Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, believes his company is well positioned to end up on top of the next-generation video-game-console business. Kim took part in an on-stage interview with Victor Lucas, host of video-game TV shows The Electric Playground and Reviews on the Run, during the opening event of the Vancouver International Game Summit on May 21.

More than 10 million Xbox 360s have been sold in North America since the console was released in November 2005, and more than 19 million units have been sold worldwide. But Kim said the more important number is that there are 12 million users of Xbox LIVE, the on-line community and marketplace to which Xbox 360 players can subscribe.

“I believe that LIVE is the most important platform that we are building in our business. It gives us so many opportunities,” Kim told Lucas. He said that, while Sony has bet on Blu-ray and Nintendo has put its chips on the physical experience of gaming, Microsoft has pinned its hopes on the Web. As broadband connectivity increases worldwide, he said, people will look to Xbox for “richer, evergreen interactive entertainment. We like our position.”

Kim said that Microsoft’s background as a software company gives it a competitive advantage. “Our DNA as a company is to reach out to the developer community. We know not all content is going to come from Microsoft Game Studios; we work with developers to make sure their content thrives on the Xbox 360.”

While the departure last year of Bungie, the developer responsible for creating the Halo franchise for Microsoft, raised eyebrows, Kim said the only difference today is that “they aren’t our employees anymore.” He insisted that the relationship between the now-independent Bungie and Microsoft remains intact.

Though the rumours that Microsoft might acquire Epic Games, the studio that developed Gears of War, have not come to fruition, Kim said he’s not averse to the idea of acquiring of other developers.

At an Xbox press event in San Francisco earlier in May, Kim told the Straight, “Believe me, we are intent on building our internal development capabilities and growing what we already have today.…Acquiring a company is a pretty major decision.…You have to make those decisions very carefully.”

At the Vancouver summit, Kim said that the industry is stilted by the public’s belief that video games are the domain of adolescent males, but that “the more we can push it out of the boy’s bedroom and into the living room, the more we’ll overcome that.” Interactive storytelling, Kim suggested, will be an important part of the future of gaming. “But I think we’re still learning how to tell stories effectively.”