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[KyotoMecca]

http://games.kikizo.com/features/edfries_videointerview_july05.asp

From Excel to X360! Must-see video interview with the Microsoft veteran and Xbox visionary on many topics including: Rare in hindsight, leaving Microsoft, next-gen in-depth, Halo, Perfect Dark Zero, programming days, sort of inventing the screensaver, and current projects.

Not many industry players are as qualified as this man to talk about such a broad number of gaming issues. But as an eighteen-year Microsoft veteran who built and ran Microsoft Game Studios, Ed Fries is in a great position to reflect and look to the future - and offer some very interesting news on current hot topics.

Like much of the industry and many hardcore gamers, we were a little saddened to learn that Ed, a real champion for real gamers, would be leaving the Xbox team last year, so at the recent E3 show in LA we made certain to hook up with him for a good, thorough catch-up.

The result is this must-see, half-hour video interview that offers a very packed list of contents, summarised as follows:

MICROSOFT CAREER
- Teaching himself to program as a high school student, making a Frogger clone called Froggy, first deal at horrible 5% royalty
- Being one of the first programmers on Excel, programming business software versus games, Easter eggs in Excel
- "I'm not saying I invented the screensaver, but..."
- I like your fish.
- "You do something and people send you money!"
- Why did Ed move from MS Office to MS Games.
- Programming/games - replacing one love with another

XBOX
- Building Microsoft's games business - "career suicide"?!
- "Crazy people" moving onto the Xbox project
- "Nothing came from my group on the Dreamcast project"
- Two different Xbox 1 projects - one from the Dreamcast guys
- The origins of the "Xbox" name and why it stuck
- Pursuing passions and learning new things
- Leaving the company - hard to talk about, hard to be fair...
- ...but talks about it anyway...
- Similarity in leaving MS Office to leaving MS Games
- "A lot of people have opinions on how things should be done..."
- Xbox "Trojan Horsing" into entertainment - always the plan...?

NEXT-GEN
- Xbox 1 was the most powerful machine - and 360...?
- "I want Halo 3 to be the best damn game in the world"
- Strategic needs of big project like Halo 3...
- "PS3 is roughly comparable to 360"
- The issue of underpowered demo hardware and prerendered demos
- "PS3 demos are more or less possible on both machines"
- Why Ed is impressed with companies like Ubisoft
- Why certain game publishers are going to hurt themselves in the long term

CURRENT PROJECTS
- Today - "the easiest thing to say is I am retired!"
- Being on boards, start ups and working with VCs
- Working with AGEIA on first "physics accelerator" chip
- Selling FireAnt to Sony, consulting with SOE
- "I don't work for SCE!"
- Working with Airtight Games
- Consulting for various companies and publishers
- Similarities of Ed's work today and Capital Entertainment Group?
- Ed's view of what happened with Capital Entertainment Group
- How hard it is to raise money independently and bring into games
- "In that sense our business is less mature than movies..."
- How to get creativity back into the market?
- CRAZY-ASS BETS! How venture capitals think about the world...

RARE
- Talking of "crazy-ass bets"... RARE...
- "I still believe in Rare."
- "It has almost been twice as hard for Rare..."
- "I saw the new Killzone video and it looked awesome! But I also played the old game, and it wasn't!"
- "Perfect Dark Zero - the buzz I hear internally from people who have no reason to lie to me is..."

AND
- Carving out pockets of freedom while at Microsoft
- "I am really enjoying not working for anybody!"
- Typical Kikizo intro/outtakes etc.

Ed joined Microsoft as an intern in the Applications group in 1985, and nearly twenty years later, his responsibilities had grown to include managing a team of more than 1200 programmers, designers, artists and producers across several continents.

Once again we thank Ed for his time and hope that he keeps us informed about the cool things he's still up to in gaming today.

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Why the hell is he looking straight up? Either Ed Fries is 3 feet tall or the interviewer is standing on a ladder.

 

[Mejilan]

How many people are going to read this thread title as 'RARE LEAVING MICROSOFT' OMG!!11!

 

[Deku Tree]

Why don't they let you read these "Video Interviews"?

I'd rather spend 5-10 minutes reading than 30 looking at his ugly mug...

 

[raYne]

How many people are going to read this thread title as 'RARE LEAVING MICROSOFT' OMG!!11!

That's how I read it.. and judging by the # of views, I'd say a lot of others did as well.

 

[op_ivy]

havent watched the video yet... but fyi, both links in the article point to the high-def version of the video

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

LOL!

Near the end of the video there's a woman singing holding a sign and trying to butt her way into the picture. Just watching them trying to ignore her is hilarious.

