Microsoft Press Conference: Stream & Discussion

[Bond]

http://xbox360.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/61644/xbox_360_logo_qjgenth.jpg

Time Keynote Will Start:

8:30 pt
9:30 mt
10:30 ct
11:30 et

Watch it Live Here:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/events/e32007/default.htm
http://e3.gamespot.com/live.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=livesched&tag=livesched;show;1
http://www.ign.com/index/e3/2007/

[Bond]

One hour to go.

Hopefully the MLB All-Star game finishes before this starts.

[Dyne]

Man, I'm still in O/T until 9. I'll have to turn it on here I guess.

[Bond]

It's about to start.

What does everyone think Peter Moore's tattoo will be?

I'm going with MGS4 or FXIII.

[Bond]

First demo of Rock Band. Looks pretty good.

[Bond]

Mass Effect is being released this November.

[gekko]

Rock Band drums shown, on a stand, sit down to play.

Fisher price controllers!

[Bond]

All Disney movies in high-definition available for download through Xbox Live Marketplace tonight.

[Bond]

Lost Odyssey, from the producer of Final Fantasy, looks awesome. Xbox 360 exclusive.

[Bond]

Call of Duty 4 multiplayer beta exclusive to Xbox 360.

[Bond]

Resident Evil 5 for the Xbox 360. Trailer shown. Looks good.

[Dyne]

Last thing I saw was the "Scene It" exclusive to Xbox 360, including tacky controllers.

Yuck.

Also, Viva Pinata: Party Animals looks ****ing awful.

[DarkMaster]

Well, Mass Effect and Lost Odyssey might get a purchase out of me. Other than that, hmm, not a lot to really be excited for I think. Pretty straight forward lineup, no surprises, oh well.

[Perfect Stu]

Right before they showed Resident Evil 5, I thought they were gonna show Metal Gear Solid 4. No big surprises, although a few of the games looked good.

[Bond]

Link to sign-up for the Call of Duty 4 multiplayer beta: http://www.charlieoscardelta.com/indexnew.php

[TheGame]

What does everyone think Peter Moore's tattoo will be?

I'm going with MGS4 or FXIII.

Maybe next year.

The conference was really good though. To me Halo looks a bit dissapointing, but its cool they're playing it safe with the game.. no need to fic what isn't broken, right?

[Bond]

Alright, I've summed up the holiday lineup form the press conference:

Halo 3
Assassin's Creed
Grand Theft Auto IV
Call of Duty 4
BioShock
Lost Odyssey
Project Gotham Racing 4
Mass Effect
Splinter Cell: Conviction
Blue Dragon
Beautiful Katamari
Eternal Sonata

Now that is impressive.

[Dyne]

Don't forget Virtua Fighter 5 with online. Aww yeah.

Also I hear that Canadians finally get marketplace stuff because they ironed out all their licences and ****! That's awesome. I'm totally downloading some episodes of Stella.

[Bond]

Yes, Canada and Europe will now have full access to the marketplace.

[Perfect Stu]

Alright, I've summed up the holiday lineup form the press conference:

Halo 3
Assassin's Creed
Grand Theft Auto IV
Call of Duty 4
BioShock
Lost Odyssey
Project Gotham Racing 4
Mass Effect
Splinter Cell: Conviction
Blue Dragon
Beautiful Katamari
Eternal Sonata

Now that is impressive.

The problem with that list is...you could have given it to us ages ago. The conference was borderline pointless...they could have shown CoD4, Assassin's Creed etc. at the regular E3 show later this week. No price drop, no new games, no surprise announcements.

[Bond]

The problem with that list is...you could have given it to us ages ago. The conference was borderline pointless...they could have shown CoD4, Assassin's Creed etc. at the regular E3 show later this week. No price drop, no new games, no surprise announcements.
Well, sure. I thought it was made fairly clear at the start of the press conference that they would only be dealing with games being released this year. Obviously they weren't going to announce any surprise games being released this holiday season.

