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News: The X03 Complete Transcript
Posted: 2003-09-18 19:43:59 |
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Got some time to kill? Why not do it reading up on everything X03 through the eyes of Eduardo Rosini. Just be forewarned this is one LOOONG read, but a good one.
This is so amazing. What a wonderful day. What a wonderful evening. Welcome everyone to the third annual Xbox conference, X03.
In the States, people say "in your dreams" when they think something is never going to happen. When Xbox rolled out in Europe just nineteen months ago, did anyone imagine it would be on such a roll, generating the kind of excitement we see all around us here tonight? But here we are, in our dreams. And it's all for real.
My name is Eduardo Rosini, and I run the Xbox business in Europe. I have been part of Xbox for a long time, working with the leadership team in [????] when Xbox was just a neon green gleam in our eyes. I've been with Xbox round the world, and now I'm very excited to be here in Europe.
In fact, I've been here for eight months already, travelling around and meeting with developers, publishers, retailers and gamers, to learn about Xbox in Europe. And here's what I've learned: Xbox is flourishing as part of a great industry that is truly vibrant. And no wonder, because the people here in this industry are brilliant, passionate and committed. And the gamers are as creative, sophisticated and enthusiastic as any in the world.
Our business partners are among the best in Europe, including all the great game developers and publishers who create amazing content for Xbox, and the countless distributors and retailers who support and sell Xbox.
With such partners and such a great gaming community it's no wonder that Xbox has such an internal momentum in Europe. With an overall market share of 34 per cent, Xbox has become the number two console in Europe, now outselling the number three competitor by a wide margin across all the region.
[whooping]
But Xbox isn't just a hit console, Xbox is a hit maker. Xbox has already launched some of the most successful games in the industry's history. Think of Halo, Project Gotham Racing, Dead or Alive, Brute Force, Splinter Cell and many other great titles. Xbox is the platform of choice for best-selling games that are fast becoming full-blown software [?????].
And Xbox is even more. Xbox is the platform for the most successful broadband content service in history. Of course, I'm talking about Xbox live.
[whooping, yee-hars etc.]
In the six months after it was launched here in Europe in eight countries, Xbox is the number one subscriber service in the region with more than 50,000 European gamers logging on to compete and communicate with more than half a million Xbox gamers worldwide, playing more than a million game sessions every week.
But Xbox is more than a superior games console, with unprecedented market momentum. It's even more than the amazing Xbox games, and the revolutionary Xbox live. Momentum only matters if you still have somewhere to go, and Xbox still has far, far to go. Because Xbox is a vision of the future, and Xbox is a worldwide community of players who see that future with us. And they say, "That's where we are going as well."
Tonight we are going to show you where that is. Tonight we are going to show you more great Xbox games that expand the definition of video games entertainment. Tonight we're going to show you how we're enhancing and expanding the Xbox Live universe. Tonight we're going to show you what millions of players already know.
It's good to play together. And we're going to show you why.
Now it is my pleasure to introduce Corporate Vice President for Xbox Sales and Marketing Peter Moore.
[whooping and whistles]
Peter Moore:
Thank you Eduardo, and let me welcome you all to this beautiful occasion, as we share our excitement regarding the future of Xbox with you, our friends and partners.
It's a great time for Xbox. I also believe it's a great time for our industry as a whole. In all my years in this business, the video game industry has never had so much potential, so much opportunity. Why? What's happened?
Well, some people call it convergence, and they've been predicting its arrival for a long, long time. They've been on the lookout for the big infrastructure technology like cable, or fibre, or wireless. The [?????], like five hundred channels of TV, video on demand. The big deal, like AOL and Time Warner, or Microsoft and Comcast. People have been waiting for the killer application, the next big thing, the revolution that signals the coming of convergence in technology AND entertainment.
But meanwhile, in our opinion, convergence has quietly, simply happened.
And it wasn't a single technology or product that brought it about. It wasn't a merger, or an acquisition. It wasn't one big thing, or a single, sudden paradigm shift. Instead, convergence has been brought about by billions of consumers. They're the ones who have made convergence happen with their choices. They've chosen technologies, they've chosen concepts, they've chosen a lifestyle. That lifestyle is the digital entertainment lifestyle, and it shapes billions of choices in products, entertainment and content, how people spend their time and how they spend their money. People have chosen the digital lifestyle in hundreds of millions of households that have cell phones, DVD players, personal computers, [???], MP3 players and digital cameras. And of course, video game consoles.
The video game industry is all about digital lifestyle, and today's gamers have embraced that lifestyle big time. They are the digital hardcore, make no mistake about that. After all, video games were the original form of digital entertainment. It took CDs and MP3 format for music to go digital. DVD is the consumer standard for movie watching. It's still less than a decade old even now. But digital games have been digital for their [???]. And though some of us may be too young to remember, video games were around even before the personal computer. Our industry has been part of the digital entertainment lifestyle from the beginning. And now that lifestyle has grown up, and out, and all around us.
Xbox was designed and built for that lifestyle. Because games are at the core of our audience, we started with a more powerful graphics processor than any other game console. It delivered the lifelike graphics gamers want. We built in a hard drive, so game designers and developers can create truly massive worlds, and players can load in new levels, characters, statistics and more. We built in Digital Dolby 5.1 audio, so players can connect the Xbox to their home theatre systems and get their games in surround sound.
Because remember, the digital entertainment lifestyle is all about convergence. We added more connections to the digital entertainment lifestyle. We made the Xbox the first and still the only HDTV-compatible video games system. We built in a broadband connection to the internet, and an extra slot for the controller for connecting a headset. And we made sure Xbox could play any DVD or music CD as well as games, so people could download their own digital music onto the Xbox hard drive, and listen to their own custom soundtracks while playing Xbox games.
Game players told us they wanted capabilities like these. And they're using those capabilities. 43 per cent of Xbox owners tell us they watch DVD movies regularly on their systems. Nearly half have saved music to their Xbox hard drives. Nearly a third have more than 50 songs stored on their Xbox.
But we didn't put the hard drive in the Xbox just for music. We had another reason. It's the same reason we built in a high-speed broadband Ethernet connection, the same reason we added an extra port to the Xbox controller to connect a headset and enable voice communications among gamers.
When Microsoft rolled out Xbox with all of these features, a lot of people wondered quite frankly how we got soft in the head. What could Microsoft be thinking, they said.
I'll tell you what we were thinking. We were already thinking about Xbox Live. It was a matter of looking ahead. There were tens of millions of households playing video games, but there were a whole lot more households yet to be won. We asked ourselves, what's the game industry's next sticking point? We talked about the social dimension that's always been part of video games, on the couch or in the arcade. The head-to-head play. The fun of talking trash to your opponents. And the laughs that people share when they play with their friends. And of course, we asked game players what they wanted. They told us they wanted new game experiences, new content, new options.
And they told us this: it's good to play together. They told us they wanted to play with their friends anywhere, any time. They convinced us that online was essential to the future of our industry. And they told us to bet on that future. So we did, in the design of the Xbox hardware, and in our Xbox Live service.
The "It's Good To Play Together" campaign will be global in scope and unprecedented in its magnitude. You will see it on TV, and in print, and online. You will hear it on the radio. And most importantly, you'll hear it from gamers. It will celebrate gaming as a true social activity, and smash the myth of gamers as solitary misfits who would rather play against the processor than interact with each other. It will offer the promise of the gaming experience of the future, where millions of gamers are connected regardless of geographical boundaries and time zones.
And that future is well underway, and gathering more momentum all the time. As Eduardo told you, Xbox Live is now rolled out in eight countries, where it hosts more than half a million gamers playing more than 15 million game sessions every week. Out of all online games worldwide, Xbox Live features the three most popular sports titles, and five of the overall top six titles. In the UK, ChartTrack data shows that sales of Xbox Live enabled games - Ghost Recon, Unreal Championship, MechAssault - increased when Xbox Live was launched, and following the launch sales remained strong for these titles in every country where Xbox Live has been launched.
As you'll hear in a few minutes, there are more hits on the way. Many more. And there are more players on the way as Xbox Live takes its momentum into more countries worldwide. As I said at the outset, there's never been a better moment for this industry, a moment of vast opportunity brought about by the convergence of digital media and the spread of the digital lifestyle that video games have always been a part of.
But as always, we have two choices. There's business as usual, with the incremental road, and the risk of suffering from the traditional boom and bust cycles that generations of hardware that generations of hardware [???] each other. Or there's the opportunity for explosive and sustained growth, the opportunity to make interactive entertainment pervasive, of the order of music, movies and TV.
At Microsoft we've made our choice. We're expanding our audience. We're expanding the definition of video game entertainment through continuous innovation. We're creating both more great games and more kinds of games, a greater variety of interactive experiences, so more people see that it's good to play. We're extending video game entertainment to the internet, which is the defining technology of our time. And we're sustaining the social dimension of gameplay, growing the community of players, celebrating the truth that it's good to play together, and extending that invitation to more people every single day.
So now to share more of our exciting plans for the future it is my great pleasure to introduce Michel Cassius.
Michel Cassius:
Hi, and good evening. Or I should say bonsoir, because I'm a local. I'm head of platform and marketing for Xbox in Europe.
Before I share our exciting plans with you, let me give you a taste of what's going on and what is on the way as well in the global gaming universe called Xbox Live, where more new features, more countries, and of course more great games are coming online in the months ahead.
[Xbox Live video]
Wow. Xbox Live is The Killer App. Not just in gameplay, right, but in broadband content services. Peter mentioned some of the numbers, but I can't resist repeating them. Since the Live launch, six months ago, more than 50,000 gamers from eight European countries have joined hundreds of thousands of gamers worldwide in millions of gaming sessions a week. I can't also resist reminding you that [???] magazine named Xbox Live the most innovative entertainment service in August this year.
But there is something the numbers and the awards don't tell you. That's how much gamers love Live. In our satisfaction surveys, on our customer support line, and in online forums everywhere, game players say the same thing: Xbox Live is the coolest experience in video game entertainment. One player said, your opponents live in England, Germany, the USA, France, but they are there, and talking to you on Xbox Live. They also say, ?40 a year is honestly nothing for what is the best thing ever. (Typical English, eh? To talk money first. That's OK. Anybody who say Xbox Live is a perfect ten out of ten is all right by me.) Another player said, Xbox Live is the most intense, exciting experience you can have in your armchair - it's taking over my life. And I can understand.
Xbox and Xbox Live have captured the hearts and minds of gamers everywhere. They know that it's good to play together. And they appreciate that Xbox Live is the only unified, consistent online gaming universe, where you have one login account, one gamertag, one online identity. You can quickly jump into your favourite games, find your friend and build your own online community.
