The previous chapter of this Chain Interview had concluded with a question EA Sports chief Peter Moore gave me during our Wednesday afternoon interview during E3 week in L.A.

[This post is the fourth in a series that recounts the chain of questions and answers I solicited from the people I interviewed during E3. I asked each of my interviewees to ask a question of the next one. Hence: Chain Interview.]

A mirthful Moore jokingly wanted to know why his boss, EA CEO John Riccitiello could buy en electric car just to guarantee himself one of the only two reserved parking spots at EA. Moore explained to me that these two spots were at a prime location at EA headquarters, marked for electric vehicles. I'm not a car person, so Moore had to explain me what a Tesla is, the brand of fancy electric car that Riccitiello owns.

The next morning, as Riccitiello and I wrapped our interview and the CEO told me he needed to get to his next thing, I asked him to answer Moore's query.

John Riccitiello responds: "The honest truth? I'll try the truth. I'm a gigantic believer in the environment. And I'm the CE of a pretty public company. And if everybody knows that I drive one of those things, it makes them think. And that's exactly why I did it. For good or for bad, that's why I did it. And I don't mind the parking space."

With Riccitiello's answer in, I thought I had just one more question to obtain. I needed the EA CEO to give me a question for the president of Nintendo of America. The chain was about to end close to where it began, back in Nintendo's E3 meeting area a few feet away from where Shigeru Miyamoto had started things.

Some context is needed for Riccitiello's question. Earlier in the week, Nintendo had hosted its annual E3 briefing. As is typical, Fils-Aime was one of the main speakers during the presentation. What was atypical was that many of the invited guests did not get to witness the presentation in person. The press did, inside L.A.'s Club Nokia, but developers, publishers, retailers and other business people had to watch the presentation via video at the nearby Nokia Theatre.

John Riccitiello asks Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime: "Why did you show the development community the video of your presentation but the press the live presentation? What were your considerations?"

I ferried this question to Fils-Aime, who tackled it at the conclusion of our half-hour interview. It should be noted that, by answering, Fils-Aime became the first repeat participant in my Chain Interviews. He was in the first one, too.

Reggie Fils-Aime responds: "Let me give a little bit of background. As we were prepping for this year's E3 and had the objective of a venue close by, to be convenient for all of the attendees, the options were quite limited. In the end, we chose Club Nokia with the expectation that a house of about 1200 people would be appropriate. Unfortunately, between the media, business partners and guests from around the world, our total invite acceptances ended up being over 3000. So that's what created the challenge of finding a second venue in very short order, which is why we did that supplemental experience in the Theater. So, we made a tough business decision that it was most important for the media to see it live, and we also made a decision that we would not make hierarchical decisions as to whether any business partners should view it in the Club.

"Said another way, I would have loved to have John in the Club. I would have loved to have had [Activision Blizzard chairman] Bobby [Kotick] in the Club. I would love to have [Activision Blizzard CEO] Mike [Griffiths] in the Club. Where do I draw the line? So we made the business decision to have all of our retailers, all of our other business partners, all of our publishers in Nokia Theatre."

And so the chain interview would have ended, because I had no one else to interview. But I suggested to Reggie that, if he was interested, we could extend the chain from him to Kotaku's readers. "I would love to ask the readers a question," he said."

OK then…

Reggie Fils-Aime asks Kotaku's readers: "In the same vein of Team Ninja working with Nintendo to re-imagine Metroid, what development group would your readers love to see partner and collaborate with Nintendo? And on what franchise?"

I warned Reggie that he'd be raising expectations with a question like that. He laughed. "Maybe it'll give us some further options on what to consider."

Please keep the chain going, Kotaku, by answering Reggie.

We hope you've enjoyed the Chain Interview.

[This post is the fourth in a series that recounts the chain of questions and answers I solicited from the people I interviewed during E3. I asked each of my interviewees to ask a question of the next one. Hence: Chain Interview.]

