Microsoft's E3 Conference Displays Company Confidence

The tone from Microsoft tonight was one of celebration and anticipation, as they ran down their successes since the 360 launched and hyped their lineup between now and the end of the year. Peter Moore framed the discussing by recalling the blockbuster holiday season of 2004, which was driven by the Grand Theft Auto, Madden, and Halo franchises. Moore stated that 'the only place to play all three games' this year is the 360. In addition to showing off other heavyweight titles like Mass Effect (which is due in November), the company had a few new announcements: They'll be releasing a version of the movie trivia game Scene-It with a quartet of special controllers, for a standard game price. They've partnered with Walt Disney and its associated companies to bring their family of movies to the Xbox Live service, with many titles already available tonight. CliffyB officially revealed Gears of War for the PC; it'll have additional content as well as co-op gaming via Live for Windows. Resident Evil 5 will be coming to the system (the only game from their conference not releasing this year). The event was capped by a live-action short piece meant to show what a Halo movie might look like, the announcement of a Halo 3 special edition 360 sku set to launch alongside the game, and a new trailer showing a bunch of Halo 3 in-game footage. For further details on the event, click below for other sites' liveblog coverage.

Call of Duty

Really surprised at how great COD4 looked, especially compared to the underwhelming Halo 3 footage. Everyone kind of assumed that Halo 3, being the biggest game for the 360, would end up being a graphical showcase, but it doesn't seem like it's going to be.

Re:Call of Duty

Bungie has the halo 3 trailer up in HD on its website. After a closer look on my own screen (as opposed to low rez streaming or the horrible g4 coverage) I thought it looked much much better than the multiplayer beta.

Overall, I think it was an odd presentation. They only showed stuff coming out this year, and while there are a lot of quality titles coming in the next few months, it might come back to bite them. If Sony's presentation tomorrow contains all kinds of gorgeous footage from games that are still more than a year away, people will come away far more impressed. This is a lesson they should have learned from 2 years ago during the unveiling of the consoles. Sony showed CG footage that they hoped would represent in-game graphics, and even though it was BS, people came away wowed.

Re:Call of Duty

Remember last years Ridge Racer and Gran Turismo hoopla from Sony or how about Nintendo's demo with Mario 128 and the realistic Zelda several years ago.

Nintendo never showed a demo of "Mario 128", as in the game. I was at the press conference when they initially unveiled this - I believe it was actually at Space World, not E3. What they showed then was a demo called "128 Marios", *not* "Mario 128". This was only changed to "Mario 128" later. (There is a photo of the original title screen that got changed for later demos floating around the net somewhere, though I can't find it at the moment.) It was always a simple tech demo designed to show that the GameCube was capable of handling 128 N64-quality Marios at the same time without slowdown. There was no game there. It was just a bunch of Marios on a platform in space.

Later, Miyamoto started saying in interviews that he was thinking of ways to turn "Mario 128" into a game. But no game was ever shown, and I don't believe any actual coding was done. Somehow, at some point the press and bloggers turned things around and got the idea retroactively that the tech demo that was shown was footage from a game that was never released. It wasn't. Any ideas Miyamoto did have were no doubt put into Mario Sunshine and Mario Galaxy.

Chief

I would be confident if I had The Chief on my side.

Lots of dick waving, not alot of substance

I watched it live, and I must say it was full of marketing drivel. Not one moment did I feel wonder at what was displayed, only felt like I was being sold something but a really slimy salesman. Which is fair enough right? No not really. I'm not interested in how they are going, or how many millions of dollars they will make, I just want innovation in games. All we got in this display was I bunch of dick waving.

I'm sick of all this "our console is better than the other's" crap, I want to see the best games on the right console at the right time. For all three competitors. Their products should speak for themselves.

profit

They are excited because by the end of the year they finally hope to be making profit (which they never did with the original xbox). Also, they seem to think they have beaten the PS3. Amazing what you can do with $4billion to burn. The most amazing thing is that Sony still probably would have beaten them if they didn't get caught up in their own hubris and focus on things like blu-ray.

Live?

"...it'll have additional content as well as co-op gaming via Live for Windows."

Oh goodie, as opposed to co-op gaming via the mother-fucking-internet.

The new E3

I think Microsoft did an excellent job of showcasing what the new e3 is about. They presented themselves like they would to shareholders in a company. They talked about the current market and how they are standing up to the competition. (And when they showed the numbers they showed Nintendo right behind them and didnt hide it) They showed off their exclusive titles, new services to xbox live, and of course they showed us game play of new titles.

This is the new E3, no more crowded booths, no more distractions with booth babes, crazy music, and all that jazz. This is about showing off what you got against the competition.

/. is funny sometimes

So you get one story about MS partners bailing over delayed releases in the SW division.