Xbox and Xbox Live have also captured the imagination of great game creators everywhere. To tell you how, and why, from his unique perspective as a game publisher, it's my pleasure to introduce Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubi Soft, developer and publisher of hit Splinter Cell on Xbox, as well as Ghost Recon, one of the most popular games on Xbox Live.
Yves Guillemot:
Thank you Michel. Last year at X02 I told you that Splinter Cell would be a great game, that it would be the best game for Christmas. And it did it. It was number one in the US and number one in Europe. I told you as well that Ghost Recon would be a great seller, that it was the best Live product. And it did it as well. It did well, and it was the best played game on Live this year. And last month we launched Ghost Recon Island Thunder and it was number one for the week we launched it and now it's number two for the month of August.
So those games are really great games thanks to the machine. Why so many blockbuster hits on the Xbox? I would say it's because a strong partnership with Microsoft, and this relationship is based on three key points. The first one is, we share the same vision online, and that has been the key element in our collaboration. The second thing: the Xbox machine is a great machine, it's an amazing machine on which we can develop very good games. The third point is that we have a great relationship with all the team at Microsoft and a very good one also with their engineers and we are able to take this machine [????].
Now believe me, our relationship with Microsoft is only at the beginning. We are looking to create three new titles for this year that I will tell you about. The first game is an FPS that is coming at the end of the year, a key game that is using Live and will be a great, great product. We will speak as well about [????]. And also as well a big surprise, the world premier and some more information on Spinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. A big surprise.
So let's speak about Rainbow Six 3 now. We expect to break all our sales records with Rainbow Six 3. In the months ahead we think it will be the best seller for Christmas in Europe. And this game is combining all the success and all the know-how we had out in the two products we had out last year, one online and one offline: Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon. So this will help Microsoft for sure [???]. So with Rainbow Six we expect to [????] both online and offline. We can expect intense multiplayer experiences, and the game will include all of the Xbox Live features. And there will be downloadable content as well. The Rainbow Six visuals will be enhanced by a fantastic lighting system, great fire effects on objects and characters [???]. So now, Rainbow Six 3 we think will be the best seller, but, you know, you need to look at the video and see what you think about it.
[Rainbow Six video]
And now a game that you have never seen before: Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow. This aims to redefine online gameplay in the same way the first Splinter Cell redefined [???]. Pandora Tomorrow is the first true multiplayer stealth experience. And again, watch the video and tell me what you think about it. The game footage you will see is only multiplayer online footage.
[Pandora Tomorrow video]
I'm sure you will have lots of questions, but you will have to wait another month for the answers.
So with Rainbow Six 3, with XIII, with Ghost Recon Island Thunder and Pandora Tomorrow, we will astonish you again this year as we will do more units than last year. Playing those games will blow your mind, and I think you have to agree with me we will be there with great products for you. Thank you.
Michel Cassius:
Merci. Merci beaucoup, Yves. Seeing such passion for Xbox and Xbox Live among the publishing and developing community, we know that our commitment to the future of gaming is right on target.
And now Xbox Live is poised to become better than ever, with new features, with more players, with more countries, with new options for subscribing and of course great games enabled for Xbox Live. In the months to come, Live gamers in Europe will have more ways to stay in touch with the Xbox Live universe and with their friends and play partners everywhere. New team and competition features will make it easier than ever for players to form teams with friends, create leagues and tournaments, and participate in structured competition on Xbox Live. Most of these features are enabled today in English on XSN Sports. Next spring this experience will be available in more European languages. By the way, you can get a taste of how much Live gamers love tournaments while you're here at X03. Ten Xbox Live players, one from each European Xbox Live country plus the USA and Canada have won the right to compete in the Xbox Live Clash of the Continents.
[whooping]
Tomorrow, at 11 in the Live Zone, they will play for the first time Ubi Soft's Rainbow Six 3, and you're all invited to attend.
All the new features coming to Xbox Live are designed to enhance the online gaming experience for the Xbox Live community. And that community is about to expand. I'm pleased to announce that on the 30th of October, Xbox Live will launch at retail in six more European countries. They've been waiting. Here they are: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland. This will bring the total of Xbox Live enabled European countries to 14, offering more European gamers the chance to play console games online than any other platform.
In addition, Xbox Live gamers across Europe also have new subscription options. So, starting in October and running through March, a special Xbox Live trial offer will be included with selected Xbox Live enabled games offering two free months of Xbox Live gaming. This offer will give all Xbox gamers an easy way to join the Live community with no risk or obligation.
Also, existing Live subscribers will be able to choose a monthly plan at ?4.99 or 6.99 euros per month after their initial one-year subscription. Or as well they can renew their annual subscription for ?39.99 or 59.99 euros. Either way, the subscription can be renewed right from the Xbox Live dashboard, and either way, Xbox Live continues to provide extraordinary value for outstanding, unique gaming experiences. In the end, that's what it's all about, right? It's all about great games.
And we have more, many more games coming to Xbox Live. For Christmas this year, fifty Live-enabled games will be on the shelves, with hundreds more coming in 2004. They are coving all the scope of gaming experiences which people want to see. You can see I think a list behind me. It's impressive. I've taken two of those, and for committed gamers new titles coming to Xbox Live this winter will include Capcom's Steel Battalion: Line of Contact. It's based on the award-winning Steel Battalion phenomenon featuring the most elaborate [???] interface ever. But Xbox Live isn't just for the hardcore, right? Far from it. Konami's popular Dance Dance Revolution series has brought new players into gaming, expanding the audience of video game entertainment among teens, especially young women, across Europe. This Christmas, Dancing Stage Unleashed goes Live, allowing online disco kings and disco queens - I can see some of them around here - to hit the virtual dance floor and compare moves with other players around the world.
Millions of gamers have found out that nothing brings people together like Xbox. They know that it's good to play together. Because it makes Xbox part of the digital entertainment lifestyle they share with their friends and families. Xbox Live is the global fulfilment of that vision. Unified, secure, easy and simply as fun as hell. It has already changed video game entertainment forever. And potential is unlimited. With Xbox Live we can foster new gaming experiences, create communities of players that unite old friends and make new ones, we can expand the video game audience - moreover, we can expand the video game industry beyond traditional boundaries.
But before it can be good to play together, it has to be good to play. And no one knows that better than our next speaker. Mesdames et messieurs, it is my pleasure to introduce Microsoft's Mr Games, Ed Fries.
Ed Fries:
Ah, merci, Michel. Er... je m'appel... OK, I promise, no more bad French.
It's great to be back at my favourite party of the year. And this year my job is easier than ever. All I have to do is tell you about the strongest line-up of games this industry has ever seen - all coming for Xbox, and maybe for Xbox Live. Michel mentioned a few titles coming this Christmas, and I know you've heard about some of the others.
Many of the hottest games on the way were developed right here in Europe, like Project Gotham Racing 2, a new urban version of the motor sports game with incredibly gorgeous cars and a scoring system that rewards you for your driving skills, not just for winning. And PGR2 is enabled for play on Xbox Live, so racing fans will now be able to compete with friends across town or around the world.
[whooping]
Codemasters' TOCA Race Driver has also become a popular Xbox franchise, especially here in Europe. Next year we'll see a new Xbox-exclusive, live-enabled sequel, Race Driver 2: The Ultimate Driving Simulator. It's going to allow up to twelve drivers to go head-to-head-to-head. Multiplayer online racing is something you have to experience to believe.
And as you heard from Yves, the third instalment of Ubi Soft's hot Rainbow Six series will be here for Christmas. Also for Christmas, we're introducing Grabbed by the Ghoulies, the first title from Rare.
[yeahs and woos]
It's been great. They joined Microsoft Game Studios last fall, and as always, the guys at Rare have invented a unique gaming world, intuitive and easy to get into and really, really funny. It's a game that appeals to everyone who's played it, especially families and younger players.
And that's just the start of more than fifty new titles that are coming between now and the end of the year. But we're going to continue to pull away from the competition after Christmas too. Starting with Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, the sequel to last year's blockbuster which sold more than a million and a half copies both here and in the States. Also coming next year from Microsoft Game Studios: Sudeki. It brings the action to the RPG genre in a uniquely rendered Japanese anime style.
Following that, 2004 will see the coming of Kameo, another exclusive creation from the inspired minds at Rare. Kameo has the universal appeal of a fairytale, and it's sure to win an audience as big as the imagination that went into it. Here's a look at the world premiere of some of the new features coming in Kameo.
[Kameo gameplay video]
Now I want to show you more of another exclusive coming to Xbox, Namco's Breakdown. It will be playable for the first time ever here at X03. Here's a video sneak peek of just how great it looks on Xbox.
[Breakdown video]
As Michel mentioned, XSN Sports is also coming to Xbox Live in Europe in 2004. And right on time, Rallisport Challenge 2 is also coming to Xbox Live.
[a lone whoop]
It's good, yeah. The first racing title in the XSN Sports brand, RC2 is going to spark some heat in the competition. RC2 is all about attitude, and this video is going to give you an idea of just what I'm talking about. Take a look.
[Rallisport Challenge 2 video]
That's pretty cool, huh? But that's not all. I've got another announcement that Xbox gamers should be pretty jazzed about. We have a great new development partner: Epic Games. And they've signed to help develop several new games exclusively for Xbox. Now, I know everyone here knows Epic. They were founded twelve years ago by Tim Sweeney and Mark Rein. Epic created the [???] Unreal and Unreal Tournament series of games, not to mention the great Unreal engine that now powers more than ten million games worldwide. To tell you more about the Microsoft/Epic partnership, please welcome Jay Wilbur.
Jay Wilbur:
Thanks, Ed. One year ago, I stood on the Stage in Seville at X02 showing Unreal Championship, our Xbox Live launch product, I asked a question asked by one of the in-game warriors. I asked, do you want some? Well I'm happy to report that vast numbers of Xbox Live gamers from all over the world purchased that game, and enjoyed it, and answered that question with a resounding yes.
And it seemed that one other group wanted some: Microsoft. It's my honour and pleasure to announce that Epic Games and Microsoft have recently entered a multi-title publishing agreement. Epic Games' long history of game and game-technology development combined with Microsoft's cutting-edge Xbox console hardware and first-party publishing resources is going to make this a marriage made in heaven, for the ultimate benefit of gamers the world over.
But that's enough out of me. I'd like to introduce two guys I'm sure you all know. And they can pump a bit more about Epic and this partnership. Unfortunately they couldn't make it - they're at home working diligently on our upcoming products. You see, Epic is a very small, tight, focussed development group. And if only one of us could come to the south of France to, um, "work", thank god it's me! Anyway, here on taped interview are Epic President and Lead Programmer Tim Sweeney, and our lead designer, Cliffy B.
