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Luc Casterman
Works for: Microsoft
Position: Product Manager Xbox & Xbox360
Questions: 10
Interview by: in-house
Date posted: 24 November 2005
When visiting on November 23rd, the Belgian Launch event of the new next generation console from Microsoft, the "X-Box 360" we had to interview the big man behind the actual console launch, its games and its accessories.
Luc Casterman, who's Product Manager for Xbox and of course the Xbox 360 was delighted to answer some of our ahum 'devilish' questions regarding the new console and its launch.
1-Can you introduce yourself a bit to our readers and what is your position?
Well I'm Luc Casterman and I'm the Product Manager for the Xbox and the Xbox 360. My task is to market these two products on a daily basis and my job is regarding marketing also stay close with all media and press contacts. And hopefully play some games from time to time and doing interviews like this one now.
1- Xbox 360, not Xbox 2. How did they get on the name '360' part anyway?
Well the meaning behind the 360 name is that the player must arrive in a world of entertainment. Lets say the centre of entertainment.
If you can see today what the Xbox 360 can deliver you'll amazed by its connectivity. I call it a real "family console" because in a family you have different persons, hardcore or casual gamers and for that you'll get the best games thanks to the 360. But also in a family you have a mother and father that don't want to play games but rather watch photo's of their children or listen to music, mp3 or cds. And all this is very easy to access.
Besides you can also connect a Windows Media Center PC and stream everything from your media center pc to your Xbox 360! For people with a normal PC you can also connect it to the Xbox 360 and stream pictures and music. For video files you'll need a Media Center PC.
2- At launch, this December 2nd, how many Xbox 360 games will be available for the European Xbox 360 ?
At launch we'll present the gamer a number of 15 games with a good balance in genres. Some games that will be available are Quake 4, Call of Duty 2, Perfect Dark Zero but also games for the whole family such as racing games like Project Gotham Racing 3 and action/adventure games like Kameo: Elements of Power are available.
After all, a whole bunch of games for every age.
3 - Regarding the existing Xbox 360 accessories, are there any new gadgets that we might expect next year?
Well today with the launch event of the Xbox 360, we rather want to promote the 14 new Xbox 360 accessories. But I have also mentioned earlier in the press conference that in the coming months we'll release a 'video camera' soon for doing videochats.
Perhaps later on we'll see other interesting accessories for the 360 but now we'll stick with the ones that are coming out next week since they'll give you a different and better experience on gaming and playing with the Xbox 360.
4- Will games have a new life with the Xbox 360 if you compare it with the original but successful Xbox ?
Well if you have a HD (high definition) television you'll be amazed by its graphics and colors. If not, like most of us, you'll be amazed as well by its quality of the Xbox 360 games.
For example in Project Gotham Racing 3, the people that are watching you while racing are not 2d bitmaps anymore. Every character is rendered and moves separately. Even when you come too close by the protective rail, people will take a step back. Amazing!
5- Personal question. Do you game as well when you have some free time?
I'm a real hardcore gamer on a few titles. I just love FPS games. Especially the Call of Duty games. I already played the full version of COD 2 and I must finish it no matter what.
I also love Halo and Halo 2 but online well I can't really compete with those hardcore gamers.
6- In the future, will all existing Xbox games be compatible with the Xbox 360? Of course backwards compatibility can only be done if you have the X360 hard drive. Right now 200 games are compatible but will this list be bigger?
We'll certainly try to make as many games backwards compatible with the new Xbox 360. Right now, we have 200 games that are compatible and the goal is to make more games backwards compatible.
That's possible without any charge of the player since with Xbox Live (silver or gold) on the X360 we can let gamers download a new firmware for their Xbox game. Also by visiting the xbox.com site, gamers can also burn the firmware's of their games on a CD and then just insert it in the X360. The new Xbox 360 will update it then automatically.
Today 200, tomorrow perhaps 250 etc but our focus is to update the games that don't get a newer version. Like for example with Project Gotham Racing 2, is it needed to firmware update it if you can play the newer and better PGR 3 ?
7- The Xbox 360 is now the first next-gen console on the market. That's of course a totally other situation like when the Xbox was released with the already big PS2.
We're not longer a company that needs to follow. We want to lead the video game industry in terms of innovation. We're the first company that delivers a truly next-gen console first and that's pretty important for us.
We also have now more credibility with all the major publishers and the Xbox 360 is fully supported which was not the case with the Xbox launch.
8- How do you see the Xbox 360 ? As a truly innovative entertainment system?
A family console really. A multi media console which you can easily pop in your tv room and use it daily, for gaming, listing to music, watch pictures, a dvd player and much more.
9- How do you think the sales will go here in Belgium / Benelux ? Same like in the US where gamers literally spend hours of waiting before the midnight opening of their local game shop?
I don't think people will spend hours and hours of waiting before a shop opens or that even shops will go open at midnight. That's really more American style then here in Belgium.
But I do expect a short supply of Xbox 360 consoles in the days after the launch.
10- Last question regarding portable consoles. You have the Nintendo DS, Sony PSP. What do you think personally about a "Xbox Portable System" ?
Well we have not yet made an announcement regarding a portable console. And I don't think there are any plans for creating one.
For portable consoles we already have a good operating system, "Windows Mobile" which can be used on the 'Gizmondo'. We deliver the operating system and our partners can develop further hardware. That's our mission today.
Thanks for the interview!
It was my pleasure.
For more pictures of the Belgian XBOX 360 launch, you can view them all in our event preview right here.
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