http://www.gamedaily.com/article ... 6/?biz=1&page=2

SK: My most important job is to make sure Microsoft Game Studios has a competitive advantage as a first-party versus Sony's first-party. That is my number one job, and we will gladly go head-to-head with Sony's first party with our portfolio, with our titles, with our performance and I think we're going to make a huge difference in winning this generation. Again, it goes back to our objective as a company; our objective is to win this generation and we recognized a long time ago that the third-party environment is changing because you're not going to see as many third-party exclusives and in the past most of those benefits have actually gone to Sony through installed base etc, etc. That's changing now going forward so if the third-party playing field is basically neutral, which I could honestly look at and go "it's neutral," it's going to be up to the first parties to differentiate the platforms from a content standpoint. That's what we've been totally focused on the past three to four years and I think you're starting to see the fruits of that. Gears of War is a great example of that.We have a ton of respect for independent developers that are out there that work with Sony, but when it comes to going head-to-head with them as a publisher, we welcome that conversation.


http://www.microsoft.com/presspa ... 8360E3TitlesPR.mspx

Among the innovative first-party Xbox 360 titles showcased in Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 booth are these:

• “Blue Dragon” (Mistwalker Inc.) from Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the original “FINAL FANTASY®” series, an epic role-playing game (RPG) featuring the original artwork of Akira Toriyama, creator of the “Dragonball” series of manga and anime.

• “Gears of War” (Epic Games Inc.) is the lifelike third-person tactical shooter that thrusts the gamer into the harrowing story of humankind’s battle for survival against the Locust Horde. “Gears of War” utilizes the breathtaking new Unreal Engine 3 to create cinematic, high-definition visuals for a next-generation experience so intense and powerful, it feels as if the gamer is controlling a blockbuster action movie.