Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer personally visits Hollywood to sell studios on Xbox One

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
In an effort to sell television studios on his company's forthcoming Xbox One game console and media center, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer personally paid a visit to Hollywood last week.

Xbox One


Details of Ballmer's trek to California were revealed by Deadline on Tuesday, which reported that Ballmer was accompanied by Microsoft Entertainment Studios President Nancy Tellem. The pair reportedly met with executives at the network CBS, talent agency William Morris Endeavor, and "other bigwigs in the TV business."

Ballmer is said to have pitched executives on the functionality and potential of the Xbox One as it relates to "sports, music, reality and scripted programming." But the CEO also reassured content providers that Microsoft isn't interested in becoming a "cable channel."

Ballmer is not known for any sort of preexisting relationship with Hollywood, standing in stark contrast to late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who owned Oscar-winning animation studio Pixar before selling it to Disney. Jobs even attended the Academy Awards in 2010, where "Up" won the Oscars for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score.

Jobs was also a member of the Walt Disney Co. Board of Directors, and the relationship between him and the company led to a number of content deals over the years for Apple's iTunes and the App Store. Specifically, before he was Disney's current CEO, Bob Iger worked closely with Jobs to bring Disney's movie and TV content to iTunes at a time when other major studios hesitated to ink a deal with Apple. Iger is now a member of Apple's board.

Apple's current regime may also have to take their own trips to Hollywood to woo content providers, if longstanding rumors of a full-fledged television set or expanded set-top box are true. Speculation has suggested that the difficulties in securing deals with content providers have been one roadblock against Apple making a larger push into the living room.

Xbox One


Microsoft, meanwhile, hopes to make an even bigger splash this fall with the debut of its new Xbox One gaming console, the successor to its successful Xbox 360. The Xbox One was unveiled at a media-centric event last month, where the Redmond, Wash., company billed the system as a voice- and motion-controlled all-in-one entertainment hub.

Arguably the key feature in Microsoft's new console is an HDMI input, which will allow the Xbox One to integrate with and even control existing cable boxes and other home entertainment systems. By allowing high-definition video to simply pass through the console, Microsoft will be able to provide users with its own entertainment experience without the need to obtain the necessary licenses from content providers and cable companies.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 26
    andysolandysol Posts: 2,506member
    I hope the Xbox One does well. Lot's of good ideas- hopefully the execution and dependability follow suit (unless we are going on track record).
  • Reply 2 of 26


    The XBox One is a fake next-gen fraud just like the PS4. Crap outdated AMD APU pc hardware. Slow as hell.


    Watch "The Last Of Us" gameplay videos on youtube for the PS3 .. that is being released soon.. the Cell is far from outdated, the graphics and 3D Engine of that game is far more advanced and better looking than anything seen for XBox One and PS4.

  • Reply 3 of 26
    al_bundyal_bundy Posts: 1,525member
    if you have FIOS you can stream live TV through your x-box. no need for a cable box from verizon. same with u-verse. i bet time warner and comcast get on board as well this year
  • Reply 4 of 26
    bdkennedy1bdkennedy1 Posts: 1,459member
    I was excited for my Atari 2600, Colecovision, SNES, DreamCast, GameCube, XBox, Playstation 2, XBox 360 and Wii. Unless Sony pulls magic out if it's as*, this is the first generation of consoles I have no desire to own, including XBox One and Wii U.

    Look at that console, it's a monstrosity with not an ounce of ingenuity compared to their previous console designs. It's a box with their name on it. Who designed it? Fry's Electronics?
  • Reply 5 of 26
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member


    Developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers,developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers,developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers,developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers... 

  • Reply 6 of 26
    stelligentstelligent Posts: 2,680member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by macxpress View Post


    Developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers,developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers,developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers,developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers... 



    dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat

  • Reply 7 of 26
    souliisoulsouliisoul Posts: 827member


    Well Xbox One is screwed, Ballmer has not improved his marketing skills, since 80s and I have no confidence he will win over studio execs. Previously launches, he has been involved failed badly to MS expectations, e.g. Zune, Microsoft Surface. Whats gets me is large Advertising budget used and they had so many failures compared to Apple's sucessful products.


     


    Ballmer is bean counter, not savvy marketeer like Steve Jobs, even Tim Cook could do a better job.


     



     


    at 0:24s, you get my reasons for Ballmer lack of senses ..lol

  • Reply 8 of 26
    akacakac Posts: 512member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Jim Phong View Post


    The XBox One is a fake next-gen fraud just like the PS4. Crap outdated AMD APU pc hardware. Slow as hell.


    Watch "The Last Of Us" gameplay videos on youtube for the PS3 .. that is being released soon.. the Cell is far from outdated, the graphics and 3D Engine of that game is far more advanced and better looking than anything seen for XBox One and PS4.



    Nothing has been seen on either for games yet. Just a few marketing announcements. So… that's BS.

  • Reply 9 of 26


    XBox, tv, tv, tv, tv, tv, tv, tv, sports, sports, sports, sports, call of duty, call of duty, dog, call of duty, tv, tv, Xbox go home.


     



     


    Enuff said..

