GameDaily has an interview with Corporate Vice President Shane Kim that rolls through a number of different topics of concern to the video game-loving populace. Though his answers are coated with a slick corporate oiliness, it's still an interesting read with some of my favorite excerpts after the jump.
On the outlook of the Xbox 360 releases to come, Kim is understandably bullish:
We feel really great about the lineup of titles coming from MGS, which are of course exclusive to Xbox 360. Too Human is a title with which we've been really patient, and I believe that patience and commitment is going to pay off. For later this year and beyond, Xbox 360 customers can look forward to Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Banjo, Halo Wars, and Alan Wake. We also have a couple of other surprises that we'll be unveiling in the near future. Finally, Xbox 360 will be home to exclusive downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV, so there really is a lot of amazing content on the way for our customers.
I think most gamers, by now, have had it up to here (I'm waving my hand wildly in the air to indicate a great height) with the hype surrounding Too Human. I hope it's a great game, and it may turn out to be worth all of the hype, but please, please, stop reminding us about this game. It's like Spore except trilogier. What piques my interest is the possibility of those "other surprises."
My personal favorite response of Kim's is the one he offers to a gamer who asks about the discontinuation of HD DVD:
While it is unfortunate that HD DVD was discontinued, there is still enjoyment to be had from your Xbox 360 HD DVD Player. You can take this as an opportunity to build out your movie collection! There are around 500 HD DVD movies to choose from and many at great deals, so there is a fair amount of content for HD DVD on the market. It also is a terrific DVD player and it allows you to have game discs and movie discs, whether HD DVD or DVD, within the console at one time. The HD DVD player also adds two additional USB ports to your console.
It also doubles as a doorstop! I hope he threw up in his mouth a little when he wrote out that response. To be honest, there isn't a lot of real "content" in his responses, as one might expect of a seasoned veteran. When asked what lessons he has learned since he began working with Microsoft, well, he responds like a politician:
We weren't always so massive; we were just a $600 million company with 10,000 employees when I started! Ok, so we've always been a big company. It would be difficult to capture everything I've learned in 17+ years, but I truly have learned a ton. Probably the most important lesson I've learned is to take a long-term view of the business and to do the things necessary to win in the long run. Although they are very different businesses, we've learned many important lessons in Windows and Office that we've been able to apply both with Xbox 360 and with MGS. And I know that we're committed to winning in the long run in these businesses!
Ho ho ho! You are too clever, sir. But seriously. Kim responds to every question deftly with no particular criticism sticking to his Armani. He's certainly passionate about winning, but it's canned answers like these that make people look back fondly on John Romero's bombastic speech.
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