Chris Early, Microsoft’s product unit manager for the Xbox Live Arcade service, spoke with Gamasutra on the amazing growth of the XBLA and where it’s headed in the future. He had a few nice words about Nintendo’s own online service (ironic, as most Nintendo fans don’t), excerpted below.
Gamasutra: Are there things within the PlayStation Network and the Wii’s Virtual Console that have alerted you to gaps within the service?
Chris Early: Well, I know that we do our best to keep track of what’s going on, though I think we’re operating on a slightly different road-map – we know where we’re heading with the Live service, and we have a vision for what we’re delivering to customers and so far we’re staying pretty true to that. I think in some areas, we’re actually seeing reinforcement from some of what’s happening on the other services.
Gamasutra: But with the Wii moving into original content, as they have hinted at a number of times now, that’s obviously going to be more of an issue.
Chris Early: I think that’s going to be great to see. I really do. There’ll be people that develop on other platforms that are good enough to make it to Xbox Live Arcade as well.
We think original online content for the Wii would be great to see as well, Chris.
