Bill Gates Eyes Sony's Top Spot

Microsoft president acknowledges Xbox was a learning experience and Xbox 360 is where the company feels it will overtake Sony and its PlayStation 3.

Despite well-received games and trend-setting services such as Xbox Live, the Xbox had only one true aim: to get gamers to see Microsoft as a major industry player.

Xbox 360 will officially be unveiled during an MTV
special airing just before E3

"Our goal in the last generation was to be in the game," company president Bill Gates said at a business writers' meeting this week. "We came out of this round a strong number two."

But that was the easy part. The hard part going forward will be to use the experience the company gained with Xbox to ensure that Xbox 360 beats Sony's PlayStation 3 in the next generation.

Already there are signs that Microsoft is changing its approach for Xbox 360. Japanese support for the new console is expected to be much better, thanks to Microsoft's signing of high-profile Japanese developers such as Final Fantasy Hironobu Sakaguchi and Rez's Tetsuya Mizuguchi to make exclusive games for Xbox 360.

Microsoft is also making sure that it goes after the casual gamer right from the start. Instead of unveiling Xbox 360 at a trade show like E3, which is what usually happens with new hardware, the new console will introduced to the world through a half-hour MTV special, set to air worldwide on May 12th and 13th.

But the company is not forgetting hardcore gamers, who have helped Xbox get the solid footing in the industry it has today.

"Hardcore gamers are going to love [Xbox 360] because of the applications that are on [it]," Gates said in a recent interview with tech site Endgadget. "And it's not just the technical specs. It's the partnership we have with the game creators. And we're going to have this next generation machine out so that it's going to be timed with high definition becoming very mainstream."

Xbox Live is being greatly expanded to cater to both
hardcore and casual gamers

Predictably, Xbox Live is a major component of Gates's vision for the expansion of the Xbox brand. Live is key to building community, but also to bringing in people not typically identified as gamers.

"We want to broaden videogaming, and, without giving up any of the hardcore players, we want more women and older people [to be playing games]," Gates told Endgadget. "We're going to have games that are more sociable, more approachable, particularly by taking this idea of Xbox Live and bringing in contests and spectators and ratings and talking to your friends and various new things there that we think we can make it much bigger category than it's ever been to date. That is important for us."

The company's emphasis on high definition and the living room is another key part of Microsoft's strategy for the future. While Xbox 360 is not being touted as the prototypical all-in-one box that controls your digital life (Gates still sees the Media Center PC fulfilling this role), Gates suggests that it will offer have "some neat capabilities" that extend it beyond gaming. Microsoft's goal with multimedia is to cater to all audiences, whether they have an Xbox 360, a Media Center PC, or a combination.

What's clear is that Microsoft has only come to this point after hard work, thorough planning and a cohesive vision for going forward. The challenge now is to use this hard-won experience to put it over its console rivals.

"What we've got in [the next generation], at some significant financial cost, is the right to play again with great credibility," Gates said.

But as Gates is aware, credibility can only go so far. It's the games that matter here, and the company is clearly focussed on getting things done properly. Microsoft has been diligent at keeping specifics about Xbox 360 and its games hidden. We'll have to wait until Microsoft's MTV and E3 presentations to see just how the company plans to unseat Sony.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games