Peter Moore goes hands-on

The man with the mile-long title, Corporate Vice President of Entertainment and Devices Division for Microsoft Peter Moore, commented on the new developments in controller technology fueled by the Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3 innovations in several recent interviews.

After spending some time with the Wii-mote, Moore reacted favorably, telling Reuters, "Sonic was almost built for the controller because it was so intuitive." Later, in an interview with Gamertag Radio, he gave Nintendo credit for going a simpler route: "Shoulder buttons, triggers, analog sticks, d-pads, I mean, there's a lot going on there when you compare it to the old Atari 2600 button-and-stick, which everybody could pick up and have some fun with... Clearly, I think the Wii is trying to get back to those days."

It would seem that the Microsoft mogul continues to search for new angles for his own next-gen console, as he went on in that same interview to state, "I'm a huge fan of any kind of innovation you can try and do that will make a broader reach for games, because as an industry we've got to do that." He went on to mention that Microsoft is "doing a lot of stuff there. Nothing that we're ready to talk about, and we're not going to force anything that is not going to be intuitive and innovative."

Moore let another little nugget slip when he touched on the mysterious disappearance of Xbox front-man J Allard. "You know, the Live update... that's J's team," saidMoore to Gamertag radio.This seems to be the final clincher to silence the rumors that J Allard was ensconced away somewhere deep within Microsoft, working on a hand-held counterpart to the Xbox.

June 20, 2006