Shane Kim, Microsoft corporate vice president for long-term strategy in the Xbox 360 group responds: "We're really pleased to have Take Two and EA doing well on our platform with their sports games. So sports as a gaming genre is obviously very important.

"The way I think about sports is in a broader context. Sports is something that hundreds of millions of people are super-passionate about. That's where I think the opportunity is for us to do really interesting things with Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. While you can pick a number from a hat – [there are] six or seven million people who play Madden, there are a 100 million people who watch the NFL during the season. That's a very interesting market. So can we create an experience on our platform for that a football enthusiast or a basketball enthusiast or a baseball enthusiast..."

[At this point Kim got up and directed my attention to an Xbox 360 that was running a demo of a new service which will show Premier League soccer matches in a window surrounded by an audience of Xbox Live avatars. In the margins there was room for trivia and metagame stats based on the number of fans logged in from each team.]

"That's not a soccer game," Kim added, "But that's Premier League live matches being broadcast on Xbox Live surrounded by our social entertainment experience…This is a much better video gaming experience to me than just watching the game."

Impressive, Shane, but did you have a question for your former Microsoft colleague Peter Moore, the head of EA Sports whom I would be interviewing next?

He did.

Shane Kim asks EA Sports chief Peter Moore : "What Microsoft executive do you miss the most from the Xbox group?"

I talked to Moore in one of EA's meeting areas. After our interview, I tested his wit by seeing how he could answer Kim's question.

Peter Moore responds: "Whilst that is like saying, which of my children do I love most, boy, it's got to be Master Chief. It's got to be."

I pointed out that Master Chief is not an executive. Laughing, Moore quickly replied: "He's responsible for more revenue than anybody else I left behind there."

Fair enough. And did he have a question for my next interviewee, his boss and EA CEO John Riccitiello?
He did. Some context: Most of the parking spots at EA's headquarters are not reserved. Moore told me only two are, for electric cars. So…

Peter Moore asks EA CEO John Riccitiello: "How can you live with yourself by deliberately buying an electric car so you can get a reserved parking spot at Electronic Arts?"

Please come back for the answer and the final key links in our Chain Interview.

[This post is the third in a series that recounts the chain of questions and answers I solicited from the people I interviewed during E3. I asked each of my interviewees to ask a question of the next one. Hence: Chain Interview.]

In a hotel room suite on the Wednesday of E3 week, I asked the next chain interview question to Sony's Peter Dille. He had just let me play Gran Turismo on his white PSPGo and answered a batch of questions about Sony's E3 showing. Dille was happy to answer Schappert's question, but admitted to having trouble doing so simply due to a lack of regular use of Xbox Live.

Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment of America responds: "I don't spend a lot of time on it… Xbox Live has been out for a while and Microsoft's done a really good job getting people involved in online gaming. And that's good news for the industry."

Dille surprised me, and I told him so. I thought he would have made a remark about Microsoft charging for online play, but he didn't take the bait. Instead, he took the opportunity to keep the chain going for my next interview, located on floor below.

Peter Dille asks Sony Computer Entertainment vice president of product development Scott Rohde: "What advantages do you see in developing for PS3 compared to other platforms?"

Armed with that query, I headed over to Rohde's room. We talked about Sony's U.S. studios, whose efforts he oversees. He let me videotape his PSPgo's sliding action. And then I lobbed him the softball.

Scott Rohde responds "What developers have discovered over the past three years — you've heard [Sony Computer Entertainment president] Kaz [Hirai] make reference to this in other interviews — it's kind of the machine that just keeps giving. As you peel off new layers of the onion, you kind of find out more capabilities that the machine can do. When people start taking advantage of the [PS3's seven] SPUs and the Cell [processor] they really find that, \Wow, we can throw more and more tasks and processes at those SPUs and we have all this freedom on the main processor to do more.'"

I pointed out to Rohde that Dille was asking for a comparison to other platform. His answer implied that the same kinds of things couldn't be said about the other major consoles. Fair? "Absolutely," he replied.

