Peter Moore should be tired. Today, the Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Retail Sales and Marketing for Microsoft's Home and Entertainment Division (translation: He has to make Xbox 360 the No. 1 console in the world) woke up early enough to get in a 6 a.m. workout. So he could make this 8 a.m. interview with us. So he can work a full day afterwards. So he can finish in time to do a 5:00 p.m. photo shoot with us later. So he can wrap that up and work through the night (when it's business hours in Japan). So he can fly out to Tokyo in the morning. Just another 16-hour workday for the guy.

But Moore isn't tired. He's bright-eyed awake and ready to discuss the Xbox 360's recent problems and future prospects. The man seems to draw from an endless supply of energy whenever he talks to the press, which is good for him, because this interview is no walk in the park....

The Past:

Launch Time

EGM: What was your biggest worry leading up to the Xbox 360 launch?

Peter Moore: I think you always worry when you're launching brand-new hardware, something as complex and next generational as this, that software won't be ready in the quantity and quality that you hope for on day one.

But our biggest concern is getting the right launch titles out and meeting the genres that we need to for gamers' tastes. I think that now as I look back on it, we obviously did a phenomenal job, getting 18 titles out on day one, spanning just about every genre. I guess the only slight disappointment is that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion didn't make it, that we didn't have a [role-playing game]. But there's never really been an RPG at the launch of any major console anyway, and Elder Scrolls is not far behind.

EGM: How did the 360 launch compare to the Dreamcast's, which you worked on, and PS2's?

PM: Well I certainly think the PlayStation 2, even by [Sony's] own admission, didn't have strong games at launch.

I think the Dreamcast had some great games at launch, but it didn't have the ability to sustain itself past the first six months, and of course it didn't have Electronic Arts on the platform at any point during its life cycle. So we're delighted with the quality and the quantity of titles at [Xbox 360's] launch on a global basis.

EGM: You really didn't need a Halo to launch the Xbox 360, did you?

PM: No, I don't think we did. It was never really in the plans. Clearly, when you're shipping Halo 2 the year before the launch of a new platform, to expect [developer] Bungie to then immediately move on to a brand-new architecture and bring out a third iteration of a franchise worthy of being one of the greatest franchises in videogame history, it's unreasonable. So, we didn't believe we needed it. We felt that titles like Perfect...