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Interview: Microsoft's Scott Henson Continued..
-- March 27, 2006 by: Chris Remo
Shack: You mentioned Nintendo. Sony and Microsoft are definitely competitors this time around, that's clear, but Nintendo has stated that it's taking a different route with Revolution. What do you think about the company's overall strategy and how it will affect Microsoft and the rest of the industry?
Scott Henson: Well, a couple things. It excites me as a gamer. I was one of the first people to preorder a DS. I believed in the DS before the DS ever came out. People thought I was insane, and the reason I believed in the DS is that I really think Nintendo does a fantastic job of innovating in their hardware and showing that off. It was really exciting for me to see Zelda, it was really exciting for me to see Super Mario Bros. coming to the DS. Also what they're doing with the stylus, I was really excited about the Brain Age game as well. From that vantage point, they deserve kudos. I think it's great. We have very similar goals. We want to broaden the audience, bring new kinds of games in, games that don't have a one hundred or two hundred person cycle. Of course there's a place for those games, but this is why I'm showing you the demos that I have. A lot of what Nintendo [president Satoru Iwata] talked about, I was thinking, "Yes! That's why the XNA framework is so important, that's why Live Arcade is so important." So I think to a certain extent, that was also very validating. On a personal note, I just want to see the payoff on that controller so bad. [laughs] I can just taste it! I was there at TGS last year when he announced it, and I was just thinking, "Please just show me a game using that controller!" I'm still just dying here, but I know at E3 they're going to have the payoff. But yeah, yesterday [at the keynote] I was hoping they'd show it off.
Shack: Yeah, it's too bad they didn't, I guess they're saving their trump card for E3.
Scott Henson: But yeah, he had that great story about the Metroid team, how they were really skeptical about the controller, and how they changed it. [During his keynote, Iwata described changing the controller after showing it to the Metroid designers, who did not believe their traditional style of game would work with what was the prototype at the time.] You know, I thought for sure Iwata was going to pull out a Metroid demo with that thing.
Shack: Nintendo has a lot to prove this time around.
Scott Henson: Yeah, well trust me, in my hallways I was saying, "DS is going to rule the world, I think it's an amazing product, I think it's really cool." I'm a big believer in broadening the market. I have two little girls, a five year old and a two year old, and I'm constantly thinking about what we can do to bring these guys in that we can all feel good about. Live Arcade is one of these ways, we play Marble Blast Ultra, Feeding Frenzy came out recently. But the same reason I get excited about the DS is the same reason I get excited about Live Arcade and the XNA framework. So to sum that up, I think a lot of what Nintendo is trying to do to broaden the audience is dead square in what we're trying to do as well.
Shack: So speaking of the portable arena, can you give any response to Dean Takahashi's comments about a portable Xbox?
Scott Henson: This is where our PR would say "We don't comment on..." It's a rumor.
Shack: That's what I thought. [laughs] So how do you guys feel about AGEIA's PhysX PPU, the actual separate physics card itself for the PC market?
Scott Henson: I don't know what the official PR line, but I do think innovating in that space, whether there's a card or not, is going to advance gameplay. The more believable some of these things are, the more drawn in gamers are going to become. I think for that kind of games where you're looking for real immersion, that kind of technology will be great. Whether that's from an add-on card, I don't know. I think that'll be hard for people to understand until they can really experience a great game that matches up with it. I believe in physics as a key part of the overall gameplay experience, but the card part will require a game that will make people say, "Oh my god, I never would have had this experience without this card!" It's a little different from video cards, because you can't look at it and say, "Oh, that's because of this thing."
Shack: Doesn't work in screenshots.
Scott Henson: No, it does not work in screenshots at all! [laughs] So we're apparently going to have to invent some new way of experiencing screenshots or videos.
Microsoft PR: We're going to have to wrap this up, that's all we've got time for.
Shack: Thanks for your time!
