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* By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
* Posted Sep 17, 2008 10:34 am PT
EA Sports head reminisces about killing the Dreamcast, turning the Xbox into a competitor, and how the industry has passed Rare by.
Peter Moore has been a major player in the gaming industry for the better part of a decade. He was Sega of America president during the Dreamcast launch, a corporate VP at Microsoft since the middle of the original Xbox's life span, and currently serves as the president of Electronic Arts' EA Sports brand. Moore shared some of his experiences from that stretch of time recently with The Guardian tech blogger Keith Stuart, who has been posting excerpts of his interview in multiple parts.
This man killed the Dreamcast.
The most eyebrow-raising of the remarks published to date include those about his entry into Microsoft. Moore said that, when meeting with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer before taking the job, the discussion touched upon the issue of acquiring rival console maker Nintendo, even if the main goal was to crush Sony.
"Those were the conversations in those days," Moore said. "It was a classic "build or buy" conversation. Xbox had launched, but it was an aggressive black box for shooters, and how do we evolve that, how do we build the next Xbox, how do we get after Sony?"
Interestingly, not everyone at Microsoft was thrilled with the company's entry into gaming. Although most welcomed it, Moore said, "There was a vocal minority that disagreed with video games as a cultural phenomenon--the content we were doing--we did M rated, we did allow GTA to be published on the platform and I had no issues with that..."
Of course, not all of the content that Microsoft pursued was M-rated. The company also put resources behind games such as Rare's broad-appeal gardening game Viva Pinata, which was supported by a children's television show. However, Moore implied that the game, and even Microsoft's purchase of Rare itself, never paid off.
"We were trying all kinds of classic Rare stuff, and unfortunately I think the industry had passed Rare by," Moore said. "It's a strong statement, but what they were good at, new consumers didn't care about anymore. And it was tough because they were trying very hard--Chris and Tim Stamper were still there--to try and re-create the glory years of Rare, which is the reason Microsoft paid a lot of money for them and I spent a lot of time getting on a train to Twycross to meet them. Great people. But their skill sets were from a different time and a different place and were not applicable in today's market."
Going back to Moore's first gig in the industry, he talked about the Sega Dreamcast, and how it suffered an ignoble death less than two years after its launch. "We had a tremendous 18 months," Moore told The Guardian. "Dreamcast was on fire; we really thought that we could do it. But then we had a target from Japan that said--and I can't remember the exact figures--but we had to make N hundreds of millions of dollars by the holiday season and shift N millions of units of hardware, otherwise we just couldn't sustain the business. So on January 31, 2001, we said that Sega is leaving hardware. Somehow I got to make that call, not the Japanese. I had to fire a lot of people; it was not a pleasant day."
Moore: Microsoft considered buying Nintendo - News at GameSpot
It'd be nice if they could focus on making a solid new OS first, and treating the PC gaming segment better instead of just trying to go after Sony like it's some personal crusade.
Somehow I doubt a Microsoft monopoly on the gaming industry would be a good thing, given their current quality track record in the industry. Most markets outside the U.S. already avoid them because of this. They still have their work cut out for them simply maintaining the innovation/quality standards set by Nintendo and Sony.
Take the Wii for example: Microsoft laughed at the motion control concept...and now they're making plans to adopt it.
The PS3: Microsoft scoffed at all the "pointless" features and HD capacity....and they've been steadily clamoring to include them on their own system ever since the PS3's launch.
Even in the face of millions of replaced consoles due to hardware failure, the President of Entertainment and Devices division said they would've done nothing differently if it meant being first to marketshare. I suppose that can also be blamed on the millions who will repeatedly buy broken hardware but oh well. That's the power of good marketing.
Report: MS Knew About 360 Defects Before Launch
Seems more like an issue of American arrogance than it is market capitalization that will actually benefit the consumer. I can sense that they might want to eat a big piece of humble pie soon, or else later they're going to have it all over their faces.
Here's hoping that Windows 7 and the Xbox 720 are everything Vista and the 360 failed to be.