Then the next story is about the confidence in the gaming division.

That's /. for ya. A Windows hatefest followed by a Microsoft Gaming lovefest.

They showed confidence, so?

The tone from Microsoft tonight was one of celebration and anticipation

Well of course it was! How many companies go to a big conference and put on a presentation and say "Hey! We suck!"?

Remember Sony's conference last year? Remember "Riiidge Racer!"? _They_ were certainly confident, but that didn't mean much in the long run. It's not whether they show confidence in themselves that matters, it's whether the media and the consumers also feel confident about them by the time the presentation is done.

Did somebody say 'movie'?

After the cinematic masterpiece that was DooM, I just can't wait for the Halo movie.

I hope they release it in blu-ray or HD-DVD, so I can watch it in all its HighDef glory.

Happy as a PC Gamer

As a PC Gamer I am happy that MS is pushing for games on the PC. Hopefully, we won't have to pay membership fees for Gears of War online. I had bet on the fact that with Vista out, most great games on XBox will find their way to the PC and had thus bought a PS3.... yay to me.

Anyways, with few new announcements that wasn't a very successful press conference. I was hoping for a few new games, or a price drop on the elite, or anything else that would push me into convincing my wife to let me buy a 360

halo 3 hd trailer torrent

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3738470 [thepiratebay.org] looks amazing.

No price cuts?

One of the biggest things that was expected was for Microsoft to announce was that they were cutting the price of the 360. Gamesutra even had an article saying that the price cuts were supposed to be the "key takeaway" of E3 2007 (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?s tory=14631 [gamasutra.com]).

I guess they will wait until after Halo 3 and GTA4 are released and saturated in the market since a $50 price cut won't change many peoples decisions on whether or not to get the system.

Price cut for the Thanksgiving holiday anyone?

Celebrating their monopoly...

I think the final sentence of the following portion of the summary is sad:

"The tone from Microsoft tonight was one of celebration and anticipation, as they ran down their successes since the 360 launched and hyped their lineup between now and the end of the year. Peter Moore framed the discussing by recalling the blockbuster holiday season of 2004, which was driven by the Grand Theft Auto, Madden, and Halo franchises. Moore stated that 'the only place to play all three games' this year is the 360."

The celebration is essentially over their monopoly. The deals are paying off; their role as gatekeeper and toll collector is going to make them a lot of money. The console has fewer capabilities than a comparably-priced personal computer these days, and it has only been the exclusive publication deals that have drawn people to buy the 360 at all. Although consumers are making free decisions, I think constructing consoles (or Verizon cell phones, or Sony media formats, or various batteries and light bulbs, etc) simply to lure people in to participating in ongoing exclusive transactions to eventually exploit both all remaining perceived value of the product and the reluctance of a person to turn away from a bad decision, is unethical.

The Atari 2600 console was created and sold at a time when a comparable personal computer was maybe 10X the cost.
The 360 is just a crippled personal computer created for the sole purpose of creating a value distortion effect that causes an unjustifiable amount of money eventually going to its creators and partners.

The creation of Microsoft's video formats, or the Flash video format, or Sony's Blue-Ray, or SMS, or Verizon's "Get It Now", or Sony's memory stick, etc, has nothing to do with creating value for the consumer or making an advance in technology. It's all about luring people in to habits that are difficult to break.

While I think it's shameful for Apple to not enable easy use of any audio file to be used as a "ring tone" when the iPhone receives a call, at least Apple INNOVATED and provided genuine value in the many other features of the software and hardware. Even Apple seems reluctant to turn down the totally unethical revenue gained by controlling how people associate audio clips with incoming calls, though! (May they prove me wrong some day soon!) However, their access to the Internet (e.g., YouTube) is completely neutral; only bandwidth with the carrier matters. Meanwhile, Verizon and some 3G device carriers wanted to use their monopolistic roles yet again by charging specifically for access to YouTube content. How do carriers add value to specific data streams? They don't!

Stockholders and board members should vote in some ethics-inspired procedures to prevent the exploitation of any monopoly-like conditions that their business units might happen to indirectly or directly create. For example, the charter of Verizon should have forbid having any control over the kinds of data carried on their networks, or controlling any data transferred to and from devices owned by customers. "Get It Now" should never have been possible. Costly SMS bills, beyond the reasonable cost of operating cell towers, etc, should never have become a big source of profit for carriers.

Microsoft and its partners may be way beyond the ability to adopt any sort of ethics-inspired corporate principles; the very creation of the 360 is evidence of that.

Maybe the ultimate solution to the problem of companies creating captive markets (because such companies are too lazy to actually innovate or create genuine value) is to spread information that makes it evident that a person is better off choosing products in true open markets.

Re:Celebrating their monopoly...

