Interview with Microsoft's McGill and Burrowes about Video Marketplace

The Xbox Live Video Store has opened its digital doors for the first time outside of the US - in the UK, Canada and selected European territories.
To find out why it took to long to leave US boundaries, and what the future holds for the service, GamesIndustry spent some time with Stephen McGill, Microsoft's head of Gaming and Entertainment UK, and Robin Burrowes, Xbox Live marketing manager for the UK.

* GamesIndustry.biz: Why has it taken so long for the Video Store to make it from the US?
* Robin Burrowes: It's just readiness really, making sure that what we've got is absolutely right. We were always going to launch it before the end of 2007, it was industry expectation rather than anything else to be honest. We were always going to deliver this by the end of 2007 so we've kept to our promise.
* Stephen McGill: And also from the technical point of view we needed to get the recent update out there ready for the service. We could have launched last week but we decided to have a little bit of a gap. That was a pretty big update, we've got a lot of great new stuff for consumers.

* There were some comments made recently by Michael Bay, who felt that Microsoft might be opting for a different strategy, bypassing the next-generation of DVDs altogether and opting for a download-only service in the long term. What would you say to that?
* SM: I didn't read his comments, although I heard about them, but hey, he's allowed his personal thoughts - I think he clarified some of those thoughts about 24 hours later - but for us we're focused on HD-DVD movies working with great partners, and we wouldn't have that offer for five free movies if we didn't believe in that format.
But we also believe in downloadable content, whether it's music, or movies - it's not about one solution, because one solution isn't going to work for everybody.

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