Tim Sweeney on video:
Epic's games have always been about just pure fun, and whether it's a 2D [???], or a pinball game, or a 3D immersive environment, it's all just boiling it down to the essence of what's really fun to do in this environment. It's really the whole experience. Does the environment here look realistic? Does everything look interesting? Are you seeing things that you've never seen before?
Cliff Bleszinski on video
I'd like to think that what Epic brings to the table first and foremost is twelve years of solid experience of great games with the motivation of [???]. We're operating under the assumption that if you make a great game, it will sell.
Tim Sweeney:
[????] It's a team of twenty content developers who are among the best artists and programmers in the world.
Cliff Bleszinski:
It's a stable of talented, hard-working, bad-ass talents that you can't find anywhere else.
Tim Sweeney:
We've always seen the gamers as our customers. Some developers look at their publisher as their customer, and some developers look at retailers and their customers. We look at just the gamers.
Cliff Bleszinski:
The people at Microsoft really seem to not only know their stuff, but appear to be genuinely interested in what we do, and the kind of game we can give them.
Tim Sweeney:
Our relation with our publisher is a partnership, and if we're not working for Microsoft, Microsoft's not working for us. We collaborate together to achieve the maximum success. I believe that.
Cliff Bleszinski:
I believe that gamers out there who haven't bought an Xbox yet are going to be seeing the reason why they have to get an Xbox. [???] The time I have to say is pretty near.
Tim Sweeney:
We look at the big strength of our relationship with Microsoft is having the resources to deal with the development of great Xbox games. [????] And what Microsoft gets out of it is some awesome games.
Jay Wilbur:
I'm going to wrap this up by saying Epic Games together with Scion Studios are pleased to announce the development of new games for the Xbox to be published by Microsoft Game Studios. Now, we're not in a position to discuss details of these games at this venue. Details will emerge soon enough. I stand before you today and tell you you're definitely going to want some of this.
Ed Fries:
Thanks, Jay. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot for suffering and coming all the way out here to France.
Looking at the games being created for Xbox, as I do just about every day, I get to think a lot about what makes a great game. As Michel said a few minutes ago, great games are good to play. But what does that mean? What makes a game good to play?
We think that the Xbox platform has a lot to do with it. The proof is that so many great games are only on the Xbox. And so many games are better on Xbox than any other console. But to me, the real proof that the Xbox is the superior game platform is the superior game makers who have made Xbox their game platform of choice. What really makes great games is the creativity, the artistry, the ideas that go into them. And those qualities come from the artists who design them. So I've invited some of those artists to join us at X03 to talk a little bit about how they think and create, why they like creating for Xbox and what they're working on now.
Our first guest is one of the most admired, most original minds in the industry - a creator not just of games, but of entire worlds that engross games players for years. Please welcome Peter Molyneux.
Peter Molyneux (with Simon Carter playing):
Thank you very much, Ed. It's fantastic to be here. [????] My god, it's incredible. We're going to be showing, live, Simon here is going to be playing Fable, the latest version of Fable. Which is a crazy thing to do. We should have made a video, but we thought it would be more impactful to see the game being played live, so please forgive us because we're both pretty nervous.
Let me tell you a bit about Fable. What it is, is a game which, really, was started almost fifteen years ago in my mind when I first played a role-playing game called Wizardry. And I lost my first girlfriend to Wizardry, when she was waiting in the pub for me while I was completing level two. And I haven't lost that passion for role-playing games since.
But really, it wasn't just a simple role-playing game I wanted to create on the Xbox. We really wanted to create something different - a role-playing game which could reflect what sort of player you were. You can be any sort of character you like in the world, you can be any sort of person you like. It is a virtual world, a world which unfolds before you, and in which you can play a character that's good or evil. You can play the most despicable, evil character of all time, or the wonderfully nice and noble character.
Now, all of that is wonderful and great, but it's no good at all without amazing combat mechanics. So what we'll demonstrate here, what's Simon's showing is the ability to take on as many opponents as you like. We've got a combat system that really rewards you, a combat system you can pick up and play [????]. You can mix swordplay with ranged combat, with magical combat. We've got over 21 different magical effects you can specialise in, all of which can be blended together within the combat arena.
We've had five people working for over two years on just the combat alone, mixing that with the idea of this virtual world, a world which people can experiment and play around with... anything they like. And in the unplugged session tomorrow, we're doing a brave thing, and that is asking people what they want to do in the world. Do you want to kill people, as Simon's doing now? Do you want to go and save the maiden? Do you want to perhaps even go and ask her for her hand in marriage? Even chat up a girl, even you can get married and have children. All of those things are what I wanted to bring - a true virtual world which can unfold before you and which can be uniquely yours.
And that to me is the fascination of what the Xbox has allowed. It has allowed us to create games that have never existed before. And we've seen some amazing visuals this evening, and we'll go on to see some more amazing visuals. But it's the nucleus within these games that's so important.
So, for example, one of the things in Fable that you can do is you can decide when, how fast to press through the story. What Simon's doing now, he's about to go to the graveyard and take on one of the quests. So this quest is an interesting one because he has to keep finding pieces of that quest to take on. And I think that is the key thing, allowing players to dip into the experience and dip out of the experience. Allowing them, for example, to walk into a town, to buy a shop, buy a house, even buy the whole town, which is so important. These are the visuals that'll be shown tomorrow so please come along to the Unplugged session.
Well thank you very much for looking in. As you see it's coming along, it's a complete experience now. I'd like to hand back to Ed for some more exciting products.
Ed Fries:
Thank you, Peter. If you were at E3 last spring, you got a look at the most eagerly anticipated game coming to any platform in the next year. For this event I wanted to do something different. I wanted to brief, behind the scenes look at the artists working incredibly hard to create Halo 2.
[whooping]
Marty O'Donnell (on video):
Every piece of music tells its own little internal story, so what I want to be able to do is have my little music story somehow match up with Eve's story, or with the story that's being told by the visuals.
Joseph Staten (on video):
It's a different kind of story than I think you usually encounter in video games. Usually it's a story about a hero who gets stronger and stronger helping to defeat this much more powerful foe.
Jason Jones (on video):
The really hard thing about the story is there are so many different ways to tell a story. There are so many different good stories. Telling a story in a game is different to telling a story in a book because if you're part of the story of a game that's just lending flavour to the times when you're playing, so that when you're driving around in the Warthog with the marine hanging out the side door and the guy in the back with the chain gun, you believe that you're on this alien artefact called Halo circling a gas giant light years away from Earth and.. I think it's [?????], that's the best way to say it.
Joseph Staten (on video):
All our characters have flaws, they're not perfect heroes. And Halo's story is one about salvation, it's a story of warriors with not a lot of options, they have their backs up against the wall, and they're trying to set themselves free. We just like good stories. We certainly worry about that a lot more than you might think we have to in a game that's mostly just about action and about not thinking.
This process began at the end of Halo, and realising all the stuff that we had left out. Now, what did we really want to tell, but didn't have time to. And [???] a couple of those core ideas. Jason locked himself in a room for a while and organised his core ideas, and then came to me and said, hey, these are my thoughts about the storyline of Halo 2, what do you think? And he approached other people as well.
It's not about [???], it's not about playing movies or waiting two hours between every five minutes of gameplay but [??????]
There was these scene which will go down in the untold lore of Bungie which, Miranda (?) strapped a bomb to Master Chief's back and shoved him down a hole. And it was this horrible scene of betrayal. And, er, Jason was going through a rather difficult breakup at the time. I think that might have had something to do with it.
Jamie Greisemer (on video):
In Halo 1 there was the 30 seconds of fun that happened over and over and over and over again. If you can get 30 seconds of fun, you can pretty much stretch that out to being the entire game. [??] with bunch of guys, [???] attacking one of them before they were aware, [??] grenading a group of other guys, and then cleaning up the stragglers before they could even surround you. And so, you can have all the pretty graphics and all the different characters, lots of different weapons with different effects. But if you don't nail that 30 seconds, you're not going to have a great game.
Bungie guy:
The really important thing to do now is to take all those different disciplines we're all working on, and take all those pieces, take the AI code, and the physics, and the guys working on the [??] levels. And then you keep doing that, you keep colliding things together until, uh, until it's a game.
[rest drowned out by gunfire, music and whooping]
Ed Fries:
OK, that was fun to show.
Tecmo's Team Ninja has given us Dead or Alive, one of the most treasured franchises in video games history. And as most of you know, they're now bringing all of that legendary beauty, heroism and action to Xbox and Xbox Live with Dead or Alive Online. We're also very honoured to have the European playable premiere of Ninja Gaiden here at X03 - another realising of a classic franchise only on Xbox. I'm pleased to introduce Tecmo's guiding spirit, Tomonobu Itagaki.
Tomorrow he's going to demonstrate the latest playable Ninja Gaiden in his Developer Unplugged session. He'll also be making a special announcement in that session so you won't want to miss it. But tonight he's brought along a video tape to share some of his thoughts with all of us. Let's watch.
Tomonobu Itagaki (on video):
Ninja Gaiden will be released sometime near the beginning of next year, in continuation of the previous work on the Dead or Alive series. I want to make Ninja Gaiden a superb action game. It is very important for the Japanese game developers who are [???] creating excellent games for the Xbox. That's why I believe I'm [???], and I want Ninja Gaiden to be the next wonderful game that I make for Xbox. I want Ninja Gaiden to be the very best action game possible, and that's why we've been working on it for such a long time now. Of course, I'm proud of every part of Ninja Gaiden, but if I wanted to give specific examples, I would say that the camera work is superb, and the animation is fantastic. I just want to get the game out there, and show it to the world as soon as possible. The main thing of Ninja Gaiden is to make the number one action game in the world on the number one hardware console, which is Xbox. I just want people to be able to experience that.
Ed Fries:
Tomonobu Itagaki-san. Without taking away from their amazing originality, I think that what Fable and BC, Halo and Halo 2, Epic, and the Ninja franchises have in common is what makes a great game. As a player, you're the hero. You move through a deep, compelling world. You meet interesting characters, including adversaries, who like the memorable characters in great books, plays and movies have independent lives of their own. You're part of the big story, something that's bigger than you. You have to make choices. And how you choose affects your own fate. And often something bigger, as a result maybe you feel bigger, maybe you really do grow, maybe you really do change, maybe you learn something. In different forms, that's the kind of experience that you get from great role-playing games, great action games, sports games, racing games, great games of all kinds. It's the kind of experience you get from games on Xbox and the artists who create them. Thank you.
