This is an interview with the Xbox top dog. If you don’t read the full article, at least read the snippet below.
You’ve got Live for Xbox and Live coming for PC allowing Xbox and PC gamers to play against each other. Do you see other similar things between Xbox and PC happening in the future?
Allard: I get less excited about the notion… We’ll pick FIFA as an example. Being able to play FIFA on Xbox or FIFA on PC or Windows and being able to play the exact same game against your pals. It’s interesting, it’s useful, we’ll probably enable that, we’ll talk to our partners EA and see if they think that’s an interesting idea. And if they like it, we’ll figure out how to do it.
On the other hand what I think about that’s really exciting is, it really opens up new potential when you add to it these portable devices - they’re going to get smarter over the next couple of years.
Imagine a game where you had a different view into the game or a different role in the game depending what platform you’re on. So if you’re on the PC, you think about Championship Manager, right, you’re managing the team and the league and all that.
OK, maybe that’s what you’re doing on PC, but you’re actually managing the footballers that are actually playing on console.
Oh and by the way, when you’re on the subway and you’ve got your portable device, there’s a way for you to see what’s going on in the league, maybe you can execute some trades - maybe you can’t do everything that you can on PC but you can interact with it.
That’s an exciting world, and I’m not a game designer so it’s a crappy example. But you look at that and apply that to RTS and action - RTS on the PC and action on the console - that would be interesting.
And then apply that to Grand Theft Auto - on the PC you’re the police dispatcher or the detective in the game and you can have a top-down view on the city. Or apply that to The Sims. You can apply this to so many different categories.
What’s really to me is, I’ve got a PC, it’s 1600x1200, I’ve got a keyboard and mouse, and I’m a single-player that’s really focused on this world map. And then on the console I’m sitting on the couch with two or three of my friends and I want to go action, action, action.
And then I’ve got a handheld and I’m on a train or bus and I want to kill some time, and I want to be connected back to that same world. If you could have all three of those playing styles in those mindsets connected into a common world… You know, what do you, genius game designer, create? I don’t know.
Unreal Tournament without coaches and managers isn’t really complete, and the league mode in FIFA isn’t that compelling. Imagine what we could do with Formula One. All these scenarios are almost limitless.
nice to meet you. like i said before, im a girl who can see that in the future.