Microsoft Announces Halo 4, TV For Xbox Live, Kinect Star Wars

Today Microsoft held their E3 press conference, announcing a number of major new games and services for the Xbox 360 platform. Halo 4 was briefly revealed, and is currently planned for a holiday 2012 launch. In addition, the original Halo is getting an HD remake. Smash indie hit Minecraft will be coming to the 360 this winter, with support for Kinect. In fact, there is a huge push from many game-makers to bring Kinect integration to the next level — from a new Fable game where you can use your hands to cast spells, to EA Sports titles, to Kinect Star Wars. Topping it off is an update to Xbox Live which will bring live TV to the console (including DVR functions), controllable by voice through Kinect. YouTube and voice search through Bing are coming as well. The update is planned for this fall. Those interested can catch a video of the press conference, which includes all the relevant game trailers, at G4TV.

Actisoft...Microvision...whatever

[xMrFishx]

Seems like Activision and Microsoft are going toe to toe in the grand "Squeeze the most money out of an IP" competition. Oh great...

Halo 4?

[Skarecrow77]

I swore I read somewhere that Halo 3 was the last one, and that's why they went the prequel route after that.

Maybe I'm misremembering.

Has Johnny Depp signed on for 40 million yet (I may be cross-remembering my "our series is done at 3" press releases here)?

Re:Actisoft...Microvision...whatever

[Skarecrow77]

SquareEnix has a HUGE head start on either of them.

Re:Halo 4?

[chemicaldave]

It's no longer developed by Bungie (although many employees moved to the new in-house developer, 343 Industries). And this surely isn't over yet, one thing the summary neglected to mention is that Microsoft announced a new trilogy. Expect Halo 5 and 6 as well.

They're making the same mistakes as the Wii

[harl]

Fable game where you can cast spells with your hands? Star Wars Kinect game?

I remember the exact moment the Wii went from Cool to Lame for me. About 20 minutes into Spiderman 2. Likely the best spiderman game released. Captured the look and feel. Had great voice acting. Top notch product. I highly recommend it. That is on a traditional controller. After 20 minutes of punching the air in front of me, to mimic shooting webs, the Wii went from Must Buy to Never Buy.

Waving your hands to play a game sounds cool but sucks in reality. Better put you need to design the game from the first word in the design document to be a motion game. Tacking motion control onto other games is a waste of time.

The problem is that if you follow that advice you end up with a single platform game. Really a single sub-platform because if you've done your design work right the game will suck if played with a traditional controller. People don't want to take that risk.

Re:Not bad.

[h4rr4r]

Roku or PS3 is then a better way to go if you are optimizing for money. The yearly subscription would cover the cost of a Roku. I will not pay to watch something I already pay to watch.

Why they feel the need to charge for something that costs them nothing to provide I do not understand. Heck, Wii and PS3 and even my phone can do netflix and none of those charge me a monthly fee to enable it.