Kikizo had a 20 minute long video interview with Scott Henson (Director of Microsoft’s Game Technology Group). He talks about future game releases like Viva Pinata and Gears of War, says that “…1080p, just to address that directly, will be basically impossible. I think if you talk to any developer they will tell you that they will not have a performing game at 1080p.” and a bunch of other cool stuff including streaming video without Media Center and XNA.

Other stuff that’s covered;

• Where XNA stands today since its announcement two years ago
• XNA Build, the new preview release at GDC, and what it contains
• Why is the likes of Team Ninja achieving much higher visual standards than many other developers?
• Using XNA to get results in defining titles like Double Agent
• HD sweet spot is 720p and 1080i… regarding PS3, “1080p is basically impossible”
• Improving as developers learn more about multithread programming and multicore architectures
• Improving Xbox 360 front-end features - like music player and background downloading - via Live
• Allowing streaming video media properly without XP Media Center Edition or Vista!
• “We can continue to add components over time… we’ll be ready to adapt to what consumers want”…”We’ll continue to evolve it, I promise!”
• Surpassing Xbox Live expectations - more than half connected, 9 million downloads to date, 85% of consoles have downloaded, 600,000 text messages per day, GamerCards viewed 1m times per day off of Xbox.com…
• iPod functionality and getting around that unofficial barrier
• What’s hot right now… what to look forward to on Xbox Live Arcade
• Most talked about Xbox 360 title of 2006 - GOW and Viva Piñata, and “I’m sure there’ll be a lot of discussion about Bungie as well…”

For the full interview scroll all the way down on this page.