Bach Defends Xbox 360 Strategy

Top Xbox man weighs in on that missing hard drive and how his company has it over Sony in the next-gen.

On the eve of his company's Xbox 360-only X05 event in Amsterdam this week, Robbie Bach has defended Microsoft's decision to not include a hard drive as standard in the next-gen machine and has promised that there will be more shipments of consoles over the Christmas season.

In an interview with news service IDG, Bach said that the way stores sell products in Europe had a big part in the decision to create the so-called Core System version of Xbox 360, which will sell for £209 but lack the hard drive included with the £279 premium bundle.

"[Choice] is particularly important in Europe where parts of Europe are very price sensitive and the channels where games consoles are sold are predominantly mass merchants, which again are very price sensitive. One size doesn't fit all."

Despite this, Microsoft has shied away from offering two bundles in Japan, where the console will launch in only one bundle that contains the hard drive and most of the other accessories found in the premium bundle. This is part of Microsoft's plan to cosy up to the Japanese, who have so far been hesitant to jump into the company's pool.

The lack of a standard hard drive won't, however, affect the games you play, as the company has been at pains to point out in the months following the revelation that it was splitting its hardware base.

"Developers have known since the beginning that games will have to be designed to not require the hard drive. The gaming system in an Xbox 360 is the same whether it's a core Xbox 360 or not. The games will play great on both versions."

There has been growing concern that there won't be enough Xbox 360s to go around when the console launches in Europe on 2 December. One analyst predicted earlier this year that there could be as few as 400,000 consoles for the whole region, but Microsoft has said that it will have extra stock to send to stores.

Bach, too, admitted that Microsoft is planning to ship more Xbox 360s out to retailers a week after launch.

A consistent monkey on Microsoft's back has been the rumour that the company would upgrade the Xbox 360 at some point to put in a next-generation HD DVD drive, but Bach thinks that people could be thinking about content delivery in the wrong way:

"Five years ago in the music industry, everyone was debating what high definition CD they were going to create. It turned out that wasn't what was important - it was online delivery. If you think in a five-year time-frame with the rate the technology is changing why would that be any different with video?"

Anxious for his return? Tough.

Bach added that the Xbox 360 is "better configured" for the future of video than the PlayStation 3 by virtue of its expandable hard drive.

This, however, ignores that Sony has yet to nail down its plans for the PlayStation 3 hard drive. The current speculation is that the console would come without a hard drive but that it would use non-proprietary drives that you can upgrade yourself without having to buy something from Sony itself.

All this talk of hardware does make you forget that, at the end of the day, it's software that matters. Microsoft is in Amsterdam this week, where it is showing off its launch line-up ahead of the console's debut at the end of the year.

One game, though, is on everybody's mind: Halo 3, and Bach had a message for those awaiting the game too:

"Halo is something we'll ship when it's ready."

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games