Interviews// Peter Moore: The Exclusive and Essential Interview: Part Two

SPOnG: Also, the size of it. The scale...

Peter Moore: Yes. It’s large. It’s black. It has a feeling of what we call architectural design and it’s also a wild design. So a Japanese consumer, the most demanding and finicky consumer electronics consumer in the world...and you have Xbox, then you show Xbox 360...In the design process, the 360 was fundamentally designed in Japan. We knew that if it’s going to please the Japanese consumer, it will please any consumer in the world. We went to Hers Design in Osaka in Japan and had them collaborate in a very unique way with Astro Design in San Francisco. The bottom line is: the people we have to please are the folks in Japan. You please them and you please everyone else in the world. They have a taste and a feel for the aesthetics of consumer electronics unlike any other consumer. It’s got to be sleek, stylish and it’s got to be miniaturised in a lot of cases because their homes aren’t big enough. You go a Japanese apartment - they are tiny. And when you look at the original Xbox, which didn’t stand up in the vertical posture, then compare it to 360...

One of the things we’re most proud of is that nobody gave Sony the design advantage coming out of E3. So, you know, tick box!

SPOnG: Especially the pad...

Peter Moore: The boomerang! Throw it away and it just comes back! So... everybody loved the feel of the 360 pad. I just got the first working wireless units and they’re great. We spent a ton of time working on the ergonomics of the pad.

We focused on style and design and sleekness and above all, we wanted a timeless design. 360 represents an iconic gesture. It’s concave, but we didn’t want anything that was too out there. And whether it’s sat upright or on its side, when you put it into your entertainment centre it looks great for this holiday and in five years from now. And to be fair, Sony has been the master of that in the past. And it was a concern for us. The PS2 was better-looking, from an industrial design point of view, than the Xbox, and we needed to beat them in that area and many people believe that the 360 is a superior design to the PlayStation 3.

When you see the family of products, which we’re going to show at X05, then you’ll see. Yes, that was another area in Japan where we struggled. The original Xbox - it looked American and we spent a ton of time on the design and weeks in the Japanese market with focus groups and talking to consumers. And one thing that’s stuck in my mind that came out of one focus group was one time we asked: "Who do you think designed this and when do you think it will become available?" They guessed first Apple for the manufacturer, then Sony. Microsoft did not figure highly on that list at all! And then they said that it didn’t seem real yet, that it looked too far into the future and we think it will be available in 2008. And when you get that kind of feedback, especially when you’ve gone through that much pain as we have in Japan, it’s very reassuring that you’ve done the right thing. So yeah, Japan. We didn’t have the right games. We didn’t have the right design and the marketing was a little too foreign game-focused and we’ve changed all of that.

SPOnG: What do you think is the most important element with Japan, hardware design or content? Because from mid-lifespan to date of Xbox, there has been an absolute focus on providing targeted software for the Japanese. Games that you would consider ‘must have’, that you would assume would be hardware shifters - games that would have buoyed PlayStation 2 or GameCube sales had they been made. Ninja Gaiden for example, one of the best games ever. And it didn’t happen. Why?

Peter Moore: What you need is tempo. Ninja Gaiden is great and yes, it should be a hardware-shifter. But it came out at a time when Xbox hardware had no momentum. So was it enough to reset where we needed to be in Japan? No. The die was cast. When you have single digit marketshare a single game, not even the equivalent of what Halo would be in Japan, is probably insufficient to make a difference. Because the Japanese gamer looks at the flow, the portfolio and one game isn’t enough.

SPOnG: Even though it’s so cheap in Japan now?

Peter Moore: No. A year and a half ago we decided we needed the best partners. Luckily Sakaguchi-san was returning from his hiatus and I flew out and met with him in Hawaii. I explained to him as best I could what the future of Xbox 360 would be...

SPOnG: Did you show him the hardware?