Now to wrap things up, please welcome back Eduardo Rosini.
Eduardo Rosini:
Thank you, Ed. As I said at the beginning, no wonder Xbox has such an incredible momentum in Europe. And it's getting more all the time.
Xbox gets its momentum from the game designers and publishers who are bring the greatest legends and the most amazing innovations to the Xbox platform. And there is more on the way, as Xbox gamers look forward to more than fifty new titles this Christmas, and the arrival next year of Halo 2, the next Splinter Cell, Breakdown, plus new titles from Rare, Epic and other great game developers.
Xbox gets its momentum from Xbox Live, the most successful broadband content service in history and the number one subscriber service in Europe. The only unified, trouble-free online gaming community that has millions of gamers every week worldwide. And there's more on the way as Xbox Live comes alive in six more European countries next month, and as more players come to Xbox Live to enjoy more games and more features online.
Finally, Xbox gets its momentum from the millions of devoted Xbox gamers. They know that the best games are on Xbox, and that every game looks better and plays better on Xbox. And, yes, there are more Xbox games on the way too, as we roll out more games, more Xbox Live features and a new worldwide branding campaign.
We're expanding the definition of interactive entertainment. And we're expanding the audience for interactive entertainment. We are connecting video games with the other digital devices, media and content that people use to connect with each other. From music and sports to the internet and wireless and more. We're reminding people that it's good to play together.
Which also happens to be an excellent theme for the rest of the evening. So thank you all for coming. And now, let's play together.
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Author: selim :: 2004-02-12 03:47:13
Got some time to kill? Why not do it reading up on everything X03 through the eyes of Eduardo Rosini. Just be forewarned this is one LOOONG read, but a good one.Got some time to Got some time to kill? Why not do it reading up on everything X03 through the eyes of Eduardo Rosini. Just be forewarned this is one LOOONG read, but a good one.Got some time to kill? Why not do it reading up on everything X03 through the eyes of Eduardo Rosini. Just be forewarned this is one LOOONG read, but a good one.
This is so amazing. What a wonderful day. What a wonderful evening. Welcome everyone to the third annual Xbox conference, X03.
In the States, people say "in your dreams" when they think something is never going to happen. When Xbox rolled out in Europe just nineteen months ago, did anyone imagine it would be on such a roll, generating the kind of excitement we see all around us here tonight? But here we are, in our dreams. And it's all for real.
My name is Eduardo Rosini, and I run the Xbox business in Europe. I have been part of Xbox for a long time, working with the leadership team in [????] when Xbox was just a neon green gleam in our eyes. I've been with Xbox round the world, and now I'm very excited to be here in Europe.
In fact, I've been here for eight months already, travelling around and meeting with developers, publishers, retailers and gamers, to learn about Xbox in Europe. And here's what I've learned: Xbox is flourishing as part of a great industry that is truly vibrant. And no wonder, because the people here in this industry are brilliant, passionate and committed. And the gamers are as creative, sophisticated and enthusiastic as any in the world.
Our business partners are among the best in Europe, including all the great game developers and publishers who create amazing content for Xbox, and the countless distributors and retailers who support and sell Xbox.
With such partners and such a great gaming community it's no wonder that Xbox has such an internal momentum in Europe. With an overall market share of 34 per cent, Xbox has become the number two console in Europe, now outselling the number three competitor by a wide margin across all the region.
[whooping]
But Xbox isn't just a hit console, Xbox is a hit maker. Xbox has already launched some of the most successful games in the industry's history. Think of Halo, Project Gotham Racing, Dead or Alive, Brute Force, Splinter Cell and many other great titles. Xbox is the platform of choice for best-selling games that are fast becoming full-blown software [?????].
And Xbox is even more. Xbox is the platform for the most successful broadband content service in history. Of course, I'm talking about Xbox live.
[whooping, yee-hars etc.]
In the six months after it was launched here in Europe in eight countries, Xbox is the number one subscriber service in the region with more than 50,000 European gamers logging on to compete and communicate with more than half a million Xbox gamers worldwide, playing more than a million game sessions every week.
But Xbox is more than a superior games console, with unprecedented market momentum. It's even more than the amazing Xbox games, and the revolutionary Xbox live. Momentum only matters if you still have somewhere to go, and Xbox still has far, far to go. Because Xbox is a vision of the future, and Xbox is a worldwide community of players who see that future with us. And they say, "That's where we are going as well."
Tonight we are going to show you where that is. Tonight we are going to show you more great Xbox games that expand the definition of video games entertainment. Tonight we're going to show you how we're enhancing and expanding the Xbox Live universe. Tonight we're going to show you what millions of players already know.
It's good to play together. And we're going to show you why.
Now it is my pleasure to introduce Corporate Vice President for Xbox Sales and Marketing Peter Moore.
[whooping and whistles]
Peter Moore:
Thank you Eduardo, and let me welcome you all to this beautiful occasion, as we share our excitement regarding the future of Xbox with you, our friends and partners.
It's a great time for Xbox. I also believe it's a great time for our industry as a whole. In all my years in this business, the video game industry has never had so much potential, so much opportunity. Why? What's happened?
Well, some people call it convergence, and they've been predicting its arrival for a long, long time. They've been on the lookout for the big infrastructure technology like cable, or fibre, or wireless. The [?????], like five hundred channels of TV, video on demand. The big deal, like AOL and Time Warner, or Microsoft and Comcast. People have been waiting for the killer application, the next big thing, the revolution that signals the coming of convergence in technology AND entertainment.
But meanwhile, in our opinion, convergence has quietly, simply happened.
And it wasn't a single technology or product that brought it about. It wasn't a merger, or an acquisition. It wasn't one big thing, or a single, sudden paradigm shift. Instead, convergence has been brought about by billions of consumers. They're the ones who have made convergence happen with their choices. They've chosen technologies, they've chosen concepts, they've chosen a lifestyle. That lifestyle is the digital entertainment lifestyle, and it shapes billions of choices in products, entertainment and content, how people spend their time and how they spend their money. People have chosen the digital lifestyle in hundreds of millions of households that have cell phones, DVD players, personal computers, [???], MP3 players and digital cameras. And of course, video game consoles.
The video game industry is all about digital lifestyle, and today's gamers have embraced that lifestyle big time. They are the digital hardcore, make no mistake about that. After all, video games were the original form of digital entertainment. It took CDs and MP3 format for music to go digital. DVD is the consumer standard for movie watching. It's still less than a decade old even now. But digital games have been digital for their [???]. And though some of us may be too young to remember, video games were around even before the personal computer. Our industry has been part of the digital entertainment lifestyle from the beginning. And now that lifestyle has grown up, and out, and all around us.
Xbox was designed and built for that lifestyle. Because games are at the core of our audience, we started with a more powerful graphics processor than any other game console. It delivered the lifelike graphics gamers want. We built in a hard drive, so game designers and developers can create truly massive worlds, and players can load in new levels, characters, statistics and more. We built in Digital Dolby 5.1 audio, so players can connect the Xbox to their home theatre systems and get their games in surround sound.
Because remember, the digital entertainment lifestyle is all about convergence. We added more connections to the digital entertainment lifestyle. We made the Xbox the first and still the only HDTV-compatible video games system. We built in a broadband connection to the internet, and an extra slot for the controller for connecting a headset. And we made sure Xbox could play any DVD or music CD as well as games, so people could download their own digital music onto the Xbox hard drive, and listen to their own custom soundtracks while playing Xbox games.
Game players told us they wanted capabilities like these. And they're using those capabilities. 43 per cent of Xbox owners tell us they watch DVD movies regularly on their systems. Nearly half have saved music to their Xbox hard drives. Nearly a third have more than 50 songs stored on their Xbox.
But we didn't put the hard drive in the Xbox just for music. We had another reason. It's the same reason we built in a high-speed broadband Ethernet connection, the same reason we added an extra port to the Xbox controller to connect a headset and enable voice communications among gamers.
When Microsoft rolled out Xbox with all of these features, a lot of people wondered quite frankly how we got soft in the head. What could Microsoft be thinking, they said.
I'll tell you what we were thinking. We were already thinking about Xbox Live. It was a matter of looking ahead. There were tens of millions of households playing video games, but there were a whole lot more households yet to be won. We asked ourselves, what's the game industry's next sticking point? We talked about the social dimension that's always been part of video games, on the couch or in the arcade. The head-to-head play. The fun of talking trash to your opponents. And the laughs that people share when they play with their friends. And of course, we asked game players what they wanted. They told us they wanted new game experiences, new content, new options.
And they told us this: it's good to play together. They told us they wanted to play with their friends anywhere, any time. They convinced us that online was essential to the future of our industry. And they told us to bet on that future. So we did, in the design of the Xbox hardware, and in our Xbox Live service.
The "It's Good To Play Together" campaign will be global in scope and unprecedented in its magnitude. You will see it on TV, and in print, and online. You will hear it on the radio. And most importantly, you'll hear it from gamers. It will celebrate gaming as a true social activity, and smash the myth of gamers as solitary misfits who would rather play against the processor than interact with each other. It will offer the promise of the gaming experience of the future, where millions of gamers are connected regardless of geographical boundaries and time zones.
And that future is well underway, and gathering more momentum all the time. As Eduardo told you, Xbox Live is now rolled out in eight countries, where it hosts more than half a million gamers playing more than 15 million game sessions every week. Out of all online games worldwide, Xbox Live features the three most popular sports titles, and five of the overall top six titles. In the UK, ChartTrack data shows that sales of Xbox Live enabled games - Ghost Recon, Unreal Championship, MechAssault - increased when Xbox Live was launched, and following the launch sales remained strong for these titles in every country where Xbox Live has been launched.
As you'll hear in a few minutes, there are more hits on the way. Many more. And there are more players on the way as Xbox Live takes its momentum into more countries worldwide. As I said at the outset, there's never been a better moment for this industry, a moment of vast opportunity brought about by the convergence of digital media and the spread of the digital lifestyle that video games have always been a part of.
But as always, we have two choices. There's business as usual, with the incremental road, and the risk of suffering from the traditional boom and bust cycles that generations of hardware that generations of hardware [???] each other. Or there's the opportunity for explosive and sustained growth, the opportunity to make interactive entertainment pervasive, of the order of music, movies and TV.
At Microsoft we've made our choice. We're expanding our audience. We're expanding the definition of video game entertainment through continuous innovation. We're creating both more great games and more kinds of games, a greater variety of interactive experiences, so more people see that it's good to play. We're extending video game entertainment to the internet, which is the defining technology of our time. And we're sustaining the social dimension of gameplay, growing the community of players, celebrating the truth that it's good to play together, and extending that invitation to more people every single day.
