00:00www.xboxlive.com
00:30The platform, the hardware are created so it's really easy for people to get in and just start building HoloLens
00:34experiences.
00:35Kudo, one of the reasons you're here today is to tell us about your new role.
00:38I'll still be working on the Microsoft HoloLens work certainly, but I'm also now going to be leading a bunch
00:44of new Xbox teams.
00:45Our teams in the UK, so Rare, Lionhead, and then our Lyft London Studios.
00:50I'm working with our Microsoft Studios publishing team on some of the great games that they're putting together like Quantum
00:56Break, Scalebound, Crackdown, all very exciting titles.
00:59But then also working with some of our newer teams, so studios like Press Play, Twisted Pixel, Decisive Games.
01:05Build some new franchises and really get some different and interesting experiences that I think Xbox fans are going to
01:11really love.
01:12Part of your role is you've also looked across the teams and you've moved some people around a little bit.
01:16Tell me about that.
01:17Well, I think this is just really the setup that gives our teams the best chance of success in making
01:23great products.
01:23So we've got Hanno Lemke, who's the GM of Black Tusk. He's now moving over to London and he's going
01:29to be the GM of our UK studios and Press Play as well.
01:32I mean, he's great at bringing top quality to big franchises like Fabled Legends, but he's also awesome at working
01:39some of our newer teams and developing a new IP.
01:41So feel really good about what's going on there. And we've also got John Needham, who is the studio head
01:47of Lionhead, coming back here to Redmond.
01:50And he's going to be focused a lot on our HoloLens development experiences as well as some of our new
01:55Xbox IP.
01:55And of course, with Hanno leaving Black Tusk, we've now got Will Moselle, who is the GM of Big Park.
02:02He's going to be the GM of Microsoft Studios Canada. He's going to be still continue on with Big Park
02:06in the NFL, but he's also going to be working now with Black Tusk.
02:10Obviously, Rod Ferguson, the studio manager there and developing gears.
02:14So you've got some pretty big changes for these for these really well-loved franchises. Are you worried?
02:20Well, you know, obviously, if we were worried, these are not things we would be doing. We're making the changes
02:24to really set things up for success.
02:26And I think Fabled Legends, I mean, it's coming along great. The beta is super fun.
02:30I was just over in the UK last week playing the game.
02:33Villain mode is awesome. The heroes are playing really great.
02:36And so I feel really good about where Fabled Legends is.
02:39And then, of course, I mean, Gears is a huge, huge franchise for us.
02:43But Rod Ferguson's been working on Gears, you know, from the very early days.
02:46He's the guy.
02:46We've got Rod Ferguson there, and you're going to be hearing more about what's going on with Gears coming up
02:51soon.
02:51Now, I can't talk to you without asking about Kinect.
02:53You were one of the minds behind bringing Kinect to the market.
02:56What did you learn from Kinect that you brought into HomeLens, and how do you see that fitting in moving
03:00forward?
03:01Yeah, I mean, it was a very interesting experience.
03:03I mean, one of the things I definitely took away from working on Kinect is that if you're going to
03:06build a new technology or a new type of experience,
03:09how important it is to make sure the first products you ship are really based around the people who are
03:13going to use them the most.
03:14And in the case of Kinect, I mean, that were the core gamers and the Xbox fans.
03:19While we made a lot of great kind of broad consumer products, I don't think we did enough to deliver
03:24really great core experiences with Kinect.
03:28And that's something that going forward, not only with HoloLens, but in the way we look at new products within
03:33Windows 10 and Xbox is definitely something I really take to heart.
03:36The second piece was how amazing it was the different types of people that started building things with Kinect that
03:43really, you know, I never could have imagined.
03:45We built Kinect as an entertainment product, and suddenly you had people using Kinect to like help doctors in surgery
03:50to figure out new ways to teach kids in school.
03:53Like a lot of things that just never really any part of our original Kinect plan.
03:57Kudo, you've been working on HoloLens for quite some time now, and this role is really bringing you back into
04:03Xbox in the spotlight. So why?
04:05Well, I mean, to me, this is just such a super exciting time for Xbox.
04:09Phil's done an amazing job, Phil Spencer, since he's taken over as the head of Xbox, at really putting the
04:14fans at the center of the way that we think about what we're doing with our console and with games
04:20in general.
04:20And I think that's just been such a super positive shift in the way things have gone here at Xbox.
04:25And I think, you know, we're at a place now where we can really expand on that.
04:29I mean, it's great to have, you know, fans obviously making games for the fans and making sure we're doing
04:33like our Xbox updates and that fans are getting improvements to the console, you know, each and every month.
04:38But what I really want to focus on is how we can do something more to incorporate fans in the
04:42way that we make our products.
04:44I think it was a lesson that I learned from Kinect that if you can really get the people who
04:48are the most passionate about the technology and get them involved in the actual creation of the experiences on those
04:53platforms,
04:54then that's how you're going to get the highest quality experiences.
04:57And, you know, most importantly, the biggest variety of things that people will enjoy.
05:01So I think there's a great opportunity to include Xbox fans more in how we build our games, really to
05:06make them feel a part of the development team.
05:08You know, not just getting early access to the products so that we can, you know, see how they play
05:13and like update and tune our experiences,
05:15but really be a part of the creation of the ideas, the features that go into each of our games
05:20and really making them feel like they are a genuine part of our development team.
05:23And to that end, people can find you on Twitter now, right?
05:25Yep. So, you know, right now it's at Kudos to Dota on Twitter.
05:29Really want to get the conversation going with the fans, start hearing about what types of products you'd like us
05:33to be building.
05:34So just feel free to reach out and, you know, let's just get the talking going.
05:37Awesome. Thank you very much. Kudos to Dota. Thanks for your time today.
05:39Thanks, Larry.
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