e're ending our E3 executive interview string with Microsoft's managing director of Microsoft Game Studios, Shane Kim. This no-holds-barred interview gets the goods on Halo 3 hype, Too Human, Alan Wake, 2007 vs. 2008, Windows Vista, and much much more.

Game Informer: So what do you think about this new E3?

Shane Kim: It’s not that different for me—a press briefing is a press briefing. I’m not sure how much I miss the spectacle. We spent so much crazy money trying to outdo each other, and I’m not sure for what benefit. You guys are going to be able to see our best stuff behind closed doors, so you’re going to see what we would show on show floors anyway—and every publisher will do that. It’s probably not as convenient for you guys, but hopefully we get 90% of the effectiveness with 10% of the overall money that the industry would blow on E3.

GI: Do you think with this scaled-back E3 you’re getting the same amount of coverage? Looking back, you would be on the cover of USA Today. You’d get into Newsweek—N’Gai would do something on you.

Kim: I don’t worry too much about the press, because it is a very easy conglomeration of the industry still. I think we’re world class at PR, too, so we’re going to reach out to the people we need to talk to and they want to talk to us—particularly as a platform owner—so they’re always going to want to Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. And if you’re a big publisher like EA, Activision and Ubisoft, et cetera. So I don’t worry too much about reaching out or getting reached out to by the big guys on that kind of stuff. Maybe the local ABC affiliate doesn’t go down and say, “Look at all these crazy people!” but the stuff that really matters I think we can still get most, if not all, of that done.

GI: Your press conference was interesting. I think it was the first one that’s been outside. Talking to a lot of the people coming out of it, it seemed like this press conference—compared to years’ past—there weren’t a lot of surprises. It seemed to be very status quo. Why did you decide to go that route this year?

Kim: For us, it was really about showing people that this was an incredible holiday. It’s our third holiday. Nintendo and Sony should be in full supply, so it’s going to be a place where a lot of customers are going to be deciding what next-gen console they’re going to want to get. We wanted to focus our efforts and our messaging and all of our attention to communicating to people that we have the greatest lineup in the history of the industry, and we honestly believe that. That’s why you saw us focus on that.

GI: We hear Peter [Moore] say that every year.

Kim: This year it’s true! [laughs] But it is true. Hopefully, we’ll do better next year—you never know. But come on, you’ve got GTA IV, you’ve got Halo 3, you’ve got Mass Effect—it’s just an amazing Xbox 360 portfolio. That’s why we really wanted to focus on that. We’ve still got plenty coming next year and beyond, but for customers who are getting ready to purchase, this will be a big holiday for them, I’m convinced of that. And we’ve got the goods, we really do this year. Ultimately, you guys and customers will decide that, but we feel really strongly about it, and that’s why we focused on that.

GI: Was the thought process behind that kind of like Sony is coming to the table with what they have coming out in the future, and Nintendo is focusing on expanding the market, so you’re kind of in a place where the time is now?

Kim: I know this is going to be difficult to believe, but this is all planned out in advance. We made the announcement last E3 and X06 setting the stage for this holiday. This E3 is making sure that everybody understands. “Hey guys, we told you about Halo Wars at X06,” or “We told you about Mass Effect at last E3.” GTA, we announced the deal with Rockstar, et cetera. This shows you that it’s all coming here. I’m convinced that anybody who might have been disappointed that we didn’t do a live Halo 3 demo on stage, all of that disappointment will wash away on September 25. Part of it is going to be because you’re going to write, “I saw Halo 3 behind closed doors, it’s real,” and hopefully you’ll say it’s really awesome. That’ll be fine, and that’ll hold people over until September. We’re not that far away from September. It’s not like having to wait until November.

GI: I saw Halo 3, but it’s not playable.

Kim: You will see it here.

GI: It’s not playable here.

Kim: In terms of you getting your hands on it? Maybe.

GI: It was being driven. Why wasn’t the controller in my hands?

Kim: That’s a good question for those guys. Obviously, they want to control the demo. Maybe they’d let you pick it up.

GI: I asked.

Kim: They wouldn’t let you pick it up?

GI: Nope.

Kim: I promise you, it’s real.

GI: I went through the demo twice. It’s looking really nice. Halo Wars looks sick. You guys definitely have a great lineup. You do have a lot of games, but that being said, there are a lot of games that have been shown previously that are missing in action. Alan Wake, we saw a trailer last year. That’s a big question mark.

Kim: It’s not this year.

GI: 2008?

Kim: It’s not this year.

GI: Silicon Knights’ project was playable last year.

Kim: Come on, you know as well as I do that we showed it too early. And that hurt Too Human. The great thing about Alan Wake is that people responded really well to Alan Wake. We want to nurture that. It’s not a 2007 title, which is why we’re not showing it here. And we don’t need to show it behind closed doors now. Enough said there. For Too Human, because—especially because of what happened at last year’s E3, we’re not bringing that out in public until we’re ready and we’re sure that it’s going to blow people away. I haven’t lost any enthusiasm for the project. But, I do know from a marketing standpoint, we have to be careful about how we expose that, going forward. Because we’ve got a slow start there—even a negative start. So we’re going to be careful about how we do that. When you have a title like Gears of War—remember how when we first showed it, people were like, “Oh my god, it’s off the charts,” or you get Mass Effect, we showed it at last year’s E3 and people were like, “Oh my god it’s off the charts,” you can put out tidbits and things like that. Fable 2 is the same thing. We roll Peter out and he can show bits and pieces of that. But with Too Human, there was a lot of skepticism about it, despite Silicon Knights’ track record. Fine. Let people stew on that for a while. And when we come out, we’ll come out at a time when we’re confident we can turn peoples’ perception. If we can’t turn that perception, then the game’s got issues. But we don’t believe that. So we’re going to be careful about that.