Microsoft konsolių naujienos

Microsoft endures high-profile struggles in Japan with the Xbox 360, which continues to sell poorly.

Recent reports suggested Japanese retailers were removing the Xbox 360 from sale, but Microsoft told Eurogamer at Gamescom it remains committed to making the console a success there.

“No, of course we're not pulling out,” Chris Lewis, Microsoft's European boss, told Eurogamer.

“It's a challenging market. We are up against very strong competition there. All of our competition is strong. We're very respectful of what Sony and Nintendo do and where they've come from and what they bring.

“Nintendo, particularly with the Wii, have opened up a market opportunity there. We've leapfrogged that handheld technology with Kinect. What we're seeing is users love using their own body without worrying about how to work a controller. So we see ourselves as, frankly, a company that does bring an awful lot of firsts, and we've enjoyed fabulous success with Kinect.”

There are a slew of Xbox 360-exclusive, Japanese-made video games in development, including Capcom's Kinect-fuelled Steel Battalion, which Eurogamer saw this week at Microsoft's Gamescom Play Day event.

It remains to be seen whether Steel Battalion and games like it will boost sales of the Xbox 360 in Japan, which saw a dramatic 46.7 per cent year-to-date decline in sales this week, according to Media Create. Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Xbox 360 units in Japan – six years after launch. The Nintendo 3DS, boosted by a price cut, has already outsold the Xbox.

But Lewis suggested Microsoft will use next month's Tokyo Game Show to show its continued investment in Xbox 360 in Japan.

“Japan remains important to us. We're very committed to that market. The development community there is very important. Tokyo Game Show will be a notable element in the year as usual.”

Exclusive content - even if it's only for a set period of time - is crucial for differentiating the Xbox 360 from the PlayStation 3 and Wii, Microsoft's European boss Chris Lewis told Eurogamer.

"They are important," he said. "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 throughout the Xbox 360's six years of life been active in sourcing exclusive games and DLC from third parties.

The exclusivity window of Grand Theft Auto IV expansions and Call of Duty map packs in particular have helped Microsoft generate more money from Xbox Live transactions than subscriptions.

In addition, Microsoft actively works with publishers to try to make multi-platform games better on Xbox 360, Lewis said.

"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.

"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."

Lewis said Microsoft uses the Xbox 360's 55 million installed base and the Xbox Live experience to convince publishers to get on board.

"We have good, healthy partnerships with all the publishers around the globe, now," Lewis said. "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.

Xbox gamyba buvo nutraukta 2006 m. pabaigoje, bet paskutinis žaidimas, Madden NFL 09, buvo išleistas 2008 m. rugpjūtį. Xbox konsolių su pasibaigusiomis garantijomis taisymas buvo nutrauktas 2009 m. kovo 2 d.; kitos Xbox konsolės, kurios buvo dar su garantija, buvo pakeistos į Xbox 360. Xbox Live buvo išjungtas 2010 m. balandžio 15 d.

2009 m. IGN pavadino Xbox 11-ta geriausia visų laikų žaidimų konsole iš 25.[3]

[taisyti]Istorija

Konsolė buvo pirmasis „Microsoft“ žingsnis į žaidimų konsolių rinką, po Windows CE įdiėgimo į „Sega“ Dreamcast. Pirmoji Xbox versija buvo gaminama mažos „Microsoft“ komandos, kurioje dirbo žaidimų kūrėjas Seamus Blackley. „Microsoft“ vis atidėliojo konsolę, kuri pirmą kartą buvo paminėta 1999 metais per interviu su Bilu Geitsu. Kai Bilas Geitsas pristatė Xbox per 2000 m. žaidimų kūrėju konferenciją, jie buvo nustebinti konsolės technologijomis. Tais metais, kai vyko šis pristatymas, „Sega“ nutraukė savo Dreamcast gamybą, o „Sony“ PlayStation 2 buvo tik pradėtas pardavinėti Japonijoje.

Kinect 2 will come bundled with future Xbox consoles, we understand.

The intention is that Kinect 2 will offer improved motion sensing and voice recognition.

One development source told Eurogamer that Kinect 2 will be so powerful it will enable games to lip read, detect when players are angry, and determine in which direction they are facing.

Kinect 2 can track the pitch and volume of player voices and facial characteristics to measure different emotional states.

The current Kinect is hamstrung by having to pass data to the Xbox 360 through ageing USB technology - an issue discussed by Eurogamer last year.

When Kinect launched in November 2010 the depth sensor was set at a 30 frames per second limit and a 320x240 resolution limit. The issue relates to the USB controller interface, which is capable of around 35MB/s, but it only uses around 15/16MB/s. This artificial limit is in place because multiple USB devices can be used at once on an Xbox 360.

Kinect 2, however, can feed the next Xbox more information, and thus a higher resolution CCD [charge-coupled device].

"It can be cabled straight through on any number of technologies that just take phenomenally high res data straight to the main processor and straight to the main RAM and ask, what do you want to do with it?" our source said.

Microsoft reportedly plans to launch two very different versions of the next Xbox.

According to a Digital Foundry report on GamesIndustry.biz, the first is a "pared down machine" to be released as cheaply as possible. It is likened to a set-top box, and will act as a Kinect-themed gaming portal.

The second is a "more fully-featured machine" with optical drive, hard disk and backwards compatibility. This would be aimed at hardcore gamers and released at a higher price-point.

Next-generation talk has ramped up in recent weeks, with Edge reporting that the next Xbox will launch late next year.

Digital Foundry believes this is unlikely, however, suggesting a 2013 launch. The console is rumoured to be set for a reveal at E3 2012.

Edge also claimed advanced development kits were already at major publishers and their teams - a suggestion corroborated by Eurogamer sources. We have been unable to verify the rumour that AMD is providing the GPU, however.

A report by MSNerd called the next Xbox the Xbox Loop - or the Xbox TV, which may relate to the rumoured cheaper Kinect 2 SKU.

Eurogamer understands Loop was the codename of Microsoft's early motion-sensing technology that predated Nintendo's July 2008 Wii Motion Plus announcement. It was a device that wrapped around a player's arm, and was said to be more accurate than both the Wii and the PlayStation Move controller.

Microsoft told Eurogamer it "does not comment on rumour or speculation".