 

[typhonsentra]

Wow.... I honestly only came in just to hear about what Ed Fries thought about the coming console generation and nothing more. Am I the only one?

 

[Truelize]

Why don't they let you read these "Video Interviews"?

I'd rather spend 5-10 minutes reading than 30 looking at his ugly mug...

Just let it play in one browser and surf in another. That's what I'm doing.

 

[KyotoMecca]

havent watched the video yet... but fyi, both links in the article point to the high-def version of the video

Ack! Well spotted. Fixed.

 

[radrelic]

LOL!

Near the end of the video there's a woman singing holding a sign and trying to butt her way into the picture. Just watching them trying to ignore her is hilarious.

:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol


this woman alone is enough reason to watch this video

 

[Andy787]

I always liked Fries a lot. He and Seamus are the only two of the big Xbox PR heads that I have felt are genuine in their interests in gaming, and actually have a passion for games.

Watching now.

 

[C- Warrior]

Ugly mug?

Jesus christ what the hell is this a middle school girl sleep over or something? :lol

 

[Baconäger]

Haha at this nutty lady singing.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

Man, that was really cool, thank you. I love interesting interviews like that rather than the heavy pr speak we normally get. It also made me respect him more than previous bits might have.

 

[WHOAguitarninja]

Doesn't seem to be working for me. Is this Divx?

 

[C- Warrior]

Man, that was really cool, thank you. I love interesting interviews like that rather than the heavy pr speak we normally get. It also made me respect him more than previous bits might have.

.

 

[Andy787]

Man, that was really cool, thank you. I love interesting interviews like that rather than the heavy pr speak we normally get. It also made me respect him more than previous bits might have.

Totally agree.

Anyway, great interview. Thanks.

 

[FiRez]

It's a shame that I need my total bandwith right now, those topics looks very interesting

- "I want Halo 3 to be the best damn game in the world"

me too

I will never forget this master piece

 

[DMczaf]

:lol

 

[shpankey]

Man, that was really cool, thank you. I love interesting interviews like that rather than the heavy pr speak we normally get. It also made me respect him more than previous bits might have.

what he said goes for me too

 

[Apharmd Battler]

Any mirrors up yet? I can't get the interview.

 

[JayFro]

The last half of the interview was pretty good and that lady singing was rediculous.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Downloading now. I've always respected this guy, he's been a pretty straight shooter in the past.

 

[Porridge]

GOD that lady annoyed me...

But Fries gave a great interview. Interesting throughout, I enjoyed that. Thanks for the heads up

 

[rastex]

Man, that was really cool, thank you. I love interesting interviews like that rather than the heavy pr speak we normally get. It also made me respect him more than previous bits might have.

Yup, totally agreed as well.

I think there's a growing number of influential management types like Fries that are looking to move away from the classical publisher-developer relationship. Once those people get enough influence, and get the right people involved, it's going to turn the entire industry around.

 

[Suikoguy]

What's with the crazy lady standing behind him?
"Woe onto the" ?

 

[GhaleonEB]

Great interview, and the totally batshit insane lady in the background really added that extra something special (especially when she began singing!).

Liked the section on trying to bring innovation back into the industry - it's going to take some crazy-ass bets (like what Wideload is doing) that pay off to make it happen.

 

[thorns]

I really like Ed Fries, but there's no doubt that MGS is much more successful now with Shane Kim & Peter Moore..

 

[ScientificNinja]

Peter Moore is a tool. And Shane Kim is boring as batshit to listen to. Ed was a cool because he was so proud of being a geek.

 

[johnjohnson]

I liked Ed Fries when he was at MGS and now I like him even more. There should be more of his kind in the industry.

 

[Project Midway]

wow, Ed Fries killed the Dreamcast!

Anyway, nice interview...thanks!

What's with the crazy lady standing behind him?
"Woe onto the" ?

"Woe unto the USA nation for constituting to kill holy prophetess" is all I could read... I wonder what the paper read...lol

 

[Rhindle]

I really like Ed Fries, but there's no doubt that MGS is much more successful now with Shane Kim & Peter Moore..

How so? They killed a bunch of projects, but that doesn't exactly require a lot of smarts. Ed seemed to at least have a drive to stick with projects and turn them around when they got into trouble, with some degree of success, see e.g. Crimson Skies.

 

[GhaleonEB]

How so? They killed a bunch of projects, but that doesn't exactly require a lot of smarts. Ed seemed to at least have a drive to stick with projects and turn them around when they got into trouble, with some degree of success, see e.g. Crimson Skies.

And let's not forget that he spearheaded the initiative to buy Bungie. That strikes me as a good call in retrospect.

 

[thorns]

How so? They killed a bunch of projects, but that doesn't exactly require a lot of smarts. Ed seemed to at least have a drive to stick with projects and turn them around when they got into trouble, with some degree of success, see e.g. Crimson Skies.

