Shane Kim in his new role: talks 'mass market' Xbox appeal

by Christopher Grant { Jun 13th 2008 at 7:51PM }

Following yesterday's game of musical executive chairs inside Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business – wherein Shane Kim ordered a brand new chair for his newly created office of corporate vice president of Strategy and Business Development, while Phil Spencer adopted Kim's old chair as the new general manager of Microsoft Game Studios – Next-Gen spoke with the two execs about their new roles. Unsurprisingly, Kim is the focus of the interview, and he offered a handful of forward-facing statements, fitting with his new strategic role.

When asked if MGS could publish another title as popular as Halo 3, Kim says the chances are "really good" explaining, "We've got the talent, we've got people who are always on the lookout for new ideas and talent, and most importantly we have the commitment and the will to create those hits." Even more telling, Kim puts that new title to use, addressing the strategy of appealing to a new mainstream market: "For us, our opportunity is much like the industry's opportunity: How do we make what we do mass market? How do we make it a mainstream form of entertainment?" Sounds like Kim was bumped upstairs to help Xbox get some of that Wii money, no?

Tags: MGS, Microsoft, Microsoft-Game-Studios, Shane-Kim

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Tiptup300 @ Jun 13th 2008 8:24PM

Everyone knows kim didn't belong in that job. He was there just to move ahead in the company. They need a real videogame guy on top.

FrankTheCrank @ Jun 13th 2008 8:38PM

Translation: We so want to be Nintendo.

Co @ Jun 13th 2008 9:17PM

Who doesn't?

Korova Pyro aspect @ Jun 13th 2008 9:58PM

I dont think its Ninty money. They want hometheater money. Makes more sense for their position.

Also, "forward-facing" makes and SEC man laugh. Forward -looking makes him get out the ruler.

Brandon @ Jun 13th 2008 10:17PM

If I hear any more synonyms for casual gaming, I am going to vomit. The 360 will NEVER be as mass market as the Wii. Not when the average owner is still the guy that bought Gears and Halo and Call of Duty. And shoehorned attempts like Viva Pinata are wastes of time and money. It needs to accept what it is.

Tiptup300 @ Jun 13th 2008 10:26PM

The wii is marketed as a toy. Toys are a lot like casual games. This is why this relationship works!

I'm not saying selling the wii as a toy is a bad thing, it helped sales tremendously, just destroyed it's ability to sell _real_ games.

Now if the 360 sold for 250 and came with a 4 pack of mini-games bundled with it, it could possibly sell.

Solid Chief @ Jun 13th 2008 11:22PM

Isn't that what the arcade tries to do?

Wes @ Jun 15th 2008 12:06AM

Keyword being 'tries' at this point. What it lacks is the easy controls of the Wii @ that price point.

I think if the xbox 360 gets a wii-cloned controller or voice-activated controller...aka LIPS or something at e3, then it might start selling substantially at the cheap price point.

Casual gamers = no gaming skills. They need to be able to fail their arms like mindless chickens, touch the screen with a pen or be limited to a maximum of '2-4' buttons aka wii/Nintendo DS. Its almost required ;)

When you start getting up to 4 buttons and 4 rutter buttons + 4 d-pad buttons, it starts go to beyond the casual players abilities or lack there of abilities.

Wii60 @ Jun 13th 2008 10:30PM

I'm not at all suprised.

We all know that a 360 WiiMote controller is in Development, and that they'll do a price drop at e3. Soon, the Arcade, now at $280 will soon drop to the Wii's $250 or below. At that point, they'll likely drop a Blu-Ray drive and tout the marketplace for video and music. After that, it'll be a significant all-around entertainment machine. The kids can play the kiddie games and the adults can play Gears of War/Halo/etc. Somehow they're gonna have to get a hard drive in all of that so I suspect the base price will become $250, they lowest they can go to directly compete with the Wii.

All that said though, they will have a VERY difficult time remarketing the Xbox. Whenever I think of it, I think of the college frat boy market.

browntown @ Jun 13th 2008 11:42PM

The will never be mass market if they keep making hardcore games, and if they keep live the way it is. Live is not very casual, with little kids swearing and stuff, neither is any other online service. They need to get more casual games, but i think a big factor is that the first xbox was hardcore so it shaped their future, but they need a name change, cuz x is a hardcore letter, its threatening, like hardcore xxx. They should do research to find a casual letter or name.