Peter Moore: It was too early, before we even had it. But we talked about what we felt the power of the machine would have, our vision for online and our commitment to the Japanese market and our willingness to take what he wanted to do and share it with the world. Because he makes games for the entire world. Another great friend of mine, Mizuguchi-san, someone I’ve always had the highest regard for. Whether it was Sega Rally or Space Channel 5 or Rez and more recently Lumines on PSP...

SPOnG: That must have been quite an easy deal to do with Q Entertainment...

Peter Moore: First of all, Mizuguchi is a great guy. His English is great and people love him wherever he goes in the world. He’s charismatic and has a sense of fun in his games that not many people do. I loved Space Channel 5. The rest of the world didn’t, and voted with their wallets that they didn’t. He has this feeling of how a game should be. Lumines is semi-addictive from the get-go. Rez...Rez is the greatest game that not a lot of people have ever played. And this is the magic dust that Mizuguchi-san has.

SPOnG: What else if anything, is Q working on aside from Ninety Nine Nights? Because that’s very different to what one might expect...

Peter Moore: It’s an interesting collaboration. Q is working with Phantagram on Ninety Nine Nights and Mizuguchi - a Japanese developer going to Korea is an interesting story in itself. And of course we have Okamoto-san, who cut his teeth on Street Fighter and was a major factor behind Resident Evil is now doing EveryParty for us - a complete departure...

We need to give people in Japan a reason to believe. When we announced in February of this year that we had support from Sakaguchi, Okamoto and Mizuguchi, people realised that we had been saying Japan is important and now we are putting our money where our mouth is.

SPOnG: Something of a list of dissident developers, isn’t it? A politically interesting set of signings...

Peter Moore: I love ‘em all. I was in Tokyo last week and spent a considerable amount of time in one-on-ones with all of them. They are interesting characters and individuals. Not your cookie-cutter developer that’s going to give you something that’s already out there. Sakaguchi is going to go to his grave to create the finest role-playing game, the finest, most lavish and most beautiful role-playing game you’ve ever seen. Mizuguchi is going to bring a unique collaboration with the Koreans and Okamoto doing a party game is just funny in itself!

SPOnG: To press the point, we believe there are several titles at Q Entertainment. What are they?

Peter Moore: Right now we’ve only announced Ninety Nine Nights.

SPOnG: And can we expect more?

Peter Moore: Oh yeah. We have great faith in Mizuguchi. We have a deep relationship which is both personal between he and I and a business relationship. He believes ferociously in what we’re trying to do with Xbox 360.

And I believe all Japanese developers love the idea that the Japanese industry is going to be the scene of innovation again. Because quite frankly, they’ll tell you that the current market is one that breeds stagnation. The market share of Sony is so much. How hard does the incumbent have to try to push the envelope of game experience when they have an 80-90% installed base share?

SPOnG: Now Sega is gone, then yes, but Nintendo still shows massive innovation...

Peter Moore: Yeah, Nintendo’s still there. But to us, Japan is important. For the domestic market and because it’s the cradle for some of the most creative developers in the world. Our goal was to continue to nurture relationships with Konami, Capcom, Namco, Bandai and now of course Square. We put a lot of time and effort in having serious conversations with Square Enix about our vision for the future. And they bought in.

SPOnG: Is there anything more than Final Fantasy XI on the cards?

Peter Moore: Not that we’ve announced.

SPOnG. Is Final Fantasy XII exclusive to PlayStation 2?

Peter Moore: I don’t know if it’s exclusive. I don’t know. You’d have to ask Square about that. But the relationship with Square took massive investment. Myself, Robbie [Bach] and even Bill Gates spent a lot of time with them. It was one of the only things we had managed to keep secret come E3, thanks to SPOnG!

[I]This concludes our interview with Peter Moore. We’d like to offer sincere thanks to all at Microsoft on both sides of the pond for making this happen and especially Peter himself for not beating us with a stick, having a sense of humour and letting his well-trained guard down.

Regular readers can expect a similar level of interview, currently in the works, to be hitting the site soon. Stay tuned every day for developments.[/I]