The console has fewer capabilities than a comparably-priced personal computer these days, and it has only been the exclusive publication deals that have drawn people to buy the 360 at all.

really? i agree that it was a forced event, but microsoft has never been known for their people skills. bash the presentation all you want, but their console is pretty good. i'd like to see the $3-400 multi-core 3.2 ghz computer you have been gaming on.

also, saying that "it has only been the exclusive publication deals that have drawn people to buy the 360 at all" is like saying disneyland is only popular because its the only place where you can find all of those rides.

A little mixed

After watching their press conference I'm a little mixed about it. I liked the fact that they didn't bother talking too much about what's coming out far off in 2008, but talked about what we could be expecting to see in time for the holidays. It's interesting to see what's in the pipes, but I liked that they highlighted the games showing up in the near future. I also think they did a good job pointing out some of the exclusives that they were going to have as well or what kind of exclusive features (GTA IV downloadable content) that would only be showing up on the Xbox 360.

I think that their efforts in terms of family games was a little on the week side. I can understand they want to get into the same marketspace as the Wii, but it seems as though it's an afterthought for them. I think that their initial core market is mature gamers who enjoy FPS games and such. The Scene It game just seemed kind of awkward for a console. I think the majority of Xbox 360 owners don't really care too much about these games. I would have rather seen more focus on their core.

I really could care less about their Live for Windows information as well, but I've never been much of a computer gamer. I've always liked E3 for the focus on the consoles.

One thing that really stuck out, and this always seems to happen at pretty much every conference, is that some celebrity or designer comes out to highlight a game and they come off sounding stiff and awkward. The lady talking during the Assassins Creed preview made me cringe. The Madden demo also felt forced. Please reherse or find some more genuine presenters. It makes everything look more professional. Last year Sony was horrible for this reason.

Overall, not a bad showing, but it didn't feel as though they were trying to generate a lot of buzz. Maybe that's just an effect of the new format of E3 though. Looking forward to both of the press conferences tomorrow and what Sony and Nintendo have in the works.

Gears of War PC - just one comment...

If it's going to be Vista-only I'll be waiting for the inevitable "unofficial" XP patch before I buy it. Whether they'll have the balls to scupper sales for a potentially big PC hit is another matter - any bets? I might consider it but I've heard that lots of my existing games *won't* work on Vista - as a gamer, why would I want to spend money on that?

Funny..

Forums are alight with news, that Microsoft gave nothing new, aside from a BabyPoo Green Halo 20GB Xbox 360, which clashes with the red rings of death.

I like how they implied how GTA IV was an Xbox exclusive, by bundling it with the Halo 3 statement.

Here is a reworded version for Sony:

Harrisson said "This season, the only way to play GTA IV, Killzone, Warhawk, Ratchet Clank TOD is on Playstation 3"..

See how easy it was...

celebration and anticipation?

Nooo!! Was Monkey Boy dancing around the stage again?

Scene it -- Odd but Brilliant

Last year one of my relatives gave everyone a plug and play game called Buzztime for christmas, its fun but disconnecting the existing consoles to plug it in to play one game is a bit of a pain. This sounds alot more spontaneous. Having access to Live means the game can be updated easily. Its proably not going to attract many of the traditional gamers but for the new casual gamers its sounds like a great way for the family to game together. I'ts gimmicky but I can see the controllers being used for other Licensed versions of popular games. Family Feud, Jeopardy, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and tons of others could be easily ported and play almost identically to the way it does on the TV shows. I think there will be a big market for it.

Watched the G4 coverage of the E3 MSFT preview

And all I kept hearing - between the lines - was that some games would ship on Microsoft that already were shipping on PS3 and Wii, and that other games would ship first of xBox360 and then ship on the Wii.

Take home message, other than a few games (Halo) that we already knew were xBox360 specific - not much behind the PR.

Confidence? Not the buyers...

I still wonder how many of those 10-million-plus 360s are from "repeat" buyers.

Re:Confidence?

new warranty anybody?

also, 40 games? 40 * ~$60 = $2,400

nobody feels sorry for you man, you have too much cash to spend. there aren't even that many decent games for the platform.

Re:Confidence?

You do realize that your xbox is still under warranty for at least another year? Microsoft extended the warranty of all 360s for three years.

Re:Confidence?

18 months old, huh? You know about the extended warranty, right?
It's good for another 18.

Re:Confidence?

Wow, thats a lot of games to pick up in 18 months. When I read the first part of your post I was shocked that you would buy an new 360 if your old one was busted but with that kind of investment I guess i understand.

Shame though, if your computer went to shit in 18 months you probably wouldn't buy another one of those computers.

Re:Confidence?

That is stupid, considering that all past, present and future XBox 360's have a 3 year warranty on them now. Should have contacted Microsoft to get them to send you a new one for free.