The only two big titles left that Microsoft could really capture would be Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII. MGS4 is still a very real possibility, especially with all the rumors going around. I think FXIII will be released late 2008 at the absolute earliest, so it's most likely too soon for an announcement on that as well.

[Crash]

http://www.youtube.com/v/SuG_A0W1zgA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy7K3v8zZSs

[Angrist]

At the middle of that first movie, before you saw the helmets, I thought it was about how the Xbox360 needed help, in the form of improved hardware or extended warranty.

[Perfect Stu]

Well, sure. I thought it was made fairly clear at the start of the press conference that they would only be dealing with games being released this year. Obviously they weren't going to announce any surprise games being released this holiday season.

Just because it was clear from the beginning doesn't make the press conference any better. A couple of the games looked awesome (CoD4 especially) but the overall conference seemed kinda empty.

[TheGame]

The only two big titles left that Microsoft could really capture would be Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII. MGS4 is still a very real possibility, especially with all the rumors going around. I think FXIII will be released late 2008 at the absolute earliest, so it's most likely too soon for an announcement on that as well.

Yet both games were already clearly denied as Xbox 360 possibilities by the developers themselves. MGS5 and FFXIV probably if Ps3 flops, but MGS4 and FFXIII seem pretty much locked down.

[Bond]

Just because it was clear from the beginning doesn't make the press conference any better. A couple of the games looked awesome (CoD4 especially) but the overall conference seemed kinda empty.
Again, with the holiday lineup that I posted, nothing seems kinda empty to me at all.

Microsoft and other third party developers obviously have future games in the works, but I'm sure the decision not to show them (all but Resident Evil 5) was a tactical one. They wanted to showcase the games that will be available this year. If they were to unveil a future blockbuster, it may overshadow other games that developers are releasing this year.

Anyway, that is simply my read on it.

[gekko]

My thoughts posted elsewhere earlier today (don't have time to re-write):

After having some time to analyze what I saw last night, I give Microsoft's press conference two huge thumbs up. Everyone wanted some huge announcement that would wow everyone off their feet and steal the show, but I'm happier without one. As Peter Moore said, every game shown today will be out in 2007. That's much bigger news in my book. I'm not getting a 5 second clip of the next Zelda I can think about for years as Nintendo releases 5 seconds of gameplay every 9 months for the next 3 years before it gets delayed and moved to another system. I'm hearing about what matters, the games that I'll be able to buy in a couple months.

On top of that they covered sales very well, Xbox 360 is still the dominant market leader. But more specifically, they are selling more games than their competitors. Who cares? Oh yes, the publishers sitting in the audience that are looking to make a profit. It's the reason PS3 keeps losing all of its exclusives, and the reason PS2 got so many ports. You cannot afford to not put your game out for the system with the largest install base.

The announcement of Disney movies is huge. All movies went up last night, and they're getting all future releases. It's $4 to rent the movie and keep it for weeks, and $6 to rent in HD. Never leave your house, never worry about returning it. It's really good for me, because I love watching movies in HD, but I'm not buying a Blu-ray player to watch Disney flicks.

Games for Windows is going to get a lot of help from Gears of War. But even bigger was the announcement of Games for Windows being built into the Unreal 3 engine, which could add a ton of support for future games.

Even so, they showed some great upcoming games that will be released this fall. It's a smart plan, because the press will spend their time writing about games that are more than just vaporware. The headlines are going to the games that need them. Everyone knows what Halo 3 is, it doesn't need the press, and it'll sell a ton. They're supporting the smaller titles that need the support, and good on them.

It's one of the reasons I like Microsoft in their current state. They spent their press conference helping to sell games that are third party, and some of which are multi-platform. Why hype Rock Band? Why show the first footage of Resident Evil 5 when it's coming to PS3? Microsoft cares about publishers selling games on their console, and chose not to steal all the headlines by showing off Halo 3.

It gets my approval.

[Bond]

The entire press conference is available in HD to download through the marketplace if anyone is interested.

[gekko]

It's about 3.5GB. I think this "Bringing it Home" campaign is a ploy to get me to buy the 120GB HD.