mattcoxonline
01-28-2002, 03:19 PM
INTRODUCTION
Six European online-only Xbox titles by the end of the year? Will Xbox destroy Microsoft? "The Square company in Japan"? Read on, McDuff...
J Allard, the King of Xbox, appears to be more relaxed lounging on a leather sofa in the bowels of the opulent London hotel than at any other public appearance in the last two years. Gone is the spiky hair (dude) and the "whacky" grin, a pair thin, chrome glasses appearing, seemingly unannounced. There's not a skateboard in sight. There are no forced, "down with the kids" colloquialisms. The man in charge of possibly the most contentious console in history is finally beginning to look like the monstrously successful businessman he actually is.
To say that Allard's expression is smug would be simply inappropriate as it could possibly be construed as derogatory; this is the man that has quite simply just pulled off one of the most impressive entries into the videogames industry. Ever. Xbox, almost unbelievably, has come to market in American and sold more units than a next generation Nintendo system. This, to paraphrase various screaming maniacs with microphones standing in front of six-foot high bass-bins, is hardcore.
With the American launch of Xbox done and dusted, focus is now turning to Europe ahead of the machine's March 14 release. Flanked by UK and European PR, Allard gives the following interview backed by European director of publishing, former EA.com head Michel Cassius. There are some quality answers here, especially about online gaming, so take your time, kiddlewinks.
So the launch went pretty well in the States?
Allard: I'd say we're very satisfied. We basically met all of our goals. The 1.5 million units, which was the figure we were aiming for, we reached. The software attach rate actually surpassed our expectations: we sold 3.2 units of software for every console sold, which is an unprecedented success. First-party did very well, and yet at the same time third-parties did very well as well. If you released a game on both Xbox and Gamecube you did better on Xbox. The publishers are very happy. Overall we're off to a great start. In this generation of consoles, this business model is a marathon and we view it as such and this is just the first mile: it's great to be out in front of the pack. But you can't trip, your shoelaces can't come untied, you can't slow down, you can't run out of steam. So, 2002 is all about Japan, Europe and online.
Obviously you're here now to push Xbox in Europe. How does your strategy in Europe differ to the way you launched Xbox in America?
Allard: It doesn't differ a whole lot actually.
Cassius: We want to have a great collection of software in the day. We want to have the best line-up possible, with some [games] actually coming first in Europe, such as Jet Set Radio Future. We have to go after demand, which is pretty high right now across the 16 countries relevant to launch.
How many exclusive games have you got coming out in Europe that you didn't have launching in the States?
Allard: Wreckless, Jet Set Radio, Rallisport...
Cassius: Genma as well. We'd like to have a football game. [Everyone laughs] We'd like to.
Allard: We'll have more than one [in the future].
You've got 1.5 million units coming out in Europe in the first three months after launch in March. Is that going to impact on how many units you're going to put out in Japan: you haven't specified how many Japan's going to get yet, but it's obviously going to be a lot less.
Allard: We haven't announced a quantity in Japan, but we've actually built up enough volume of hardware at the Guadalajara plant [in Mexico] and the Hungary plant to satisfy demand for all territories through the summer. The real challenge is going to be ramping up for the holiday season. Frankly our biggest worry is that demand has exceeded supply by too far a margin so far so we really have to bring more manufacturing online. We're in the works of doing that now and every day we're extending the capacity of Guadalajara and Hungary.
Have you actually confirmed on the record the Asian manufacturing plant?
Allard: No.
Do you want to do that now?
Allard: No.
When you said that you're ramping up production, it's fairly obviously that you want to push more units into Asia. Can you give us any figures as to how many units you want to produce on a week-by-week, month-by-month basis by the end of this year?
Allard: Not really. I'm not really at liberty to talk about that. The reality was that we were far exceeding 100,000 [a week] before the US launch. We brought Hungary online during the US launch and some of the units actually came over from Hungary.
Do you see yourself being able to meet demand in the UK?
Allard: No. We can't make enough of them. We're ahead of our projections, but we're not keeping up with demand. Ten out of ten reviews for Halo, five out of fives and everything else that the gamers have read about over here: it's driving demand in Europe. We can't keep up with the orders... We've tried to learn from previous console successes and failures, and one shortcoming for several different console launches was the software: the hits didn't keep coming. You need a new hit every month or two. That really drives momentum. You have to replenish shelves and retailers.
