E307: Microsoft Press Conference [Break Down]

Microsoft Press Conference
Keynotes & Impressions

Last night at 8:30pm PDT, Microsoft held their annual E3 conference in different style. Instead of being inside a convention center’s big auditorium with numerous famous personalities and booth babes, Microsoft held the whole event outside with just one famous personality. And to tell you the truth, it didn’t seem all that different with the crowds, buzz, and everything, but once Peter Moore, Shane Kim, and other Microsoft execs began talking, it was a completely different show. A smaller show without all of the gimmicks–yes, that’s right. Reggie Bush wasn’t autographing XBOX 360s saying “Madden: Arriving 8/14 with 2x the FPS!” Paris Hilton wasn’t there. And Peter Moore most definitely wasn’t handing out shirts that said “3” on it distinctively.

Here’s our breakdown of the big conference:

• Microsoft promised the biggest and best holiday lineup ever, touting Halo 3, Madden 08, and GTAIV as its main headliners.
• Peter Moore played lead guitar and a couple of no-names sung, played the drums, and did bass guitar during a small demonstration of MTV and Harmonix’s Rock Band, which arrives later this year. There was no release date, but Moore promised it would arrive this year (and many rumored it would arrive before it came to the PS3, thus making it a big game).
• Microsoft announced that they signed a contract with Walt Disney to bring tons of movie content from studios like Walt Disney, Miramax, etc. to XBOX Live.
• XBOX Live will soon be heading worldwide to places like Canada and European territories; full libraries of content will soon be available, yes.
• Microsoft is introducing the XBOX Elite system (the one with the 120GB hard drive) to Europe August 24th.
• A few developers took the press through Project Gotham Racing 4, the sequel to the third, which moved a lot of copies on 360. Now, motorcycles are being added to the long list of vehicles already available, including Suzukis, Kawasakis, and Hondas.
• Shane Kim introduced a title named Halo Wars, and everyone got giddy, but there was nothing after that…
• The GamesForWindows division announced that both Viva Piñata and Gears of War are headed to the PC later during the holiday season–both received rave reviews on the 360, and Microsoft is giving Viva Piñata a second chance. It was sort of their social and casual game, but it barely moved any copies.
• Microsoft touts SEGA, Eidos, and THQ bringing games with live content this year. (this includes Unreal Engine 3, peoples)…
• Computer games are being shown: a new Civilization IV expansion pack, Age of Empires 3 and Flight Simulator X expansion packs, Bioshock, Crysis, Universe at War, Age of Conan, Lost Planet, World in Conflict, and others.
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare developers took us out of the WW2-age and into “modern warfare” by showing the snazzy trailer followed by some in-depth gameplay which was quite dramatic and yes, inviting. Call it a slip of a tongue, but the funniest part of the night was when one of the developers said “We went deep and hard!”
• Peter Moore says that Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction will be a 360-exclusive.
• Moore shows off the GTAIV trailers and admits that both of them were recorded on a 360.
• Microsoft touts that Japanese devs are increasing support for the 360 (yet this wouldn’t make any sense that the future of Japanese gaming is the 360, because the 360 can barely move 1 million hardware in the year-and-a-half it’s been on the market and the much-more expensive PS3 has nearly 1 million hardware in a mere 10 months).
• Capcom unveils a sexy trailer of the only game not arriving this year for XBOX 360 shown at E3, Resident Evil 5. This one came out of nowhere; it was a freaky and dark trailer, but I think the surprising unveiling of it all had people juiced up, not anything else, really.
• Assassins Creed developers walked us through the game, showing that interaction between a lot of the villagers and buildings around the protagonist are important and key to winning the game. Beautiful graphics, indeed. And the game arrives in November…
• Peter Moore announced a special Halo 3 edition of the XBOX 360, re-confirms the 9/25 release date for Halo 3, and shows off a trailer.