the company. So, for example, Bill was a big fan of voice recognition and we get to use that technology. I'm hoping that the work we're doing to integrate voice, gestures, etc. will be taken up by other parts of the company, who might say, We want to take advantage of that. Because information workers are people, too.