  • Reply 10 of 26
    blowbotblowbot Posts: 9member


    He's going to Ballmer this job too.

  • Reply 11 of 26
    pendergastpendergast Posts: 1,358member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by souliisoul View Post


    Well Xbox One is screwed, Ballmer has not improved his marketing skills, since 80s and I have no confidence he will win over studio execs. Previously launches, he has been involved failed badly to MS expectations, e.g. Zune, Microsoft Surface. Whats gets me is large Advertising budget used and they had so many failures compared to Apple's sucessful products.


     


    Ballmer is bean counter, not savvy marketeer like Steve Jobs, even Tim Cook could do a better job.


     



     


    at 0:24s, you get my reasons for Ballmer lack of senses ..lol



     


    A bean counter? I thought he was a used car salesman.

  • Reply 12 of 26
    The time is ripe to open the Apple TV up to programmers and pack in the latest A# chip and graphics
  • Reply 13 of 26
    suddenly newtonsuddenly newton Posts: 13,819member
    stelligent wrote: »
    dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat

    I kinda assumed Ballmer would use deodorant on those sweaty armpits of his before walking into some Hollywood studio bigwig's office. (Shudders)
  • Reply 14 of 26

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Akac View Post


    Nothing has been seen on either for games yet. Just a few marketing announcements. So… that's BS.



     


    You are wrong. They have already released some demo, intro, teaser and so on for both consoles. And the quality is just barely average. The Last Of Us game for PS3 is way better.


     



    Metal Gear Solid 5 The Phantom Pain GDC 2013 Trailer?HD?


     



    Deep Down PS4 Trailer


     



    Watch_Dogs - PS4 Gameplay Premiere Commented [NL]


     



    Call of Duty: Ghosts "XBOX ONE" Gameplay Trailer

  • Reply 15 of 26
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member


    I can just see it - Balmer in his old Chevy cruisin' down to Holywood, a couple of xboxes thrown in the back. Sweaty pits, radio blaring, blazer neatly folded on the passenger seat. Aaahhhh.... the good old days.

  • Reply 16 of 26

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Jim Phong View Post


     


    You are wrong. They have already released some demo, intro, teaser and so on for both consoles. And the quality is just barely average. The Last Of Us game for PS3 is way better.


     



    Metal Gear Solid 5 The Phantom Pain GDC 2013 Trailer?HD?


     



    Deep Down PS4 Trailer


     



    Watch_Dogs - PS4 Gameplay Premiere Commented [NL]


     



    Call of Duty: Ghosts "XBOX ONE" Gameplay Trailer



    And there are plenty of PS3 games that are far worse looking than all of those games do. There are also a number of high-profile PS3 games that looked worse than their Xbox 360 counterparts (GTA IV, Devil May Cry 4, etc). The PS3 GPU was outdated 7 years ago and the amount of memory the PS3 has for both the system and the GPU is a joke compared to either of the next-gen systems.  The Cell was an overly expensive, overhyped CPU that in most cases was far more of a pain to develop for than any performance gain you might have gotten. Comparing the quality of beta-level quality of games written for a brand new system compared to something written for a mature system is a joke.


     


    Oh and I watched the gameplay trailers for The Last of Us. I saw nothing that impressive.  And games like Call of Duty have never had impressive graphics anyway. They are pretty average FPS graphics.

  • Reply 17 of 26
    stephanjobsstephanjobs Posts: 284member
    jim phong wrote: »
    You are wrong. They have already released some demo, intro, teaser and so on for both consoles. And the quality is just barely average. The Last Of Us game for PS3 is way better.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUlBLxHuPk
    Metal Gear Solid 5 The Phantom Pain GDC 2013 Trailer?HD?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42YQ3-CiO3A
    Deep Down PS4 Trailer

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LNDleuDIyE
    Watch_Dogs - PS4 Gameplay Premiere Commented [NL]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2Ndq4xqxNM
    Call of Duty: Ghosts "XBOX ONE" Gameplay Trailer

    Keep
    In mind that this is a new system and it takes developers! developers! developers! awhile to get into the swing of things and really open up the processing power of each console.

    Ps3 was superior in raw power against the 360 but it was harder to develop
    For which is why Xbox has held it's own.

    Last of us does look pretty sweet but this is from a great company that had had lots of experience and time with this generation ps3.

    Time will tell.

    Also Xbox one claims to have the potential to have some sort of "cloud" processing to keep up with the future console needs.

    Who knows.

    One things for certain that Microsoft is trying to beat apple to the punch by having a singular hub for the home.
  • Reply 18 of 26
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    edit: Pipped by [B]StephanJobs[/B].
  • Reply 19 of 26

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by stelligent View Post


    dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat, dripping sweat



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  • Reply 20 of 26
    XBox One will probably not sell well -- at least not to anyone currently using XBox live. It doesn't work so well -- you expect things to be great when it's so network bound? My guess; This will go over like Metro on Windows 8 -- but we shall see.

    I'd actually like to see some success here -- but there's no way I want to give away total control of games to them. I'm really sick of the cloud -- and it's just starting.

    The NEW upgrade of the future -- like when people got rid of their netbooks -- will be "network independence." Hear me now and believe me later little girly man.
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