Ed is also responsible for a lot of turd from MGS as well. He seemed to get any developer that seemed promising/original, without much sense of making them into commercial successes as well. He just doesn't deserve to be in the top management for a publishing powerhouse.

In my opinion, Shane & Moore understand the market better and have been going with "less is more".
Fable, Forza, Halo 2 and Jade empire have all been critical & commercial successes. Some of these games have been very successfully marketed (i.e. Halo 2). Publishing deals have been made with epic and real time worlds and Game Republic/Q Entertainment/Mistwalker (though that's more Moore's success, Kim has nothing to do with that).

Remember this was the same studio that released Kakuto Chojin, Azurik, Nightcaster, Tao Feng, Sudeki, Blood Wake, Brute Force, Oddworld etc. You can't just ignore the massive change in quality from MGS that's been going on in the last 2 years..

 

[Ghost]

:lol @ the crazy lady, what does her sign say?

 

[KyotoMecca]

:lol @ the crazy lady, what does her sign say?

I knew this lady would quickly get a following online!!!

One side said something about President Bush. She also had something on her shirt about the Holy Prophets.

She seemed harmless though so she was at it for a good 5 mins before we kind of asked her to stop (she was closer to the mic than Ed at one point).

 

[Pudding Tame]

Wow, that's one of the best industry interviews I've ever seen. Thanks!

 

[LuCkymoON]

I knew this lady would quickly get a following online!!!

One side said something about President Bush. She also had something on her shirt about the Holy Prophets.

She seemed harmless though so she was at it for a good 5 mins before we kind of asked her to stop (she was closer to the mic than Ed at one point).

LOL :lol


I love that second pic, its like the sign just comes out of nowhere lol :lol

 

[Dagon]

Between that crazy old bat and that stupid bus that kept on coming by every couple minutes, it's a wonder we even got that interview done at all. Ed was really cool about it though.

He's swell

**swoon**

 

[Prine]

His comments about Rare was great.

 

[Baconäger]

His comments about Rare was great.

His answer was like "they can make great games" and "I have faith"...

 

[anthony]

I knew this lady would quickly get a following online!!!

One side said something about President Bush. She also had something on her shirt about the Holy Prophets.

She seemed harmless though so she was at it for a good 5 mins before we kind of asked her to stop (she was closer to the mic than Ed at one point).

Deadmeat?

 

[Musashi Wins!]

His answer was like "they can make great games" and "I have faith"...

No, it was a little more nuanced than that. I liked what he had to say about them evolving into making modern games. Though yea, he has more faith than most people still.

 

[Baconäger]

No, it was a little more nuanced than that. I liked what he had to say about them evolving into making modern games. Though yea, he has more faith than most people still.

I think that was just a baseless shot at Nintendo. Like Rare was being held back or something.

Nothing modern about a Conker port.

 

[KyotoMecca]

I think that was just a baseless shot at Nintendo. Like Rare was being held back or something.

Nothing modern about a Conker port.

BUT. He knows things about Rare's pipeline that normal people don't....

 

[Rhindle]

Ed is also responsible for a lot of turd from MGS as well. He seemed to get any developer that seemed promising/original, without much sense of making them into commercial successes as well. He just doesn't deserve to be in the top management for a publishing powerhouse.

In my opinion, Shane & Moore understand the market better and have been going with "less is more".
Fable, Forza, Halo 2 and Jade empire have all been critical & commercial successes. Some of these games have been very successfully marketed (i.e. Halo 2). Publishing deals have been made with epic and real time worlds and Game Republic/Q Entertainment/Mistwalker (though that's more Moore's success, Kim has nothing to do with that).

Remember this was the same studio that released Kakuto Chojin, Azurik, Nightcaster, Tao Feng, Sudeki, Blood Wake, Brute Force, Oddworld etc. You can't just ignore the massive change in quality from MGS that's been going on in the last 2 years..

Well, clearly their hit-to-miss ratio has improved quite a bit. My point is simply that it improved only because they ditched all the marginal projects, which is not that difficult to do. All the successful titles you list were started under Fries.

I guess we won't know what the current MGS crew is worth until the first wave of 360 games hit.

 

[disabledHeliocentric]

Yeah, but they needed a lot of software for launching their first console. Once XBOX had been established(post Fries) and developers started gaining confidence in the platform then it made sense for Microsoft to be choosy. But they also let go of some true talents i.e. Oddworld Inhabitants and Double Fine. I think that's a mistake because as a 1st party publisher it's good to have a really deep bench, and some prestige titles, take a few chances like Sony does. Imo, being arch conservative is dull...