Peter Jackson to create two Xbox games

Peter Jackson

LOS ANGELES - Microsoft today announced a new video game partnership with Academy Award-winning kiwi director Peter Jackson.

Jackson and partner Fran Walsh will create two new series exclusively for the Xbox 360 and its online service Xbox Live, Shane Kim, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios, said in a telephone interview from Barcelona, where Microsoft is hosting its X06 video game show.

The husband-and-wife creative team behind The Lord of the Rings will collaborate with Microsoft's Bungie Studios to create a new chapter for the blockbuster Halo series, which boosted sales of the original Xbox.

The second will be an entirely new project aimed at luring new audiences to video games. Release dates are not yet available.

Kim said Microsoft is working to broaden the appeal of video games with the aim of making them as mass market as movies, music and literature.

"Hopefully, we'll come up with the secret code to unlock all that potential," Kim said of the company's work with Jackson and Walsh, who had already been tapped to run the production of an upcoming Hollywood film based on Halo.

Microsoft's Ensemble Studios, creators of the Age of Empires game franchise, will deliver a new real-time strategy game called Halo Wars on a date to be announced, Kim said.

The company also said Take-Two Interactive Software Inc's Rockstar studio will deliver two downloadable episodes of Grand Theft Auto IV exclusively to Xbox Live players in the months following the release of the game.

Grand Theft Auto III, released in 2001 and temporarily exclusive to the PlayStation 2, is credited with helping to drive sales of Sony's market-leading console as Microsoft was getting off the ground with its first Xbox.

Jackson said the new technology available allowed storytellers to express themselves in a new way.

"My vision ... is to push the boundaries of game development and the future of interactive entertainment."

He said game technology was at a stage where film makers could "work their craft in the same way they do today with movies and books but taking it further with interactivity".

Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced US and European pricing and availability for its much-awaited Xbox 360 HD-DVD player.

Microsoft said the high-definition DVD player for its new video game console will be available in mid-November in North America for US$200, ($308) the United Kingdom for £130 ($379), and France and Germany for 200 euros ($392).

In a further New Zealand tie-in, Microsoft said its plug-in Xbox 360 HD-DVD player would for a limited time be bundled with a copy of Jackson's film King Kong.

HD-DVD and Blu-ray are heading into a war over which will be the standard format for high-definition DVD players, reminiscent of the VHS-Betamax video battle in which VHS triumphed and Sony's Betamax lost.

Sony, whose new PlayStation 3 will hit North American shelves in November, is making a bold bet by including its Blu-ray high-definition DVD player in the game console.

Sony will sell the high-end version of the PS3 for US$600 ($923) in the United States. Microsoft's comparable Xbox 360, priced at US$400, does not include a high-definition DVD player.

"We're not forcing movie technology on game players but are instead letting them choose how to personalise their experiences," said Peter Moore, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business.

- REUTERS, NZPA