Xbox Live Schappert and Lionhead Molyneux's GDC Revelations
First major Microsoft keynote since '05.
Microsoft's John Schappert.
It looks to SPOnG as if the forthcoming Game Developers Conference (San Francisco, February 18 to 22nd) is going to be a big one for things Microsoft.
John Schappert, the company's... hold your breath... Corporate Vice President LIVE, Software and Services for the Interactive Entertainment Business... breath out, is presenting a session entitled 'A Future Wide Open: Unleashing the Creative Community'.
Schappert is responsible for "all platform technologies and businesses, including console software, Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows" and "technology innovations, software development and consumer experiences for Xbox LIVE including Xbox LIVE Marketplace and Xbox LIVE Arcade, Games for Windows LIVE, XNA game development tools, MSN Games as well as Windows LIVE Messenger and Windows games".
Therefore, we'd expect slightly more than vapid rolling out of promises for Xbox owners. With this being Microsoft's first senior-level session for some three years, we would in fact expect the session to outline some solid information for Xbox 360 development in the near and medium term.
Speaking of development... Microsoft-owned, Lionhead Studios' head, Peter Molyneux is going to present his session entitled, 'FABLE 2 - The Big Three Features Revealed'. The great man of British gaming will, we are told, flesh out Molyneux's "stated ambition as a designer", which is, "...to make Fable 2 a landmark game.
"In order to achieve this three big design features have been added. The inspiration and rational behind these features will be discussed along with their evolution throughout the development process. The wider context of their impact and influence on the RPG genre with also be examined as the ambition is also to evolve the genre itself".
Now, we all know that Peter can talk up one hell of a head of steam - so we're expecting big things here.
John Schappert, the company's... hold your breath... Corporate Vice President LIVE, Software and Services for the Interactive Entertainment Business... breath out, is presenting a session entitled 'A Future Wide Open: Unleashing the Creative Community'.
Schappert is responsible for "all platform technologies and businesses, including console software, Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows" and "technology innovations, software development and consumer experiences for Xbox LIVE including Xbox LIVE Marketplace and Xbox LIVE Arcade, Games for Windows LIVE, XNA game development tools, MSN Games as well as Windows LIVE Messenger and Windows games".
Therefore, we'd expect slightly more than vapid rolling out of promises for Xbox owners. With this being Microsoft's first senior-level session for some three years, we would in fact expect the session to outline some solid information for Xbox 360 development in the near and medium term.
Speaking of development... Microsoft-owned, Lionhead Studios' head, Peter Molyneux is going to present his session entitled, 'FABLE 2 - The Big Three Features Revealed'. The great man of British gaming will, we are told, flesh out Molyneux's "stated ambition as a designer", which is, "...to make Fable 2 a landmark game.
"In order to achieve this three big design features have been added. The inspiration and rational behind these features will be discussed along with their evolution throughout the development process. The wider context of their impact and influence on the RPG genre with also be examined as the ambition is also to evolve the genre itself".
Now, we all know that Peter can talk up one hell of a head of steam - so we're expecting big things here.
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Comments
SuperSaiyan4 16 Jan 2008 13:53
1/7
Talk is cheap! Give us Fable 2 release date!
Also still no news about Xbox Live anywhere...
Also still no news about Xbox Live anywhere...
tyrion 16 Jan 2008 14:15
2/7
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
Also still no news about Xbox Live anywhere...
It was mentioned in another thread that Major Nelson has said they can't talk about Live or progress towards fixing it because that Texas lawsuit means it's gone legal and they can't talk about the case without prejudicing it.
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SuperSaiyan4 16 Jan 2008 16:58
3/7
Well that means Schappert will have to keep quiet about Live then at GDC because lawsuits take forever...
What I dont understand then if they can sue Microsoft for Live being down what about all the rest of the millions of users?? Why just Texas? What about all the other states??
This isnt a question to you or anyone but just generalising on the fact that its just a small handful apparently of people that are suing....in one state...
Live is fine now although it would have been nice of Microsoft to have informed all users of the issues rather than keep quiet about it.
What I dont understand then if they can sue Microsoft for Live being down what about all the rest of the millions of users?? Why just Texas? What about all the other states??
This isnt a question to you or anyone but just generalising on the fact that its just a small handful apparently of people that are suing....in one state...
Live is fine now although it would have been nice of Microsoft to have informed all users of the issues rather than keep quiet about it.
PreciousRoi 17 Jan 2008 03:54
4/7
Its not just Texas, that just happens to be where the lawsuit originates...I believe it will affect all LIVE! users as it is a class action lawsuit, the class presumably being people who were LIVE! members during the holidays, possibly (probably) limited to the US, possibly including Puerto Rico and the USVI. State and regional laws may vary. All Rights Derided. So don't worry, whatevers left after the lawyers take their cut, you'll get your f**king share...no need to start your own lawsuit.
And while you might get a free arcade game, some MS points, or maybe even a small cash refund, in the here and now MS is legally bound not to discuss the state of LIVE! and some asshole lawyer is going to get fat siphoning off some of OUR money from MS that could have went back into improving and expanding the service, and its reliability instead of buying his mistress a BMW and his wife a new rack. This lawsuit IS NOT A GOOD THING FOR LIVE! USERS. full stop. It will come back and bite us on the ass somehow, if it hasn't started already. full stop.
