They’ll ”continue to bring those exclusives” though their own studios, and they’re ”pretty confident” cross-platform is better on Xbox 360. Live is their ”oxygen”.
”They are important,” declared Chris Lewis, speaking of deals struck for exclusivity. ”DLC windows of exclusivity are critical for us for differentiation. We’ll continue to bring those exclusives through our own studio work, Gears and Forza and other titles.”
Microsoft has managed to pull in huge revenue from transactions over Xbox Live that have dwarfed its subscription revenue thanks to exclusive agreements in place for Grand Theft Auto IV expansions and especially Call of Duty map packs.
”We’re also pretty confident the cross-platform experience is better on Xbox. We enjoy great success with Call of Duty. Live is the oxygen that runs through our business. The experience users have through Xbox Live is a fundamental differentiator for us versus other platforms. FIFA is another one. Certainly here in Europe football is a religion.”
”Our ongoing commitment to experiencing better and playing better on Xbox is partly a function of what we do with Xbox Live,” continued the Europe boss.
”So, exclusive IP is critical, of course. You’ll see more of that over time. You’ll also see us, though, committed to working with people like EA and Activision on their cross-platform consoles to make sure they play better, and they integrate better across PC, phone and the console in a way other people’s just simply can’t.”
Microsoft leverages the 55 million install base for Xbox 360 to get publishers jumping on board for exclusivity. ”We have good, healthy partnerships with all the publishers around the globe, now,” he said. XBLA has become a premier channel for games.
”Over the last 10 years those have developed and they like the momentum we have. It’s hard to trivialise 55 million units out there. Everyone loves the install base. We did grow 20 per cent last year in Europe. We want to grow even more this coming year. If you think where we are in the life cycle that’s a fairly unusual ambition at this time.”
”Our publishers, they see that, they see that ambition, they know how much money we’re going to spend. They know the depth of the partnerships. They love the technology. And they understand we want to differentiate ourselves through DLC or the beauty of the integration across the different device types that we have and are uniquely placed to be able to offer versus our very good quality competition.”
One place on our little planet not sharing all this love for Xbox 360 is Japan, where reports indicate that big time retailers are drastically cutting back their Xbox 360 wares.