So now to share more of our exciting plans for the future it is my great pleasure to introduce Michel Cassius.
Michel Cassius:
Hi, and good evening. Or I should say bonsoir, because I'm a local. I'm head of platform and marketing for Xbox in Europe.
Before I share our exciting plans with you, let me give you a taste of what's going on and what is on the way as well in the global gaming universe called Xbox Live, where more new features, more countries, and of course more great games are coming online in the months ahead.
[Xbox Live video]
Wow. Xbox Live is The Killer App. Not just in gameplay, right, but in broadband content services. Peter mentioned some of the numbers, but I can't resist repeating them. Since the Live launch, six months ago, more than 50,000 gamers from eight European countries have joined hundreds of thousands of gamers worldwide in millions of gaming sessions a week. I can't also resist reminding you that [???] magazine named Xbox Live the most innovative entertainment service in August this year.
But there is something the numbers and the awards don't tell you. That's how much gamers love Live. In our satisfaction surveys, on our customer support line, and in online forums everywhere, game players say the same thing: Xbox Live is the coolest experience in video game entertainment. One player said, your opponents live in England, Germany, the USA, France, but they are there, and talking to you on Xbox Live. They also say, ?40 a year is honestly nothing for what is the best thing ever. (Typical English, eh? To talk money first. That's OK. Anybody who say Xbox Live is a perfect ten out of ten is all right by me.) Another player said, Xbox Live is the most intense, exciting experience you can have in your armchair - it's taking over my life. And I can understand.
Xbox and Xbox Live have captured the hearts and minds of gamers everywhere. They know that it's good to play together. And they appreciate that Xbox Live is the only unified, consistent online gaming universe, where you have one login account, one gamertag, one online identity. You can quickly jump into your favourite games, find your friend and build your own online community.
Xbox and Xbox Live have also captured the imagination of great game creators everywhere. To tell you how, and why, from his unique perspective as a game publisher, it's my pleasure to introduce Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubi Soft, developer and publisher of hit Splinter Cell on Xbox, as well as Ghost Recon, one of the most popular games on Xbox Live.
Yves Guillemot:
Thank you Michel. Last year at X02 I told you that Splinter Cell would be a great game, that it would be the best game for Christmas. And it did it. It was number one in the US and number one in Europe. I told you as well that Ghost Recon would be a great seller, that it was the best Live product. And it did it as well. It did well, and it was the best played game on Live this year. And last month we launched Ghost Recon Island Thunder and it was number one for the week we launched it and now it's number two for the month of August.
So those games are really great games thanks to the machine. Why so many blockbuster hits on the Xbox? I would say it's because a strong partnership with Microsoft, and this relationship is based on three key points. The first one is, we share the same vision online, and that has been the key element in our collaboration. The second thing: the Xbox machine is a great machine, it's an amazing machine on which we can develop very good games. The third point is that we have a great relationship with all the team at Microsoft and a very good one also with their engineers and we are able to take this machine [????].
Now believe me, our relationship with Microsoft is only at the beginning. We are looking to create three new titles for this year that I will tell you about. The first game is an FPS that is coming at the end of the year, a key game that is using Live and will be a great, great product. We will speak as well about [????]. And also as well a big surprise, the world premier and some more information on Spinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. A big surprise.
So let's speak about Rainbow Six 3 now. We expect to break all our sales records with Rainbow Six 3. In the months ahead we think it will be the best seller for Christmas in Europe. And this game is combining all the success and all the know-how we had out in the two products we had out last year, one online and one offline: Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon. So this will help Microsoft for sure [???]. So with Rainbow Six we expect to [????] both online and offline. We can expect intense multiplayer experiences, and the game will include all of the Xbox Live features. And there will be downloadable content as well. The Rainbow Six visuals will be enhanced by a fantastic lighting system, great fire effects on objects and characters [???]. So now, Rainbow Six 3 we think will be the best seller, but, you know, you need to look at the video and see what you think about it.
[Rainbow Six video]
And now a game that you have never seen before: Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow. This aims to redefine online gameplay in the same way the first Splinter Cell redefined [???]. Pandora Tomorrow is the first true multiplayer stealth experience. And again, watch the video and tell me what you think about it. The game footage you will see is only multiplayer online footage.
[Pandora Tomorrow video]
I'm sure you will have lots of questions, but you will have to wait another month for the answers.
So with Rainbow Six 3, with XIII, with Ghost Recon Island Thunder and Pandora Tomorrow, we will astonish you again this year as we will do more units than last year. Playing those games will blow your mind, and I think you have to agree with me we will be there with great products for you. Thank you.
Michel Cassius:
Merci. Merci beaucoup, Yves. Seeing such passion for Xbox and Xbox Live among the publishing and developing community, we know that our commitment to the future of gaming is right on target.
And now Xbox Live is poised to become better than ever, with new features, with more players, with more countries, with new options for subscribing and of course great games enabled for Xbox Live. In the months to come, Live gamers in Europe will have more ways to stay in touch with the Xbox Live universe and with their friends and play partners everywhere. New team and competition features will make it easier than ever for players to form teams with friends, create leagues and tournaments, and participate in structured competition on Xbox Live. Most of these features are enabled today in English on XSN Sports. Next spring this experience will be available in more European languages. By the way, you can get a taste of how much Live gamers love tournaments while you're here at X03. Ten Xbox Live players, one from each European Xbox Live country plus the USA and Canada have won the right to compete in the Xbox Live Clash of the Continents.
[whooping]
Tomorrow, at 11 in the Live Zone, they will play for the first time Ubi Soft's Rainbow Six 3, and you're all invited to attend.
All the new features coming to Xbox Live are designed to enhance the online gaming experience for the Xbox Live community. And that community is about to expand. I'm pleased to announce that on the 30th of October, Xbox Live will launch at retail in six more European countries. They've been waiting. Here they are: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland. This will bring the total of Xbox Live enabled European countries to 14, offering more European gamers the chance to play console games online than any other platform.
In addition, Xbox Live gamers across Europe also have new subscription options. So, starting in October and running through March, a special Xbox Live trial offer will be included with selected Xbox Live enabled games offering two free months of Xbox Live gaming. This offer will give all Xbox gamers an easy way to join the Live community with no risk or obligation.
Also, existing Live subscribers will be able to choose a monthly plan at ?4.99 or 6.99 euros per month after their initial one-year subscription. Or as well they can renew their annual subscription for ?39.99 or 59.99 euros. Either way, the subscription can be renewed right from the Xbox Live dashboard, and either way, Xbox Live continues to provide extraordinary value for outstanding, unique gaming experiences. In the end, that's what it's all about, right? It's all about great games.
And we have more, many more games coming to Xbox Live. For Christmas this year, fifty Live-enabled games will be on the shelves, with hundreds more coming in 2004. They are coving all the scope of gaming experiences which people want to see. You can see I think a list behind me. It's impressive. I've taken two of those, and for committed gamers new titles coming to Xbox Live this winter will include Capcom's Steel Battalion: Line of Contact. It's based on the award-winning Steel Battalion phenomenon featuring the most elaborate [???] interface ever. But Xbox Live isn't just for the hardcore, right? Far from it. Konami's popular Dance Dance Revolution series has brought new players into gaming, expanding the audience of video game entertainment among teens, especially young women, across Europe. This Christmas, Dancing Stage Unleashed goes Live, allowing online disco kings and disco queens - I can see some of them around here - to hit the virtual dance floor and compare moves with other players around the world.
Millions of gamers have found out that nothing brings people together like Xbox. They know that it's good to play together. Because it makes Xbox part of the digital entertainment lifestyle they share with their friends and families. Xbox Live is the global fulfilment of that vision. Unified, secure, easy and simply as fun as hell. It has already changed video game entertainment forever. And potential is unlimited. With Xbox Live we can foster new gaming experiences, create communities of players that unite old friends and make new ones, we can expand the video game audience - moreover, we can expand the video game industry beyond traditional boundaries.
But before it can be good to play together, it has to be good to play. And no one knows that better than our next speaker. Mesdames et messieurs, it is my pleasure to introduce Microsoft's Mr Games, Ed Fries.
Ed Fries:
Ah, merci, Michel. Er... je m'appel... OK, I promise, no more bad French.
It's great to be back at my favourite party of the year. And this year my job is easier than ever. All I have to do is tell you about the strongest line-up of games this industry has ever seen - all coming for Xbox, and maybe for Xbox Live. Michel mentioned a few titles coming this Christmas, and I know you've heard about some of the others.
Many of the hottest games on the way were developed right here in Europe, like Project Gotham Racing 2, a new urban version of the motor sports game with incredibly gorgeous cars and a scoring system that rewards you for your driving skills, not just for winning. And PGR2 is enabled for play on Xbox Live, so racing fans will now be able to compete with friends across town or around the world.
[whooping]
Codemasters' TOCA Race Driver has also become a popular Xbox franchise, especially here in Europe. Next year we'll see a new Xbox-exclusive, live-enabled sequel, Race Driver 2: The Ultimate Driving Simulator. It's going to allow up to twelve drivers to go head-to-head-to-head. Multiplayer online racing is something you have to experience to believe.
And as you heard from Yves, the third instalment of Ubi Soft's hot Rainbow Six series will be here for Christmas. Also for Christmas, we're introducing Grabbed by the Ghoulies, the first title from Rare.
[yeahs and woos]
It's been great. They joined Microsoft Game Studios last fall, and as always, the guys at Rare have invented a unique gaming world, intuitive and easy to get into and really, really funny. It's a game that appeals to everyone who's played it, especially families and younger players.
And that's just the start of more than fifty new titles that are coming between now and the end of the year. But we're going to continue to pull away from the competition after Christmas too. Starting with Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, the sequel to last year's blockbuster which sold more than a million and a half copies both here and in the States. Also coming next year from Microsoft Game Studios: Sudeki. It brings the action to the RPG genre in a uniquely rendered Japanese anime style.
Following that, 2004 will see the coming of Kameo, another exclusive creation from the inspired minds at Rare. Kameo has the universal appeal of a fairytale, and it's sure to win an audience as big as the imagination that went into it. Here's a look at the world premiere of some of the new features coming in Kameo.
[Kameo gameplay video]
Now I want to show you more of another exclusive coming to Xbox, Namco's Breakdown. It will be playable for the first time ever here at X03. Here's a video sneak peek of just how great it looks on Xbox.
[Breakdown video]
As Michel mentioned, XSN Sports is also coming to Xbox Live in Europe in 2004. And right on time, Rallisport Challenge 2 is also coming to Xbox Live.