* Posted Sep 17, 2008 10:34 am PT
EA Sports head reminisces about killing the Dreamcast, turning the Xbox into a competitor, and how the industry has passed Rare by.
Peter Moore has been a major player in the gaming industry for the better part of a decade. He was Sega of America president during the Dreamcast launch, a corporate VP at Microsoft since the middle of the original Xbox's life span, and currently serves as the president of Electronic Arts' EA Sports brand. Moore shared some of his experiences from that stretch of time recently with The Guardian tech blogger Keith Stuart, who has been posting excerpts of his interview in multiple parts.
This man killed the Dreamcast.
The most eyebrow-raising of the remarks published to date include those about his entry into Microsoft. Moore said that, when meeting with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer before taking the job, the discussion touched upon the issue of acquiring rival console maker Nintendo, even if the main goal was to crush Sony.
"Those were the conversations in those days," Moore said. "It was a classic "build or buy" conversation. Xbox had launched, but it was an aggressive black box for shooters, and how do we evolve that, how do we build the next Xbox, how do we get after Sony?"
Interestingly, not everyone at Microsoft was thrilled with the company's entry into gaming. Although most welcomed it, Moore said, "There was a vocal minority that disagreed with video games as a cultural phenomenon--the content we were doing--we did M rated, we did allow GTA to be published on the platform and I had no issues with that..."
Of course, not all of the content that Microsoft pursued was M-rated. The company also put resources behind games such as Rare's broad-appeal gardening game Viva Pinata, which was supported by a children's television show. However, Moore implied that the game, and even Microsoft's purchase of Rare itself, never paid off.
"We were trying all kinds of classic Rare stuff, and unfortunately I think the industry had passed Rare by," Moore said. "It's a strong statement, but what they were good at, new consumers didn't care about anymore. And it was tough because they were trying very hard--Chris and Tim Stamper were still there--to try and re-create the glory years of Rare, which is the reason Microsoft paid a lot of money for them and I spent a lot of time getting on a train to Twycross to meet them. Great people. But their skill sets were from a different time and a different place and were not applicable in today's market."
Going back to Moore's first gig in the industry, he talked about the Sega Dreamcast, and how it suffered an ignoble death less than two years after its launch. "We had a tremendous 18 months," Moore told The Guardian. "Dreamcast was on fire; we really thought that we could do it. But then we had a target from Japan that said--and I can't remember the exact figures--but we had to make N hundreds of millions of dollars by the holiday season and shift N millions of units of hardware, otherwise we just couldn't sustain the business. So on January 31, 2001, we said that Sega is leaving hardware. Somehow I got to make that call, not the Japanese. I had to fire a lot of people; it was not a pleasant day."
Moore: Microsoft considered buying Nintendo - News at GameSpot
It'd be nice if they could focus on making a solid new OS first, and treating the PC gaming segment better instead of just trying to go after Sony like it's some personal crusade.
Somehow I doubt a Microsoft monopoly on the gaming industry would be a good thing, given their current quality track record in the industry. Most markets outside the U.S. already avoid them because of this. They still have their work cut out for them simply maintaining the innovation/quality standards set by Nintendo and Sony.
Take the Wii for example: Microsoft laughed at the motion control concept...and now they're making plans to adopt it.
The PS3: Microsoft scoffed at all the "pointless" features and HD capacity....and they've been steadily clamoring to include them on their own system ever since the PS3's launch.
Even in the face of millions of replaced consoles due to hardware failure, the President of Entertainment and Devices division said they would've done nothing differently if it meant being first to marketshare. I suppose that can also be blamed on the millions who will repeatedly buy broken hardware but oh well. That's the power of good marketing.
Report: MS Knew About 360 Defects Before Launch
Seems more like an issue of American arrogance than it is market capitalization that will actually benefit the consumer. I can sense that they might want to eat a big piece of humble pie soon, or else later they're going to have it all over their faces.
Here's hoping that Windows 7 and the Xbox 720 are everything Vista and the 360 failed to be.
