Like a child who’s been served a bigger scoop of ice cream than his brother, Microsoft’s Peter Moore is acting (to use the rhyming slang of my cockney brethren) quite the “shmug blunt” lately. In an interview found here, Moore derides the PS3 while showing off shamelessly and with gusto.
“I’ve walked a mile in those shoes. I’m digging up my tortured past here, but remember Dreamcast?”
The words of Peter Moore, doubtlessly said in suppressed laughter that caused his face to turn purple like some sort of insane, sentient eggplant. One gets the impression this is the best thing that’s ever happened to the man, that he can be better at videogames than other people.
The Dreamcast comparison is intriguing though. Many people would say that the Dreamcast was an underrated system with a lot of good games. Oh wait, that must be what Peter meant.
Cast your eyes beyond the jump for more…
[Thanks to PacoDG as ever]
“Howard Stringer said ‘it’s not what’s possible that’s important, it’s what’s relevant’. I think that’s probably indicative of the PS3. It was possible to build a box that had Blu-ray and Cell and HDMI and everything else, but what was relevant was maybe a $399 price point and great games. I think we can all agree, and even Sony would potentially agree, that they miscalculated the global consumer’s appetite for the experience the offered at the price point they offered it at.”
He does have a point, evidenced by the fact that Sony’s not doing all that great with their PS3. As we can all agree, they did eschew the relevant, that being actual software for their flashy Blu-Ray player.
Moore seems content that what Sony offer just isn’t what people want. He talks about a “lounge,” Microsoft’s idea for a feature similar to Sony’s Home that was discussed years ago, but eventually abandoned:
“Four years ago, we looked at the concept of a lounge where your avatar could wander around. We looked at an area where people could play their music, show people their videos. But it was not something that we felt worth pursuing. We made a decision that the user interface that we would put in to Xbox Live was one that got you in quickly, that allowed you to navigate where you wanted to go, and to do what you wanted to do. The concept of hanging out was something that, while we looked at it, we just didn’t think was something that our users wanted to do.
“We may be proven wrong. It may be proven that people want their 3D avatars to hang out with each other. But we made the decision that, right now, it’s about navigation and communication. We just think people want to communicate, they want to play games, they want to download movies, they want to listen to music. We’re not sure they want to hang around. PlayStation Home obviously caused a big stir at GDC but there’s a big difference between showing a demo and deploying it on a massive global basis with millions of people utilizing it.”
In the interview, Moore goes on to vaguely talk about the possibility of nabbing some of the last few heavy hitting third party titles and the company’s commitment to Viva Pinata, despite admitting that the TV show spin-off was a steaming pile of kestrel puke. Not his exact words, but if you’ve ever had the misfortune of watching it, you’d agree.
As the interview closes, Mr. Smuggles defends the Xbox 360 Elite, citing that Microsoft’s strategy is all about choice and personalization, and then finishes up on the subject of full game downloads over XBox Live.
“We’re still a ways from that. If you look at those games that are four of five Gigs, there are consumers that can probably absorb that. But retail still plays a very important role in this and the massive majority of people still want to be able to go to retail and walk away with a physical object. Will it happen? I’ve always said eventually of course it’s going to happen.”
It can safely be assumed that after the interview, Moore quickly hopped on his bicycle and rode to the park so he could shove Kaz Hirai around in front of girls and steal his lunch money.
