monkeymagic
Banned
Pretty funny 
EGM : Woudn't you be pissed if you paid $400 for a new console and many of its games looked only marginally better than their current-gen equivalents?
PM : YOu wanna call out some games? Because I'm not gonna call out any games.
EGM : The 2K Sports games. Amped 3. Tony Hawk. Need for Speed. Gun. King Kong. People can argue they're not getting that big next-gen leap in graphics. On top of that, you're asking consumers to pay an extra $10 for these games. To quote you, "Next-generation games will combine unprecedented audio and visual experiences, create worlds that are beyond real, and they'll deliver story lines and gameplay so compelling that it'll feel like a..."
PM : "...lucid dream."
EGM : And then you also said that every game has to have the "essentials," certain requirements every game must have.
PM : Well, the essentials have always been every game needs to output in [high-definition resolution] 720p. It's gotta have multichannel sound, 5.1 minimum. The games have to render in 16*9 aspect ratio, and they've gotta have 2x antialiasing. The games do.
You Know, you called out King Kong as not ooking next generation. The Xbox version looks great; you put it against the Xbox 360 version, though...[the 360 version] looks unbelievable. Games like Gun have not done well, but I don't know whether that's because of the graphics or because of the gameplay. It seems to be struggling in sales. But, it's such a subjective situation.
I've gotten a lot of e-mails, believe me, inthe last 10 days from consumers on all kinds of things. It's the first time I've heard from people; nobody has ever said, "I'm unhappy with the game experience from the next generation." I've had a lot of complaints about a lot of [other] stuff, but nobody's complained about the games yet.
I think also, gamers-the guys and the gals that are lining up on the sidewalks during the first 24 or 48 hours-are also very rational about what they expect on day one. THey know things are going to continue to look even better as we get into the platform cycle. If it's graphics that they're concerned about, those will continue to get even better than they are currently today. But again, graphics...its such a subjective thing, and one man's meat is another man's poison when you look at particular games.
EGM : But let's look at the PS1 generation and the jump to Dreamcast. On all levels, no matter which games you look at, you can immediately see a huge improvement in graphiccs. With a lot of 360 gmes, the leap isn't there, don't you agree?
PM : That's an opinion that I don't share, but look at it [this way]... we're selling games at an unprecedented rate; we're breaking records. Clearly, consumers are happy about something. And I think it's not just people looking at the graphics. Where people are really excited is the online experience, the Marketplace experience, Xbox Live Arcade, and being able to join Xbox Live Silver for no charge and no credit card.
You can't just pinpoint and say the graphics in Gun don't look good, therefore the entire ecosystem's got a problem. Gamers are smarter than that. They're looking at the entire experience. They also know games will continue to look better, if looking good is one of their higher criteria, which it typically is. But there are enough great-looking games out there to combat that, if you're looking for graphics.
You know people have to make their own choices, and if they determin that this is not worth their 400 bucks, then it does seem like there's sombody in line behind them that does think it is.
EGM : OK, we're going to throw two games at you at a time, and we want you to tell us which one you like bettter.
PM : Ugh, just like saying which of my kids do I love more.
EGM : We hope we've made these easy for you. So: Splinter Cell Chaos Theory or Sneakers?
PM : [Laughs] Well, as fond as I was of Sneakers, I have to say that Splinter Cell probably [tops] it.
EGM : How about Soul Calibur II or Kabuki Warriors?
PM : Well, that would be Soul Calibur II.
EGM : Next: Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball or Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue?
PM : Ah, Xtreme Volleyball...anything that [Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu]Itagaki-san does is always a big favorite with me. He's always been a big supporter of the platform, and it would be disloyal for me not to choose his title.
EGM : So here's what we're getting at: You picked three Xbox 1 games that aren't backwards compatible on the Xbox 360, and the other ones- Sneakers, Kabuki, and Barbie-are. It's a weird list, especially when you exclude the heavy hitters....
[Shortly after this interview, Microsoft announced all three Splinter Cells to be backwards compatible on the Xbox 360. But we still thought this conversation was funny, so we left it intact.-Ed.]
PM : Well, nobody excludes anything. You, probably like me, are not well versed in the vagaries of software emulation technology and how deep you need to go. Some games work because they can, because of the software emulation engine-and some don't. It's not like we said, "Hmm, Splinter Cell or Barbie....let's go for Barbie!" That's not how it's done. I'd be happy to get some of Microsoft's best and brightest to explain some of the technical reasons why one game works and another doesn't. Because I don't understand it...
EGM : Well, obviously you're not going to purposely pick Barbie over Splinter Cell, but at what point is it not worth it to tell your programmers, "Get Splinter Cell working on our system"?
PM : Let's go back a year, when everybody was saying, "Boy, you know what? The games aren't going to be backwards compatible-this is a disaster, we're never going to get it done." And then we said the top-selling games will be backwards compatible. And people asked if that's five or six games, and we came out with a list of 212, and still people pick it apart and ask, "Why is Barbie here?" Well, don't play Barbie. It's almost as if there's no winning this situation. Is it perfect? Is every game backwards compatible that you want to be? No. There are huge technical issues that negate us from being able to provide that to the consumer, yes. Have I heard a single negative word since launch about backward compatabiliby? No.
