GDC 2007: Morning after pills

Microsoft blogger breakfast notes:

• Crecente looks like a pirate.

• XNA for Vista is coming in April. They said you can do it now, but you have to go through a lot of trouble to make it work.

• Shane Kim says Microsoft doesn't really focus on what the competition is doing. Microsoft has their own plans that have been in the works.

• Paying for PC online is worth doing. Kim says Microsoft is banking on the success of Xbox Live to carry over into the PC space.

• Microsoft says the 6 million Xbox Live subscribers number included Silver and Gold and is as close to a realistic number as they could get -- they are aware some people have multiple accounts.

• Lag on Xbox Live: They are aware and share latency tools with developers to work that into the game's code. They said they leave it up to the dev to create a game with good code that doesn't lag. Basically saying, if they want our help, we're more than willing to give it.

• Shane Kim says he still believes that Viva Pinata is just as important as Gears of War. 

• XNA and XBLA help mitigate risks for Microsoft.

• A focus on sequels is not good for the industry.

• Peter Jackson is working on episodic content for Microsoft. Wanted a film guy that could tell a great story. 

• Microsoft provides guidelines and results for microtransactions, but will always leave it up to the individual publisher to decide on pricing and overall content. They say the publisher has to be held accountable for that. Shane Kim says he is not a fan of standardizing microtransactions.

• Reason for Halo 3 beta in Crackdown: They needed to make sure they had enough people in the Halo 3 beta and the timing of Crackdown being released worked out well for them. The beta is still on schedule for this spring and development is on track. 

• Peter Jackson is working on two interactive series'. First is set in the Halo universe. Shane Kim says there is no good episodic content out there and it's a tricky space to work in -- difficult to really pull off well.

• They bashed the PS3 a bit saying there have been a lot of promises that weren't met.