Six European online-only Xbox titles by the end of the year? Will Xbox destroy Microsoft? "The Square company in Japan"? Read on, McDuff...
J Allard, the King of Xbox, appears to be more relaxed lounging on a leather sofa in the bowels of the opulent London hotel than at any other public appearance in the last two years. Gone is the spiky hair (dude) and the "whacky" grin, a pair thin, chrome glasses appearing, seemingly unannounced. There's not a skateboard in sight. There are no forced, "down with the kids" colloquialisms. The man in charge of possibly the most contentious console in history is finally beginning to look like the monstrously successful businessman he actually is.
To say that Allard's expression is smug would be simply inappropriate as it could possibly be construed as derogatory; this is the man that has quite simply just pulled off one of the most impressive entries into the videogames industry. Ever. Xbox, almost unbelievably, has come to market in American and sold more units than a next generation Nintendo system. This, to paraphrase various screaming maniacs with microphones standing in front of six-foot high bass-bins, is hardcore.
With the American launch of Xbox done and dusted, focus is now turning to Europe ahead of the machine's March 14 release. Flanked by UK and European PR, Allard gives the following interview backed by European director of publishing, former EA.com head Michel Cassius. There are some quality answers here, especially about online gaming, so take your time, kiddlewinks.
So the launch went pretty well in the States?
Allard: I'd say we're very satisfied. We basically met all of our goals. The 1.5 million units, which was the figure we were aiming for, we reached. The software attach rate actually surpassed our expectations: we sold 3.2 units of software for every console sold, which is an unprecedented success. First-party did very well, and yet at the same time third-parties did very well as well. If you released a game on both Xbox and Gamecube you did better on Xbox. The publishers are very happy. Overall we're off to a great start. In this generation of consoles, this business model is a marathon and we view it as such and this is just the first mile: it's great to be out in front of the pack. But you can't trip, your shoelaces can't come untied, you can't slow down, you can't run out of steam. So, 2002 is all about Japan, Europe and online.
Obviously you're here now to push Xbox in Europe. How does your strategy in Europe differ to the way you launched Xbox in America?
Allard: It doesn't differ a whole lot actually.
Cassius: We want to have a great collection of software in the day. We want to have the best line-up possible, with some [games] actually coming first in Europe, such as Jet Set Radio Future. We have to go after demand, which is pretty high right now across the 16 countries relevant to launch.
How many exclusive games have you got coming out in Europe that you didn't have launching in the States?
Allard: Wreckless, Jet Set Radio, Rallisport...
Cassius: Genma as well. We'd like to have a football game. [Everyone laughs] We'd like to.
Allard: We'll have more than one [in the future].
You've got 1.5 million units coming out in Europe in the first three months after launch in March. Is that going to impact on how many units you're going to put out in Japan: you haven't specified how many Japan's going to get yet, but it's obviously going to be a lot less.
Allard: We haven't announced a quantity in Japan, but we've actually built up enough volume of hardware at the Guadalajara plant [in Mexico] and the Hungary plant to satisfy demand for all territories through the summer. The real challenge is going to be ramping up for the holiday season. Frankly our biggest worry is that demand has exceeded supply by too far a margin so far so we really have to bring more manufacturing online. We're in the works of doing that now and every day we're extending the capacity of Guadalajara and Hungary.
Have you actually confirmed on the record the Asian manufacturing plant?
Allard: No.
Do you want to do that now?
Allard: No.
When you said that you're ramping up production, it's fairly obviously that you want to push more units into Asia. Can you give us any figures as to how many units you want to produce on a week-by-week, month-by-month basis by the end of this year?
Allard: Not really. I'm not really at liberty to talk about that. The reality was that we were far exceeding 100,000 [a week] before the US launch. We brought Hungary online during the US launch and some of the units actually came over from Hungary.
Do you see yourself being able to meet demand in the UK?
Allard: No. We can't make enough of them. We're ahead of our projections, but we're not keeping up with demand. Ten out of ten reviews for Halo, five out of fives and everything else that the gamers have read about over here: it's driving demand in Europe. We can't keep up with the orders... We've tried to learn from previous console successes and failures, and one shortcoming for several different console launches was the software: the hits didn't keep coming. You need a new hit every month or two. That really drives momentum. You have to replenish shelves and retailers.