[a lone whoop]
It's good, yeah. The first racing title in the XSN Sports brand, RC2 is going to spark some heat in the competition. RC2 is all about attitude, and this video is going to give you an idea of just what I'm talking about. Take a look.
[Rallisport Challenge 2 video]
That's pretty cool, huh? But that's not all. I've got another announcement that Xbox gamers should be pretty jazzed about. We have a great new development partner: Epic Games. And they've signed to help develop several new games exclusively for Xbox. Now, I know everyone here knows Epic. They were founded twelve years ago by Tim Sweeney and Mark Rein. Epic created the [???] Unreal and Unreal Tournament series of games, not to mention the great Unreal engine that now powers more than ten million games worldwide. To tell you more about the Microsoft/Epic partnership, please welcome Jay Wilbur.
Jay Wilbur:
Thanks, Ed. One year ago, I stood on the Stage in Seville at X02 showing Unreal Championship, our Xbox Live launch product, I asked a question asked by one of the in-game warriors. I asked, do you want some? Well I'm happy to report that vast numbers of Xbox Live gamers from all over the world purchased that game, and enjoyed it, and answered that question with a resounding yes.
And it seemed that one other group wanted some: Microsoft. It's my honour and pleasure to announce that Epic Games and Microsoft have recently entered a multi-title publishing agreement. Epic Games' long history of game and game-technology development combined with Microsoft's cutting-edge Xbox console hardware and first-party publishing resources is going to make this a marriage made in heaven, for the ultimate benefit of gamers the world over.
But that's enough out of me. I'd like to introduce two guys I'm sure you all know. And they can pump a bit more about Epic and this partnership. Unfortunately they couldn't make it - they're at home working diligently on our upcoming products. You see, Epic is a very small, tight, focussed development group. And if only one of us could come to the south of France to, um, "work", thank god it's me! Anyway, here on taped interview are Epic President and Lead Programmer Tim Sweeney, and our lead designer, Cliffy B.
Tim Sweeney on video:
Epic's games have always been about just pure fun, and whether it's a 2D [???], or a pinball game, or a 3D immersive environment, it's all just boiling it down to the essence of what's really fun to do in this environment. It's really the whole experience. Does the environment here look realistic? Does everything look interesting? Are you seeing things that you've never seen before?
Cliff Bleszinski on video
I'd like to think that what Epic brings to the table first and foremost is twelve years of solid experience of great games with the motivation of [???]. We're operating under the assumption that if you make a great game, it will sell.
Tim Sweeney:
[????] It's a team of twenty content developers who are among the best artists and programmers in the world.
Cliff Bleszinski:
It's a stable of talented, hard-working, bad-ass talents that you can't find anywhere else.
Tim Sweeney:
We've always seen the gamers as our customers. Some developers look at their publisher as their customer, and some developers look at retailers and their customers. We look at just the gamers.
Cliff Bleszinski:
The people at Microsoft really seem to not only know their stuff, but appear to be genuinely interested in what we do, and the kind of game we can give them.
Tim Sweeney:
Our relation with our publisher is a partnership, and if we're not working for Microsoft, Microsoft's not working for us. We collaborate together to achieve the maximum success. I believe that.
Cliff Bleszinski:
I believe that gamers out there who haven't bought an Xbox yet are going to be seeing the reason why they have to get an Xbox. [???] The time I have to say is pretty near.
Tim Sweeney:
We look at the big strength of our relationship with Microsoft is having the resources to deal with the development of great Xbox games. [????] And what Microsoft gets out of it is some awesome games.
Jay Wilbur:
I'm going to wrap this up by saying Epic Games together with Scion Studios are pleased to announce the development of new games for the Xbox to be published by Microsoft Game Studios. Now, we're not in a position to discuss details of these games at this venue. Details will emerge soon enough. I stand before you today and tell you you're definitely going to want some of this.
Ed Fries:
Thanks, Jay. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot for suffering and coming all the way out here to France.
Looking at the games being created for Xbox, as I do just about every day, I get to think a lot about what makes a great game. As Michel said a few minutes ago, great games are good to play. But what does that mean? What makes a game good to play?
We think that the Xbox platform has a lot to do with it. The proof is that so many great games are only on the Xbox. And so many games are better on Xbox than any other console. But to me, the real proof that the Xbox is the superior game platform is the superior game makers who have made Xbox their game platform of choice. What really makes great games is the creativity, the artistry, the ideas that go into them. And those qualities come from the artists who design them. So I've invited some of those artists to join us at X03 to talk a little bit about how they think and create, why they like creating for Xbox and what they're working on now.
Our first guest is one of the most admired, most original minds in the industry - a creator not just of games, but of entire worlds that engross games players for years. Please welcome Peter Molyneux.
Peter Molyneux (with Simon Carter playing):
Thank you very much, Ed. It's fantastic to be here. [????] My god, it's incredible. We're going to be showing, live, Simon here is going to be playing Fable, the latest version of Fable. Which is a crazy thing to do. We should have made a video, but we thought it would be more impactful to see the game being played live, so please forgive us because we're both pretty nervous.
Let me tell you a bit about Fable. What it is, is a game which, really, was started almost fifteen years ago in my mind when I first played a role-playing game called Wizardry. And I lost my first girlfriend to Wizardry, when she was waiting in the pub for me while I was completing level two. And I haven't lost that passion for role-playing games since.
But really, it wasn't just a simple role-playing game I wanted to create on the Xbox. We really wanted to create something different - a role-playing game which could reflect what sort of player you were. You can be any sort of character you like in the world, you can be any sort of person you like. It is a virtual world, a world which unfolds before you, and in which you can play a character that's good or evil. You can play the most despicable, evil character of all time, or the wonderfully nice and noble character.
Now, all of that is wonderful and great, but it's no good at all without amazing combat mechanics. So what we'll demonstrate here, what's Simon's showing is the ability to take on as many opponents as you like. We've got a combat system that really rewards you, a combat system you can pick up and play [????]. You can mix swordplay with ranged combat, with magical combat. We've got over 21 different magical effects you can specialise in, all of which can be blended together within the combat arena.
We've had five people working for over two years on just the combat alone, mixing that with the idea of this virtual world, a world which people can experiment and play around with... anything they like. And in the unplugged session tomorrow, we're doing a brave thing, and that is asking people what they want to do in the world. Do you want to kill people, as Simon's doing now? Do you want to go and save the maiden? Do you want to perhaps even go and ask her for her hand in marriage? Even chat up a girl, even you can get married and have children. All of those things are what I wanted to bring - a true virtual world which can unfold before you and which can be uniquely yours.
And that to me is the fascination of what the Xbox has allowed. It has allowed us to create games that have never existed before. And we've seen some amazing visuals this evening, and we'll go on to see some more amazing visuals. But it's the nucleus within these games that's so important.
So, for example, one of the things in Fable that you can do is you can decide when, how fast to press through the story. What Simon's doing now, he's about to go to the graveyard and take on one of the quests. So this quest is an interesting one because he has to keep finding pieces of that quest to take on. And I think that is the key thing, allowing players to dip into the experience and dip out of the experience. Allowing them, for example, to walk into a town, to buy a shop, buy a house, even buy the whole town, which is so important. These are the visuals that'll be shown tomorrow so please come along to the Unplugged session.
Well thank you very much for looking in. As you see it's coming along, it's a complete experience now. I'd like to hand back to Ed for some more exciting products.
Ed Fries:
Thank you, Peter. If you were at E3 last spring, you got a look at the most eagerly anticipated game coming to any platform in the next year. For this event I wanted to do something different. I wanted to brief, behind the scenes look at the artists working incredibly hard to create Halo 2.
[whooping]
Marty O'Donnell (on video):
Every piece of music tells its own little internal story, so what I want to be able to do is have my little music story somehow match up with Eve's story, or with the story that's being told by the visuals.
Joseph Staten (on video):
It's a different kind of story than I think you usually encounter in video games. Usually it's a story about a hero who gets stronger and stronger helping to defeat this much more powerful foe.
Jason Jones (on video):
The really hard thing about the story is there are so many different ways to tell a story. There are so many different good stories. Telling a story in a game is different to telling a story in a book because if you're part of the story of a game that's just lending flavour to the times when you're playing, so that when you're driving around in the Warthog with the marine hanging out the side door and the guy in the back with the chain gun, you believe that you're on this alien artefact called Halo circling a gas giant light years away from Earth and.. I think it's [?????], that's the best way to say it.
Joseph Staten (on video):
All our characters have flaws, they're not perfect heroes. And Halo's story is one about salvation, it's a story of warriors with not a lot of options, they have their backs up against the wall, and they're trying to set themselves free. We just like good stories. We certainly worry about that a lot more than you might think we have to in a game that's mostly just about action and about not thinking.
This process began at the end of Halo, and realising all the stuff that we had left out. Now, what did we really want to tell, but didn't have time to. And [???] a couple of those core ideas. Jason locked himself in a room for a while and organised his core ideas, and then came to me and said, hey, these are my thoughts about the storyline of Halo 2, what do you think? And he approached other people as well.
It's not about [???], it's not about playing movies or waiting two hours between every five minutes of gameplay but [??????]
There was these scene which will go down in the untold lore of Bungie which, Miranda (?) strapped a bomb to Master Chief's back and shoved him down a hole. And it was this horrible scene of betrayal. And, er, Jason was going through a rather difficult breakup at the time. I think that might have had something to do with it.
Jamie Greisemer (on video):
In Halo 1 there was the 30 seconds of fun that happened over and over and over and over again. If you can get 30 seconds of fun, you can pretty much stretch that out to being the entire game. [??] with bunch of guys, [???] attacking one of them before they were aware, [??] grenading a group of other guys, and then cleaning up the stragglers before they could even surround you. And so, you can have all the pretty graphics and all the different characters, lots of different weapons with different effects. But if you don't nail that 30 seconds, you're not going to have a great game.
Bungie guy:
The really important thing to do now is to take all those different disciplines we're all working on, and take all those pieces, take the AI code, and the physics, and the guys working on the [??] levels. And then you keep doing that, you keep colliding things together until, uh, until it's a game.
[rest drowned out by gunfire, music and whooping]
Ed Fries:
OK, that was fun to show.
Tecmo's Team Ninja has given us Dead or Alive, one of the most treasured franchises in video games history. And as most of you know, they're now bringing all of that legendary beauty, heroism and action to Xbox and Xbox Live with Dead or Alive Online. We're also very honoured to have the European playable premiere of Ninja Gaiden here at X03 - another realising of a classic franchise only on Xbox. I'm pleased to introduce Tecmo's guiding spirit, Tomonobu Itagaki.
