At the Vancouver Game Summit, Microsoft executive Shane Kim delivered the keynote - in interview form. The Microsoft Game Studios boss was quizzed by The Electric Playground co-creator Victor Lucas.
"It's great to see the momentum continue after the holiday season," said Kim as the interview kicked off. He pointed to various figures of Xbox 360's success, such as its recently-announced 10 million unit sales mark in the U.S., 19 million units sold worldwide, and 12 million Xbox Live users. Kim noted that the "vast majority" of that 12 million are Gold subscribers, but could not quote specific figures.
On dealing with third parties in general, Kim said simply, "Microsoft people are just nice people. There are some important constituencies out there. When we began, we were the new kids on the block, and we needed to work hard to earn trust. We're fortunate in that some of our competitors don't recognize the importance of relationships. Our communication becomes a huge advantage during launch and marketing with retailers."