And while you might get a free arcade game, some MS points, or maybe even a small cash refund, in the here and now MS is legally bound not to discuss the state of LIVE! and some asshole lawyer is going to get fat siphoning off some of OUR money from MS that could have went back into improving and expanding the service, and its reliability instead of buying his mistress a BMW and his wife a new rack. This lawsuit IS NOT A GOOD THING FOR LIVE! USERS. full stop. It will come back and bite us on the ass somehow, if it hasn't started already. full stop.
PreciousRoi 17 Jan 2008 04:14
5/7
Almost forgot to quote you properly.
yeah, I noticed.
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
What about ME? How come only Texas gets to sue? No fair, I wanna sue them too...I can be just as short-sighted and greedy as anyone from Texas...
*pouts
I don't understand.
*pouts
I don't understand.
yeah, I noticed.
deleted 17 Jan 2008 20:41
6/7
PreciousRoi wrote:
Its not just Texas, that just happens to be where the lawsuit originates...I believe it will affect all LIVE! users as it is a class action lawsuit, the class presumably being people who were LIVE! members during the holidays, possibly (probably) limited to the US, possibly including Puerto Rico and the USVI. State and regional laws may vary. All Rights Derided. So don't worry, whatevers left after the lawyers take their cut, you'll get your f**king share...no need to start your own lawsuit.
And while you might get a free arcade game, some MS points, or maybe even a small cash refund, in the here and now MS is legally bound not to discuss the state of LIVE! and some asshole lawyer is going to get fat siphoning off some of OUR money from MS that could have went back into improving and expanding the service, and its reliability instead of buying his mistress a BMW and his wife a new rack. This lawsuit IS NOT A GOOD THING FOR LIVE! USERS. full stop. It will come back and bite us on the ass somehow, if it hasn't started already. full stop.
And while you might get a free arcade game, some MS points, or maybe even a small cash refund, in the here and now MS is legally bound not to discuss the state of LIVE! and some asshole lawyer is going to get fat siphoning off some of OUR money from MS that could have went back into improving and expanding the service, and its reliability instead of buying his mistress a BMW and his wife a new rack. This lawsuit IS NOT A GOOD THING FOR LIVE! USERS. full stop. It will come back and bite us on the ass somehow, if it hasn't started already. full stop.
Well said, gamers are quick to show loyality and defend when someone sues or bans them for blood and guts violence or criminal content (manhunt springs to mind), but as soon as gamers are affected by a couple of days weeks downtime, its guns at the ready, hypocrites nad as PreciousRoi points out it will not be a good thing in the long run, maybe we get our fix of quick compensation = to around £5 or so, how much will that cost microsoft there is around 10 million gold users give or take and as it also affected silver users too thats a potential 17.7 million users that could get some sort of £5.00 compensation taking up to a possible £88.5 million ($177 million) how many first party titles would that make! personally i would prefer an apology and MS to give an extra 2 weeks on my live account if i have to have something, otherwise ill accept the apology, dont get me wrong i dont expect MS to let live to go down every week and do nothing about it, but i dont expect them to have to cut the games budget because of a one off system problem!
PreciousRoi 17 Jan 2008 21:30
7/7
Not to mention the massive legal fees MS will incur, possible future reluctance to inplement innovations, as any changes would present a potential problem, which could bring another lawsuit, which possibility might cause a shift in focus to reliability, possibly redundancy, once again, at the expense of possible new features and capabilities. This whole thing is ridiculous...I read something the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs said, about how his clients weren't bad guys, they just felt that they needed to do something... or its nonunion Mexican equivalent. The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing and all that I suppose...of course the obverse side to that coin is The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Excuses™.
Yeah, and I'm sure you urged caution and restraint once you got the numbers you shyster...once again, REMEMBER, any money this guy bleeds from MS, is money that came right outta LIVE! users pockets to begin with. Its like your favorite milk cow has a tapeworm...you might feed the cow the same amount, but you end up getting less milk of multiplayer gaming goodness, even if the actual reason is invisible to the naked eye. And if you want the really nice cream? You gotta feed her even more.(By which I mean that prices for premium content might increase as a result) Thats an imperfect metaphor, but you see what I'm saying...
But you know...even though I'm sure they're sick of doing this...MS might just eat it and continue on almost as though nothing had happened (few specific policy changes, in troubleshooting and bringing the system back up they no doubt discovered some beneficial changes, and obviously would want to avoid another instance)
Its not as though the rest of MS is a stranger to lawsuits, they might just see it as a cost of doing buisness. The true cost of the lawsuit will never be known...perhaps it is actually a blessing in disguise.
Yeah, and I'm sure you urged caution and restraint once you got the numbers you shyster...once again, REMEMBER, any money this guy bleeds from MS, is money that came right outta LIVE! users pockets to begin with. Its like your favorite milk cow has a tapeworm...you might feed the cow the same amount, but you end up getting less milk of multiplayer gaming goodness, even if the actual reason is invisible to the naked eye. And if you want the really nice cream? You gotta feed her even more.(By which I mean that prices for premium content might increase as a result) Thats an imperfect metaphor, but you see what I'm saying...
Racist Frankenstein wrote:
MmMmMmMmMRawr
lawyer...Mmm...BAD!!!
lawyer...Mmm...BAD!!!
But you know...even though I'm sure they're sick of doing this...MS might just eat it and continue on almost as though nothing had happened (few specific policy changes, in troubleshooting and bringing the system back up they no doubt discovered some beneficial changes, and obviously would want to avoid another instance)
Its not as though the rest of MS is a stranger to lawsuits, they might just see it as a cost of doing buisness. The true cost of the lawsuit will never be known...perhaps it is actually a blessing in disguise.