Microsoft's Shane Kim Talks Console Wars

Shane Kim, corporate VP of Microsoft Game Studios, recently sat down with ShackNews to chop it up about the state of the game industry. The entire interview is an interesting read; really gives a feeling for where Microsoft's head is now that there is serious next-gen competition.

Kim on the console wars:

"Our objective is to be the clear winner. Would it be acceptable otherwise? I don't think it would be acceptable. This is why Microsoft is in this business, to win this generation. Certainly, I believe we're in a better competitive situation versus Sony than we envisioned we would be when we launched this program."

As you might guess, Kim has some not nice things to say about the PS3 Home, the new social networking aspect of the PlayStation 3:

"I doubt [Sony's] ability to implement it and execute it in a really rich and compelling way. PlayStation Network is not Xbox Live, it's not even close. To think about layering [Home] on top of that--wow. The hardest part is not even creating the system, it's regulating the behavior and all of that too. Boy, that's a massive investment in infrastructure. I actually believe that most gamers will always find more value in what we have on Xbox Live and now Games for Windows Live."

Kim on Nintendo:

"I think Nintendo is very smart. Nintendo focuses on what Nintendo is good at and what Nintendo wants to achieve. They're about the Wii and the DS, and they maximize that business--and taking a big share of first party. I think they care a lot less about establishing a consumer entertainment platform in the home, and about creating an ecosystem for third parties. Nintendo's good and they make a lot of money at what they do."

When asked about the 360's failure rate:

"We feel bad when people have quality issues or hardware problems, whether it's one person or a hundred people. The other thing that we're working really hard on is to make sure that if you have a problem, we're addressing that in the best way possible for the customers. You've got to work on both sides of the equation. Like I said, one person having a problem is too much."

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