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Microsoft's Chris Lewis

"We'll sell more consoles this year than we did last."

Eurogamer Recently Peter Molyneux said that core gamers may enjoy this line-up of games, but may find that the second wave of games, when developers have a greater handle on Kinect, will be more to their liking.
Chris Lewis

I think there's definitely some truth in that. I think Peter's hit on a great point there. Two things I'd add to that. One is, I believe a large slug of the core community will love Kinect for 360. They'll love the navigating round their 360 via hand gestures. They'll love that they can jump into a game like Joy Ride, which should really appeal to the hardcore community.

We're very committed to that hardcore community - it defined us. We'll keep bringing the Fable IIIs and the Halo: Reaches and the Gears of Wars to that community. But at the same time we'll target breadth, and I think over time you'll see different types of Kinect for 360 games come along that may appeal to both communities in different ways. There may be hybrid experiences where you've got gestures and physical movements that enhance what is otherwise a controller-based experiences. Those things will probably come.

Eurogamer The 40-odd million people who bought Xbox 360 bought it on the basis of those core experiences, so are they still getting a good deal now you're diverting resources to make games that don't appeal to them?
Chris Lewis

When you think about our studios, clearly we do have dedicated teams that focus and are deliberately not distracted until they deliver high-quality experiences. There will be a whole catalogue of mature, hardcore, blockbuster games coming for that audience.

Xbox Live continues to develop - the services on that, whether that be social networking, music, all the things you're familiar with, that's very central to the desires of the core audience as well. So I think the value continues to grow, the quality bar goes up. Consumers are very savvy, they demand a lot from us and our competitors, and that keeps the development cycles high and the quality even higher.

Microsoft hopes Halo: Reach will sell like Call of Duty this autumn.
Eurogamer How do you feel about PlayStation Move coming out two months before Kinect? Is that a concern?
Chris Lewis

We dance to our own rhythm. We have a plan that's based on what we think is important to our consumer market. I also would say Kinect for 360 is innovation, it's not a derivative technology.

We looked at technology that uses devices. Over our history we've been first to market with many things - high-definition, online streaming, the choices we give our consumers - and Kinect for 360 is this innovative step where you're not putting bits of plastic in people's hands in order to control the experience.

Eurogamer So you're saying PlayStation Move is a derivative experience?
Chris Lewis

Well, I'm saying I think it's important to keep innovating. I'm saying we did look at that technology. And I'm saying we're excited about what Kinect does - taking consumers to a new dimension. Also I think with Kinect for 360 we extend the lifecycle of Xbox 360 to a point where I'd say we're almost halfway through now, rather than necessarily at the back end of the cycle. I think that's great for the industry, it's great for third-party developers, and we're in a good place.

Eurogamer Do you expect the number of 360s you sell to be consistent now over the next five years? Can you hit 80 or 90 million?
Chris Lewis

I think it will grow. Our plan this fiscal year, starting 1st July, we'll sell more consoles this year than we did last, for sure. We have high targets for that. You've seen already the spike of sales we've enjoyed with the 250GB product. That's just the start.

I think what Kinect does is continue to extend that. There's 40 million people in Europe that we see as an opportunity to sell Xbox and Kinect 360s into that space - a new, broad, younger, more family-orientated audience. So our targets are high, our ambitions are high, our sales will grow this year and we'll continue to attach more games and experiences than anybody else does.

Eurogamer Sony has said it's already looking ahead in R&D terms to what it will be doing when this elongated lifecycle does finally end. Are you?
Chris Lewis

We're pretty focused on Xbox 360 and Kinect for 360 at the moment of course. Do we constantly look ahead? Do we spend more money on R&D than anybody else out there? Of course. Yes there are people working on the future all the time, but we don't distract those who are building great experiences for the present and the near term. I think you've got to get that balance right. I think the minute you get too orientated to one or the other, you stop offering a great experience to the consumers that you need now.

Eurogamer Are you doing Kinect for Windows?
Chris Lewis

Nothing to announce. Right now we're focused on that technology and what it means in the living room for Xbox 360. But we'll listen to what our consumers want and their appetite for that technology and we'll look at that in the future if it's appropriate.

Chris Lewis is vice president of interactive entertainment for Microsoft in Europe.

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