Chris Satchell, CVG best mate and general manager of Microsoft Developer Group is one of many charismatic Englishmen behind the Xbox development machine, but above that he's easily the one we'd most like to take down the pub.
That's because he's full of insight and chatter surrounding our favorite white and green box, bathing us with knowledge during our recent GDC interview with the latest on Microsoft's plans for You Tube-esque user conent, Xbox Live Arcade and why we should pay for Games for Windows Live. He's probably a legend on the slot machines as well.
How is Microsoft going to answer Sony's big push into user-generated content?
Chris Satchell: I think consumers as creators is one of the most powerful things that's going to happen in the industry in the next five-to-ten years. We have all the infrastructure to do that.
I think Little Big Planet is very cool. It's a very cool game and it's got a cool user-generated content feature but I can't see a big portfolio of games at the moment that do this.
You saw Forza 2 yeah? And the user-generated content there? That clearly shows our infrastructure side - you're able to take a car out, completely paint it, completely mod it, tune it and you're able to auction it online, take the funds from that and reimburse them in the game to do whatever you want.
That's a very similar example of user-generated content. It's not building a world but if you're into racing games it's just as meaningful.
The other side of it is XNA Studio Express; going beyond user-generated content to user-generated games. We've had incredible success with the downloads - we're over 250,000. I want to put that in to perspective; there are probably 20-25,000 professional programmers in the industry - this is ten times that and we did it in three months.
First it's a great system and it makes it a lot easier to build games but it's because there are a lot of people out there with really good ideas and they don't have something to enable them.
When we deliver our sharing story later in the year and you're able to share the game you've made in Game Studio Express with everybody on Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live - they don't need to be in the Creators Club or anything else - I think that is going to be great user-generated content.
How much influence do you think PlayStation Home took from Xbox Live?
Satchell: I think they've definitely taken some concepts that we originated like achievements, but I think they're pushing in a different direction and we've sort of fundamentally got two different approaches going on here.
There's very much a vision that people see it and it looks cool but it's fundamentally separate from the games - or at least what they've shown so far.
So you've got an environment where I don't have a unified community, I don't have unified achievements, I have to leave the experience to go back and see all that stuff - it's not an approach that's consistent across their portfolio. Some games will do it, some games won't, some games have achievements but they don't have to have achievements.
It's not a very game-centric approach. It's a cool world but it's like a little game by itself. Our approach is the other way around; that games are the centre and that's the star of the show, that's what people buy the console for.
I think it's an inside-out and an outside-in approach. We're more of an outside-in approach with games at the core where at they've got this thing at the core and the game experience around it.
You've just announced the file-size increase for XBLA titles. Where is that change going to lead? Are we going to ever see full Xbox 1 games on the service?
Satchell: I haven't seen any plans for that at the moment. We really want to create a steady stream of Xbox Live games and we've been delivering games at a good pace and we did have that dry spell.
We're discovering that as you do these online games, if you talk about the game they expect it pretty quickly. We're really taking that on board and saying we need to have a deeper pile and need to get more titles through. We're seeing major publisher interest that's going to help us fill up that pile with really good games.
It's really about broadening the experience. Did you see Pinball FX? It's just cool. It's about new kinds of experiences and I think it's a great way to get a lot of innovation on the console and get those new broader experiences, as well as focusing on Viva Pinata and things in the triple-A space.
As for full game downloads, we have the infrastructure for it but I don't know if there's a demand for it yet.
Peter Molyneux was telling us that the Microsoft team was pretty shocked by his surprise dog feature in Fable 2. What was your reaction to that?
Satchell: I actually haven't seen it but I'm an extreme dog lover. I get every game that comes out because one of my groups is certification but I would buy the game just because it had a dog in it - there aren't enough dog games in my world.
I've seen some of Molyneux's comments on creating emotion in the game and I think that having a canine companion certainly for a lot of people will be a way to bring emotion into the game. And if I can make it look like my dog I'll be sold!
Moving on to the Games for Windows side, what's the incentive for PC gamers to pay a fee for Live?
Satchell: It has some really unique attributes. Even if you don't want to play on Xbox you've still got a huge community there that you're connecting to from the start. I mean you might never want to play on Xbox but it doesn't mean you don't want to play against somebody on Xbox or beat somebody on Xbox.
We're starting with Shadowrun and we've got Uno. I think it's another occasion where it's just going to be fun to be engaged with that really good online community.
Then there's a lot of other things that we bring to the service like better security, less cheating, less grief and a great connected experience with chat and lots of things you can do in that experience.
All the things that make it worthwhile paying $4 a month on the Xbox service will mean that it's worthwhile using the Games for Windows Live service as well.
I think people will just find that it's the best online service and I think that will attract players to it.
"When we deliver our sharing story later in the year and you're able to share the game you've made in Game Studio Express with everybody on Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live - they don't need to be in the Creators Club or anything else - I think that is going to be great user-generated content."
I can't wait to see what kind of stuff comes from this, one of the best things about 360/Live IMHO
"Did you see Pinball FX? It's just cool. It's about new kinds of experiences and I think it's a great way to get a lot of innovation on the console and get those new broader experiences, as well as focusing on Viva Pinata and things in the triple-A space."
I'm actually stoked for this game. Its supposed to have four player XBL action.
"Did you see Pinball FX? It's just cool. It's about new kinds of experiences and I think it's a great way to get a lot of innovation on the console and get those new broader experiences, as well as focusing on Viva Pinata and things in the triple-A space."
I'm actually stoked for this game. Its supposed to have four player XBL action.
Heh, I agree, this game is looking pretty good. I'm just looking forward to using a motion sensor camera to play pinball with your hands. MEEE WANNT
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