Microsoft Game Studios revealed earlier today that Shane Kim would be taking up a new position at the company. Kim will become corporate VP of strategy and business development for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment business. Learn more about this after the jump!

Lots of surprises are being popped in this year's DICE, and Microsoft's Shane Kim is no exception to the activity. In this update, we get the skinny on a LOT of upcoming titles from the man himself, as well as the reason for a certain MMO's cancellation. Check it out in the full article.

It's official: Bungie Studios and Microsoft are parting ways. A press release from Microsoft announced today that Bungie Studios will be embarking on a path to become an independent company. This confirms earlier rumors of the Bungie-Microsoft split.

Microsoft will still retain an equity interest in the studio. Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie will be continuing their publishing agreement for the Halo IP as well as other future Bungie projects. According to Bungie studio head Harold Ryan, the studio will continue to focus primarily on video game development for Microsoft platforms.

Shane Kim, Microsoft Game Studios' corporate vice president, also assured people that they will continue to invest in "a new interactive series set in the Halo universe" with Bungie and other partners including director Peter Jackson.

 

Shadowrun (Xbox 360), FASA/Microsoft Game Studios: US$ 60.00
Shadowrun (PC), FASA/Microsoft Game Studios: US$ 50.00
Shadowrun (Xbox 360 - PC) Difference: US$ 10.00

Okay, what explains the ten dollar difference between the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the same multiplayer-only game? Newsweek's N'Gai Croal asks the same questions in an email to Shane Kim, Microsoft Game Studios VP, and Shane Kim emailed back the response:

The $59.99 for Xbox 360 and $49.99 for Windows Vista price points are our standard pricing for each platform.

Should people be worked up over this? Maybe, maybe not - but the price difference, even at ten dollars, will still raise some eyebrows when one considers that FASA and MGS is trying to deliver essentially the same game (okay, to be fair, a similar gaming experience) on the Xbox 360 and PC. And it has to, because it's a cross-platformer, and if there were any significant differences between the gameplay or offerings of the two versions, players on one platform or the other might feel short-changed.

Kim's answer also indicates that Microsoft will be following this pricing schematic for their first-party titles "like Shadowrun" - which means that the only difference between future 360/PC cross-platformers won't be the controller-vs.-mouse/keyboard (not if a controller could also be used on the PC and MS adds keyboard and mouse support to the console), or the PC's open architecture, but...

Ten dollars.

Following an early announcement from an official press release, Microsoft is now slated to plant a publishing arm within the European region. The UK-based Microsoft Game Studios will be focused on delivering content published by Microsoft Game Studios, aside from establishing stronger ties with Euro-based developer studios.

The new publishing studio will be based on Reading, UK, starting May 6, 2007. The initial team will be headed by General Manager Phil Spencer, who shall report directly to Microsoft Game Studios' top brass Shane Kim. He will be tasked with continuing to publish content from numerous developers all across the globe, while establishing a European publishing team for the studio.

Helping him out with the tasks at hand, Director of European Production Shannon Loftis and Director of Business Management Todd Stevens will provide the necessary aid and guidance to the newly established team, while the team reports to the "motherlode" team back in Redmond. Spencer concluded the official announcement, commenting:

We already have an established presence in the region with some of the world’s best development talent like Lionhead and Rare, and great publishing partners like Bizarre Creations, Real Time Worlds and Remedy. I look forward to continuing and strengthening that success by building deeper relationships with the development community here.

Contrary to rumors, Microsoft's Shane Kim is saying that the company is not interested in buying Take-Two Interactive, and for good reason.

CNN's Chris Morris talks about the potentially powerful acquisition, citing Shane Kim and some pretty good reasons why Microsoft wouldn't want to take over Take-Two:

One company that says it's not in the running is Microsoft. Because today's independent publishers are platform agnostic - that is to say, they build games for all major systems - taking over one would result in a massive revenue loss for Microsoft, as all development would be redirected toward the Xbox 360.

"We could never launch an acquisition bid at a third party publisher," said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft (Charts) Game Studios.

Of course, where there's a will (for rumormongering), there's a way. "Potential buyers" now include Ubisoft, Activision, Bono (care of Elevation Partners), and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Sorry folks, Cthulthu won't be making any bids this time, so consider that rumor smashed.

 

While the news sparked sad days for Shadowrun fans the world over, Microsoft Game Studios">Shane Kim believes that they can still market the former-RPG-now-FPS title coming to the Xbox 360 and PC as a revolutionary cross-platform FPS. A former FASA Studio developer, however, claimed that "the Shadowrun game offers nothing new in the aspect of first person shooters and that it looks visually uninspiring and mediocre."

In efforts to circumvent the disappointment and bad rep that the title has been reaping before launch, Microsoft has been working overtime. But in order for them to haul back the franchise's "fandom", they had to provide beta testing and press tours to market the game. In an interview with Gamasutra, Shane Kim said:

Ultimately, what's going to win them over or not is how great of a game it is. I think that people who are getting their hands on Shadowrun are realizing that it's a showcase title for cross-platform play online, and it's very important for us because it's how we're launching Live for Games for Windows, with head-to-head play with people on Xbox Live. That I think is what excites me, and will be what gets people over the hump to realize it's not a classic RPG that people expected.

Kim also claimed that a few Shadowrun fans tell FASA that they would never buy the game, but decide after the visit to give it a try anyway. He hopes to be able to use this same phenomenon to bring back the following this cyberpunk title once had while in development.

Microsoft's deployment of Xbox Live via Windows Vista obviously faces the problem that PC Gamers are used to, and are mostly expecting, that multiplayer online gaming is something that is free. Charging PC Gamers to play multiplayer games will be something of a step backwards for the company, and according to Shane Kim, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Game Studios, Microsoft is aware of this.

Speaking with 1UP at the DICE Summit, Kim addressed these possible XBL roadblocks by saying:

Not all customers have to pay for Xbox Live on Xbox 360 [Silver and Gold], in the same way you're going to have a similar approach when we bring Live over to Windows. Those details are going to be announced pretty shortly. We have big value offering to customers because we can create an integrated Live experience across platforms

...We do recognize that, unlike the Xbox 360 environment, there's existing competition in the PC online space. So we have to take that into account as we think about how we're going to structure our services, what they'll pay for and what they won't.

Of course, the danger here is that if PC gamers will have altered payment schemes and that Silver member PC Gamers can get certain services for free, while console gamers on the Xbox 360 continue to pay, there might be some backlash. Especially now that Sony and Nintendo are promising that they'll get their online network/community up to par with Microsoft's.