Tomorrow he's going to demonstrate the latest playable Ninja Gaiden in his Developer Unplugged session. He'll also be making a special announcement in that session so you won't want to miss it. But tonight he's brought along a video tape to share some of his thoughts with all of us. Let's watch.
Tomonobu Itagaki (on video):
Ninja Gaiden will be released sometime near the beginning of next year, in continuation of the previous work on the Dead or Alive series. I want to make Ninja Gaiden a superb action game. It is very important for the Japanese game developers who are [???] creating excellent games for the Xbox. That's why I believe I'm [???], and I want Ninja Gaiden to be the next wonderful game that I make for Xbox. I want Ninja Gaiden to be the very best action game possible, and that's why we've been working on it for such a long time now. Of course, I'm proud of every part of Ninja Gaiden, but if I wanted to give specific examples, I would say that the camera work is superb, and the animation is fantastic. I just want to get the game out there, and show it to the world as soon as possible. The main thing of Ninja Gaiden is to make the number one action game in the world on the number one hardware console, which is Xbox. I just want people to be able to experience that.
Ed Fries:
Tomonobu Itagaki-san. Without taking away from their amazing originality, I think that what Fable and BC, Halo and Halo 2, Epic, and the Ninja franchises have in common is what makes a great game. As a player, you're the hero. You move through a deep, compelling world. You meet interesting characters, including adversaries, who like the memorable characters in great books, plays and movies have independent lives of their own. You're part of the big story, something that's bigger than you. You have to make choices. And how you choose affects your own fate. And often something bigger, as a result maybe you feel bigger, maybe you really do grow, maybe you really do change, maybe you learn something. In different forms, that's the kind of experience that you get from great role-playing games, great action games, sports games, racing games, great games of all kinds. It's the kind of experience you get from games on Xbox and the artists who create them. Thank you.
Now to wrap things up, please welcome back Eduardo Rosini.
Eduardo Rosini:
Thank you, Ed. As I said at the beginning, no wonder Xbox has such an incredible momentum in Europe. And it's getting more all the time.
Xbox gets its momentum from the game designers and publishers who are bring the greatest legends and the most amazing innovations to the Xbox platform. And there is more on the way, as Xbox gamers look forward to more than fifty new titles this Christmas, and the arrival next year of Halo 2, the next Splinter Cell, Breakdown, plus new titles from Rare, Epic and other great game developers.
Xbox gets its momentum from Xbox Live, the most successful broadband content service in history and the number one subscriber service in Europe. The only unified, trouble-free online gaming community that has millions of gamers every week worldwide. And there's more on the way as Xbox Live comes alive in six more European countries next month, and as more players come to Xbox Live to enjoy more games and more features online.
Finally, Xbox gets its momentum from the millions of devoted Xbox gamers. They know that the best games are on Xbox, and that every game looks better and plays better on Xbox. And, yes, there are more Xbox games on the way too, as we roll out more games, more Xbox Live features and a new worldwide branding campaign.
We're expanding the definition of interactive entertainment. And we're expanding the audience for interactive entertainment. We are connecting video games with the other digital devices, media and content that people use to connect with each other. From music and sports to the internet and wireless and more. We're reminding people that it's good to play together.
Which also happens to be an excellent theme for the rest of the evening. So thank you all for coming. And now, let's play together.
Got some time to kill? Why not do it reading up on everything X03 through the eyes of Eduardo Rosini. Just be forewarned this is one LOOONG read, but a good one.
This is so amazing. What a wonderful day. What a wonderful evening. Welcome everyone to the third annual Xbox conference, X03.
In the States, people say "in your dreams" when they think something is never going to happen. When Xbox rolled out in Europe just nineteen months ago, did anyone imagine it would be on such a roll, generating the kind of excitement we see all around us here tonight? But here we are, in our dreams. And it's all for real.
My name is Eduardo Rosini, and I run the Xbox business in Europe. I have been part of Xbox for a long time, working with the leadership team in [????] when Xbox was just a neon green gleam in our eyes. I've been with Xbox round the world, and now I'm very excited to be here in Europe.
In fact, I've been here for eight months already, travelling around and meeting with developers, publishers, retailers and gamers, to learn about Xbox in Europe. And here's what I've learned: Xbox is flourishing as part of a great industry that is truly vibrant. And no wonder, because the people here in this industry are brilliant, passionate and committed. And the gamers are as creative, sophisticated and enthusiastic as any in the world.
Our business partners are among the best in Europe, including all the great game developers and publishers who create amazing content for Xbox, and the countless distributors and retailers who support and sell Xbox.
With such partners and such a great gaming community it's no wonder that Xbox has such an internal momentum in Europe. With an overall market share of 34 per cent, Xbox has become the number two console in Europe, now outselling the number three competitor by a wide margin across all the region.
[whooping]
But Xbox isn't just a hit console, Xbox is a hit maker. Xbox has already launched some of the most successful games in the industry's history. Think of Halo, Project Gotham Racing, Dead or Alive, Brute Force, Splinter Cell and many other great titles. Xbox is the platform of choice for best-selling games that are fast becoming full-blown software [?????].
And Xbox is even more. Xbox is the platform for the most successful broadband content service in history. Of course, I'm talking about Xbox live.
[whooping, yee-hars etc.]
In the six months after it was launched here in Europe in eight countries, Xbox is the number one subscriber service in the region with more than 50,000 European gamers logging on to compete and communicate with more than half a million Xbox gamers worldwide, playing more than a million game sessions every week.
But Xbox is more than a superior games console, with unprecedented market momentum. It's even more than the amazing Xbox games, and the revolutionary Xbox live. Momentum only matters if you still have somewhere to go, and Xbox still has far, far to go. Because Xbox is a vision of the future, and Xbox is a worldwide community of players who see that future with us. And they say, "That's where we are going as well."
Tonight we are going to show you where that is. Tonight we are going to show you more great Xbox games that expand the definition of video games entertainment. Tonight we're going to show you how we're enhancing and expanding the Xbox Live universe. Tonight we're going to show you what millions of players already know.
It's good to play together. And we're going to show you why.
Now it is my pleasure to introduce Corporate Vice President for Xbox Sales and Marketing Peter Moore.
[whooping and whistles]
Peter Moore:
Thank you Eduardo, and let me welcome you all to this beautiful occasion, as we share our excitement regarding the future of Xbox with you, our friends and partners.
It's a great time for Xbox. I also believe it's a great time for our industry as a whole. In all my years in this business, the video game industry has never had so much potential, so much opportunity. Why? What's happened?
Well, some people call it convergence, and they've been predicting its arrival for a long, long time. They've been on the lookout for the big infrastructure technology like cable, or fibre, or wireless. The [?????], like five hundred channels of TV, video on demand. The big deal, like AOL and Time Warner, or Microsoft and Comcast. People have been waiting for the killer application, the next big thing, the revolution that signals the coming of convergence in technology AND entertainment.
But meanwhile, in our opinion, convergence has quietly, simply happened.
And it wasn't a single technology or product that brought it about. It wasn't a merger, or an acquisition. It wasn't one big thing, or a single, sudden paradigm shift. Instead, convergence has been brought about by billions of consumers. They're the ones who have made convergence happen with their choices. They've chosen technologies, they've chosen concepts, they've chosen a lifestyle. That lifestyle is the digital entertainment lifestyle, and it shapes billions of choices in products, entertainment and content, how people spend their time and how they spend their money. People have chosen the digital lifestyle in hundreds of millions of households that have cell phones, DVD players, personal computers, [???], MP3 players and digital cameras. And of course, video game consoles.
The video game industry is all about digital lifestyle, and today's gamers have embraced that lifestyle big time. They are the digital hardcore, make no mistake about that. After all, video games were the original form of digital entertainment. It took CDs and MP3 format for music to go digital. DVD is the consumer standard for movie watching. It's still less than a decade old even now. But digital games have been digital for their [???]. And though some of us may be too young to remember, video games were around even before the personal computer. Our industry has been part of the digital entertainment lifestyle from the beginning. And now that lifestyle has grown up, and out, and all around us.
Xbox was designed and built for that lifestyle. Because games are at the core of our audience, we started with a more powerful graphics processor than any other game console. It delivered the lifelike graphics gamers want. We built in a hard drive, so game designers and developers can create truly massive worlds, and players can load in new levels, characters, statistics and more. We built in Digital Dolby 5.1 audio, so players can connect the Xbox to their home theatre systems and get their games in surround sound.
Because remember, the digital entertainment lifestyle is all about convergence. We added more connections to the digital entertainment lifestyle. We made the Xbox the first and still the only HDTV-compatible video games system. We built in a broadband connection to the internet, and an extra slot for the controller for connecting a headset. And we made sure Xbox could play any DVD or music CD as well as games, so people could download their own digital music onto the Xbox hard drive, and listen to their own custom soundtracks while playing Xbox games.
Game players told us they wanted capabilities like these. And they're using those capabilities. 43 per cent of Xbox owners tell us they watch DVD movies regularly on their systems. Nearly half have saved music to their Xbox hard drives. Nearly a third have more than 50 songs stored on their Xbox.
But we didn't put the hard drive in the Xbox just for music. We had another reason. It's the same reason we built in a high-speed broadband Ethernet connection, the same reason we added an extra port to the Xbox controller to connect a headset and enable voice communications among gamers.
When Microsoft rolled out Xbox with all of these features, a lot of people wondered quite frankly how we got soft in the head. What could Microsoft be thinking, they said.
I'll tell you what we were thinking. We were already thinking about Xbox Live. It was a matter of looking ahead. There were tens of millions of households playing video games, but there were a whole lot more households yet to be won. We asked ourselves, what's the game industry's next sticking point? We talked about the social dimension that's always been part of video games, on the couch or in the arcade. The head-to-head play. The fun of talking trash to your opponents. And the laughs that people share when they play with their friends. And of course, we asked game players what they wanted. They told us they wanted new game experiences, new content, new options.
And they told us this: it's good to play together. They told us they wanted to play with their friends anywhere, any time. They convinced us that online was essential to the future of our industry. And they told us to bet on that future. So we did, in the design of the Xbox hardware, and in our Xbox Live service.
The "It's Good To Play Together" campaign will be global in scope and unprecedented in its magnitude. You will see it on TV, and in print, and online. You will hear it on the radio. And most importantly, you'll hear it from gamers. It will celebrate gaming as a true social activity, and smash the myth of gamers as solitary misfits who would rather play against the processor than interact with each other. It will offer the promise of the gaming experience of the future, where millions of gamers are connected regardless of geographical boundaries and time zones.
