The Xbox 360 has finally arrived, The Xbox 360 has finally arrived, The Xbox 360 has finally arrived (Phew) …can anyone out there believe it. And it doesn’t end there; I got the opportunity to interview the guru Mr. Peter Moore, Peter Moore, PETER MOORE! Before all of you think my grey cells have gone off to Ibiza let me give you the reason for my peculiar behavior. The Next generation in Console gaming has just hit India. If all that sounds Greek and Latin to you allow me to further simplify it for you all. “The Xbox 360 has OFFICIALLY been launched in India” and the launch was nothing less than spectacular although there were rough edges here and there. Now that the entire initial rush of adrenaline has subsided, here’s the “gamer’s eye view” of the event.
The Xbox 360 launch took place in New Delhi at a mall called Ansal Plaza. But anything this good couldn’t be without its share of problems. For starters I did not receive the official invite thanks to some confusion so I had to get in touch with the person from the P.R. handling the event, the Press conference that was taking place was at a popular Restaurant ,the problem was that I had no clue where it was located in the mall, so I had to call my friend who was well versed with the place and after a little running here and there I finally got to the place, now this is where all the fun was.
Mr. Peter Moore Corporate Vice President Interactive Entertainment Business Microsoft was flying right from the Tokyo Game Show specially for the launch and its not like that you get to meet such persons at such a high gaming post everyday, so this was it I had to get an Exclusive Interview with him and made sure he noticed me.
The press conference was at 0530 hours and kicked off with speeches from Mr. Mohit Anand Country Manager, Microsoft Entertainment Division and Mrs. Neelam Dhawan M.D. Microsoft India who seemed full of enthusiasm on the launch of the console but my eye was on Mr. Peter Moore. He finally glorified the stage with his presence and said a few words on the launch of the console. As soon as he finished his speech there were a string of bouncers entering the place, which was followed by the grand arrival of the mast mast Mr. Akshay Kumar, the Bollywood actor (I Have mentioned grand because this was the time when the media barring me and my friend actual took notice of what was going around). After Mr. Moore’s speech, Mr. Anand had a few things to announce regarding the launch. He dropped a bomb by saying that a game titled “Yuvraj Singh International” is currently under development for the cricket Centric Nation by Codemasters, known for their authentic rally games and there’s even a “Brain Lara’s Cricket”. Finally after all this, the house was open to the media to quiz the people sitting on the hot seats. This was my chance I raised my Hand and started off on “Emergence day” (the day given to the launch of the game Gears of War) this brought an instant smile on Mr. Peter’s face and he asked me my name (can you Believe that, I still can’t) am pretty sure he did not expect the question coming from a person living in India, nonetheless I Had struck Bull’s-eye, he asked me to explain to the media what “Emergence Day” was actually about. After which he continued to talk about it to the rest of the media. Now that he had noticed me it was my time to get into his good books so that my friend and I could have an exclusive interview later on. I continued asking about the role of Indian Game Developers globally. There was quite an interesting reply to the question. It so happens a part of India is actually inside the 360, a silicon component in the 360 comes directly from the land of delicious biryanis “Hyderabad” funny how no one knew about that, next was how far would he vouch for the fact that Halo and Xbox Live were their “Knights in shining Armor”, my friend quipped in as soon as he was done by asking him to reveal his Tattoos of Halo 2 and GTA IV on his arms which was the funny part in the entire press conference. The rest of the media in order to save themselves from further embarrassment asked a question to Mr. Akshay Kumar about his favorite game whose answer I honestly cannot recall but from the looks on Mr. Kumar’s face it was clear that his position as a top Bollywood Star was not the charm around the Place. It was clearly Mr. Peter Moore and thanks to me and my friend.