My next interview later in the day would be with Microsoft's corporate vice president of strategy and business development for the company's interactive entertainment division. That'd be Shane Kim, former head of first-party game development for the Xbox 360. This would be Sony's chance to turn things back on Microsoft and keep the chain connected. Question, please?

Rohde prefaced his question by noting that I always ask him about sports games, largely because Rohde used to run Sony's San Diego studio which produces the PlayStation's basketball and basebell games.

Scott Rohde asks Shane Kim: "[Stephen] identifies me as a sports guy and, at heart, I am. I would love to know if Microsoft has any thoughts about getting back into first-party sports development."

Shane Kim's answer, and more links in the chain – including the most awkward question of the week – will run here tomorrow.

[Scott Rohde Pic via GameTrailers]

[This post is the second in a series that recounts the chain of questions I solicited from the people I interviewed during E3. I asked each of my interviewees to ask a question of the next one. Hence: Chain Interview.]

Yoshio Sakamoto, longtime designer of many Metroid games responds: "I want him to be there forever. [pause] That's quite a question!"

Sakamoto gave me this answer over much laughter. But Miyamoto had it easy, asking a question of one of his co-workers. Sakamoto had a tougher challenge. I explained that I was next going to interview Xbox Live software and services corporate vice president John Schappert (aka the guy who delivered most of Microsoft's E3 press briefing.) I needed a question. Sakamoto, through his translator, obliged.

Yoshio Sakamoto asks Microsoft corporate vice president of Xbox Live software and services John Schappert: "Do you like Metroid?"

And he can't resist throwing in a second question: "Do you like Mr. Miyamoto?"

Later in the day, in a meeting room on the second floor of Microsoft's always-gleaming, always-white E3 Xbox 360 booth, Schappert reached the finish line of my interview with him when I sprang Sakamoto's two questions.

John Schappert responds: "I do like Metroid. And I think Nintendo has made absolutely amazing games. I grew up playing Nintendo. I grew up as a Nintendo SNES programmer… the Metroid on the SNES was phenomenal."

Note that Schappert founded Madden development studio Tiburon and had been making games for multiple hardware generations. The SNES was not an alien object to him. And to the second question about Miyamoto?

"He's my hero. And I proudly have an original Mario drawing that he made for me in my office. He is my inspiration in the industry. I think he crafts some amazing experiences and I think that he is an icon for us all to look up to."

Schappert was my final interview of the day. I'd start the next day with a Sony interview. I needed a Schappert question for it.

John Schappert asks Sony Computer Entertainment of America senior vice president of marketing Peter Dille: "What do you think of Xbox Live?"

Peter Dille's answer will run tomorrow, along with two more links to the chain.

I had tried a chain interview once before. It was March. I still worked for MTV. I traipsed through the Game Developers conference stitching together an interview that began with Boyd Multerer of Microsoft's XNA group, wound its way through Brutal Legend's Tim Schafer, Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime, and ended shortly after Fable's Peter Molyneux answered PixelJunk's Dylan Cuthbert's question about what color underwear he was wearing.

I considered my first chain interview a success (though I regretted that it was an all-male thing). Crecente greenlit a second chain effort for E3.

You'll get to follow the links in this chain all week, starting today with the kick-off. The chain began as Crecente and I wrapped up our 30-minute sit-down interview with Nintendo's star designer Shigeru Miyamoto. As with most people, he laughed when I described the concept.

Because he was starting, Miyamoto didn't get to answer a question. He was only allowed to ask one, for the next person I'd be interviewing, who happened to be on the other side of a wall at Nintendo's E3 meeting area.

Shigeru Miyamoto, lead game designer at Nintendo asks long-time Metroid developer Yoshio Sakamoto: "When does he want me to retire?"

Tomorrow: The answer from Sakamoto along with two more links in the chain…

"To get tough and frank questions from gamers is what I am looking forward to this Friday. I don't mind whether they are about Fable 2, Lionhead's other games or the industry in general." said Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux.

Community FAQ - 20 questions [Bethesda]
[Thanks, Patrick]