And that future is well underway, and gathering more momentum all the time. As Eduardo told you, Xbox Live is now rolled out in eight countries, where it hosts more than half a million gamers playing more than 15 million game sessions every week. Out of all online games worldwide, Xbox Live features the three most popular sports titles, and five of the overall top six titles. In the UK, ChartTrack data shows that sales of Xbox Live enabled games - Ghost Recon, Unreal Championship, MechAssault - increased when Xbox Live was launched, and following the launch sales remained strong for these titles in every country where Xbox Live has been launched.
As you'll hear in a few minutes, there are more hits on the way. Many more. And there are more players on the way as Xbox Live takes its momentum into more countries worldwide. As I said at the outset, there's never been a better moment for this industry, a moment of vast opportunity brought about by the convergence of digital media and the spread of the digital lifestyle that video games have always been a part of.
But as always, we have two choices. There's business as usual, with the incremental road, and the risk of suffering from the traditional boom and bust cycles that generations of hardware that generations of hardware [???] each other. Or there's the opportunity for explosive and sustained growth, the opportunity to make interactive entertainment pervasive, of the order of music, movies and TV.
At Microsoft we've made our choice. We're expanding our audience. We're expanding the definition of video game entertainment through continuous innovation. We're creating both more great games and more kinds of games, a greater variety of interactive experiences, so more people see that it's good to play. We're extending video game entertainment to the internet, which is the defining technology of our time. And we're sustaining the social dimension of gameplay, growing the community of players, celebrating the truth that it's good to play together, and extending that invitation to more people every single day.
So now to share more of our exciting plans for the future it is my great pleasure to introduce Michel Cassius.
Michel Cassius:
Hi, and good evening. Or I should say bonsoir, because I'm a local. I'm head of platform and marketing for Xbox in Europe.
Before I share our exciting plans with you, let me give you a taste of what's going on and what is on the way as well in the global gaming universe called Xbox Live, where more new features, more countries, and of course more great games are coming online in the months ahead.
[Xbox Live video]
Wow. Xbox Live is The Killer App. Not just in gameplay, right, but in broadband content services. Peter mentioned some of the numbers, but I can't resist repeating them. Since the Live launch, six months ago, more than 50,000 gamers from eight European countries have joined hundreds of thousands of gamers worldwide in millions of gaming sessions a week. I can't also resist reminding you that [???] magazine named Xbox Live the most innovative entertainment service in August this year.
But there is something the numbers and the awards don't tell you. That's how much gamers love Live. In our satisfaction surveys, on our customer support line, and in online forums everywhere, game players say the same thing: Xbox Live is the coolest experience in video game entertainment. One player said, your opponents live in England, Germany, the USA, France, but they are there, and talking to you on Xbox Live. They also say, ?40 a year is honestly nothing for what is the best thing ever. (Typical English, eh? To talk money first. That's OK. Anybody who say Xbox Live is a perfect ten out of ten is all right by me.) Another player said, Xbox Live is the most intense, exciting experience you can have in your armchair - it's taking over my life. And I can understand.
Xbox and Xbox Live have captured the hearts and minds of gamers everywhere. They know that it's good to play together. And they appreciate that Xbox Live is the only unified, consistent online gaming universe, where you have one login account, one gamertag, one online identity. You can quickly jump into your favourite games, find your friend and build your own online community.
Xbox and Xbox Live have also captured the imagination of great game creators everywhere. To tell you how, and why, from his unique perspective as a game publisher, it's my pleasure to introduce Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubi Soft, developer and publisher of hit Splinter Cell on Xbox, as well as Ghost Recon, one of the most popular games on Xbox Live.
Yves Guillemot:
Thank you Michel. Last year at X02 I told you that Splinter Cell would be a great game, that it would be the best game for Christmas. And it did it. It was number one in the US and number one in Europe. I told you as well that Ghost Recon would be a great seller, that it was the best Live product. And it did it as well. It did well, and it was the best played game on Live this year. And last month we launched Ghost Recon Island Thunder and it was number one for the week we launched it and now it's number two for the month of August.
So those games are really great games thanks to the machine. Why so many blockbuster hits on the Xbox? I would say it's because a strong partnership with Microsoft, and this relationship is based on three key points. The first one is, we share the same vision online, and that has been the key element in our collaboration. The second thing: the Xbox machine is a great machine, it's an amazing machine on which we can develop very good games. The third point is that we have a great relationship with all the team at Microsoft and a very good one also with their engineers and we are able to take this machine [????].
Now believe me, our relationship with Microsoft is only at the beginning. We are looking to create three new titles for this year that I will tell you about. The first game is an FPS that is coming at the end of the year, a key game that is using Live and will be a great, great product. We will speak as well about [????]. And also as well a big surprise, the world premier and some more information on Spinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. A big surprise.
So let's speak about Rainbow Six 3 now. We expect to break all our sales records with Rainbow Six 3. In the months ahead we think it will be the best seller for Christmas in Europe. And this game is combining all the success and all the know-how we had out in the two products we had out last year, one online and one offline: Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon. So this will help Microsoft for sure [???]. So with Rainbow Six we expect to [????] both online and offline. We can expect intense multiplayer experiences, and the game will include all of the Xbox Live features. And there will be downloadable content as well. The Rainbow Six visuals will be enhanced by a fantastic lighting system, great fire effects on objects and characters [???]. So now, Rainbow Six 3 we think will be the best seller, but, you know, you need to look at the video and see what you think about it.
[Rainbow Six video]
And now a game that you have never seen before: Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow. This aims to redefine online gameplay in the same way the first Splinter Cell redefined [???]. Pandora Tomorrow is the first true multiplayer stealth experience. And again, watch the video and tell me what you think about it. The game footage you will see is only multiplayer online footage.
[Pandora Tomorrow video]
I'm sure you will have lots of questions, but you will have to wait another month for the answers.
So with Rainbow Six 3, with XIII, with Ghost Recon Island Thunder and Pandora Tomorrow, we will astonish you again this year as we will do more units than last year. Playing those games will blow your mind, and I think you have to agree with me we will be there with great products for you. Thank you.
Michel Cassius:
Merci. Merci beaucoup, Yves. Seeing such passion for Xbox and Xbox Live among the publishing and developing community, we know that our commitment to the future of gaming is right on target.
And now Xbox Live is poised to become better than ever, with new features, with more players, with more countries, with new options for subscribing and of course great games enabled for Xbox Live. In the months to come, Live gamers in Europe will have more ways to stay in touch with the Xbox Live universe and with their friends and play partners everywhere. New team and competition features will make it easier than ever for players to form teams with friends, create leagues and tournaments, and participate in structured competition on Xbox Live. Most of these features are enabled today in English on XSN Sports. Next spring this experience will be available in more European languages. By the way, you can get a taste of how much Live gamers love tournaments while you're here at X03. Ten Xbox Live players, one from each European Xbox Live country plus the USA and Canada have won the right to compete in the Xbox Live Clash of the Continents.
[whooping]
Tomorrow, at 11 in the Live Zone, they will play for the first time Ubi Soft's Rainbow Six 3, and you're all invited to attend.
All the new features coming to Xbox Live are designed to enhance the online gaming experience for the Xbox Live community. And that community is about to expand. I'm pleased to announce that on the 30th of October, Xbox Live will launch at retail in six more European countries. They've been waiting. Here they are: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland. This will bring the total of Xbox Live enabled European countries to 14, offering more European gamers the chance to play console games online than any other platform.
In addition, Xbox Live gamers across Europe also have new subscription options. So, starting in October and running through March, a special Xbox Live trial offer will be included with selected Xbox Live enabled games offering two free months of Xbox Live gaming. This offer will give all Xbox gamers an easy way to join the Live community with no risk or obligation.
Also, existing Live subscribers will be able to choose a monthly plan at ?4.99 or 6.99 euros per month after their initial one-year subscription. Or as well they can renew their annual subscription for ?39.99 or 59.99 euros. Either way, the subscription can be renewed right from the Xbox Live dashboard, and either way, Xbox Live continues to provide extraordinary value for outstanding, unique gaming experiences. In the end, that's what it's all about, right? It's all about great games.
And we have more, many more games coming to Xbox Live. For Christmas this year, fifty Live-enabled games will be on the shelves, with hundreds more coming in 2004. They are coving all the scope of gaming experiences which people want to see. You can see I think a list behind me. It's impressive. I've taken two of those, and for committed gamers new titles coming to Xbox Live this winter will include Capcom's Steel Battalion: Line of Contact. It's based on the award-winning Steel Battalion phenomenon featuring the most elaborate [???] interface ever. But Xbox Live isn't just for the hardcore, right? Far from it. Konami's popular Dance Dance Revolution series has brought new players into gaming, expanding the audience of video game entertainment among teens, especially young women, across Europe. This Christmas, Dancing Stage Unleashed goes Live, allowing online disco kings and disco queens - I can see some of them around here - to hit the virtual dance floor and compare moves with other players around the world.
Millions of gamers have found out that nothing brings people together like Xbox. They know that it's good to play together. Because it makes Xbox part of the digital entertainment lifestyle they share with their friends and families. Xbox Live is the global fulfilment of that vision. Unified, secure, easy and simply as fun as hell. It has already changed video game entertainment forever. And potential is unlimited. With Xbox Live we can foster new gaming experiences, create communities of players that unite old friends and make new ones, we can expand the video game audience - moreover, we can expand the video game industry beyond traditional boundaries.
But before it can be good to play together, it has
Author: Nemo :: 2003-09-19 13:15:52
At X02 the Stampers promised us a KI game. At X03 Peter Moore promises we'll all play together on XBL. Is that because Xbox games won't have decent single-player logic anymore? Buy me some broadband, Petey-boy.
Author: Dunkers :: 2003-09-19 11:35:36
xboxizdope if youre so drunk why are you on the internet looking at Xbox news. You need to find something fun to do when you're drunk. There is alot more fun things to do when you're drunk, like sleeping.
Author: Bumjabber :: 2003-09-19 05:56:12
Mr Hopkins you're a freaking weirdo! Is that suppose to be funny cause if it is I don't get it.
Author: Mr Hopkins :: 2003-09-19 05:20:06
Now what would be nice is some dessert. I wonder did they allow the recordings of unplugged sessions.Now that would be really nice to hear what went on with peter molyneux unplugged.
Author: Mr Hopkins :: 2003-09-19 05:16:40
I dont know where u all got this from but thank u than u!
I really enjoyed reading that. It filled and was delicious opps my brains just burped. :)
Author: xboxizdope :: 2003-09-19 03:10:44
I'm way to drunk right now to even read part of that!!
Author: Knuckles :: 2003-09-18 21:38:54
OMFG this will take me a week to read lol
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News: The X03 Complete Transcript
