At Day 1, one of Kimmich's first responsibilities will be to leverage his proven track record in selecting and cultivating successful game franchises to lead a Day 1 development team in the creation of a next generation console title.
Kimmich, who most recently was a lead product planner over at MGS, overseeing first-party development capacity for the launch of Microsoft's Xbox, will help oversee the production of Day 1's newest title, MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf.
While at MGS, he was involved in jump-starting such developers as Gas Powered Games and Big Huge Games, and was also responsible for spearheading the acquisition of FASA Interactive (developers of MechWarrior 4 and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge)and developers Bungie Studios (creators of Halo and the soon-to-be-released Halo 2).
We caught up with Kimmich to ask him about his new role.
GameSpy: To ask the question that's on everybody's mind, why are you parting ways with Microsoft after 16 years of service? Do you know who will be replacing you?
Jon Kimmich : Are you kidding? In this business, 16 years is an epoch. Cartridges buried in the desert can fossilize in 16 years. A better question would have been, "What did Microsoft do right that somebody would hang around for almost 16-years?GameSpy : Does your decision to leave have anything to do with Alexander Seropian leaving Bungie to form Wideload Games?
Jon Kimmich : No. But, as it turns out, Alex and I go way back. However, that's another story.GameSpy : Since you were on the forefront in Microsoft's acquisition of Bungie in 2000, what do you recall most about the process?
Jon Kimmich : I guess the moment I remember most was at the first E3 that Halo was shown by Bungie. We'd been talking since GDC, and our discussions were pretty far along. Marty, Joe and the rest of the team had been heads-down the previous month putting together the 9-minute Halo trailer that they were going to show in the Bungie theater at the show. I had seen bits and pieces before, but as with most E3 presentations, this one came together at the last second, and so pretty much nobody but Marty and Joe and Jason and maybe a couple others had seen the final cut. I was pretty sure we were going to get Citizen Kane … but had this irrational fear that I'd just convinced Ed to buy Ishtar.
Up to this point, the team had been focused on getting multiplayer working, so that they could experiment with gameplay. So all the plans for what the vision for the single-player part of the game would look like were locked up in Jason's head. This trailer was the first real manifestation of that vision. We'd talked with Jason a bunch, so we knew in theory what it was, but we hadn't actually seen it.
The thing that we forget now, three years later, is that Halo was anything but a sure bet. We all look back now and say, "Of course this game was going to be huge. How could it not be?
But at the time, there were doubters around every corner within the industry and even a few within MGS. You'd hear things like, "FPS games are not console games," or, "Nobody's going to be able to control a FPS using a controller; a mouse and keyboard is the only way," or, "Look at what's selling on other platforms, genres like platformers and RPGs are what console gamers want - not hardcore shooters.
You hear enough of that and, no matter what; you're going to start to have doubts. Little voices, little fears, in the back of you mind that perhaps … just maybe … you're wrong. That this is all a horrible mistake. That they're right, and you're just kidding yourself. So what I remember is sitting in that theater, before the show.
All alone in the dark. Me. And my doubts.
And Joe.
Joe was practicing the interactive portion of the demo. Run MC to this mark. Fire the pistol. See MC climb in the jeep. See MC climb out of the jeep. Sure it looked fantastic - all shiny and bumpy. But it was still pretty early in the development of the game, so what you wound up seeing in the interactive part of the demo wasn't exactly what you'd call revolutionary. He ran through it maybe three or four times. Then he started the DVD with the trailer.
And seeing it, all those doubts, all those fears that people had put in my head were obliterated.
Sure, we look back now, there were some things in that video that never made it into the game (perhaps the thorn-beast is the one I miss the most) but the experience that you got in that trailer and more importantly the feeling, is basically what you got in the game. Except it's not a trailer. Now you get to control it.
But back then, at that moment, I knew … I KNEW, with that wide-eyed fanatical certainty of a converted zealot that I would let nothing stand in the way of the team at Bungie getting the resources, and support to complete this game; that I would simply shout louder than the doubters, that I would drive the unbelievers before me, that I would ensure that this game got made … no … matter … what.
That's what I remember. That, and how incredibly hard the team worked to make the game as great as it was.
Just think, in a few months, we'll all be playing the sequel. And my goal at Day 1 will be to deliver the same type of awe-inspiring experience in every game that we do.