The first day of E3 was over without Microsoft announcing any Xbox 360 price cuts, but they sure did brag about Xbox 360's last year's performance and they sure had a ton of announcements for the next one.
A year of competition :
According to Microsoft, Xbox 360 has the largest installed base of this generation (11.6 million Xbox 360 vs. 8.6 million Wii vs. 3.7 million PS3 according to analysts estimations). Since the launch of the PlayStation 3 and Wii, according to Peter Moore, Xbox 360 has sold more games than both consoles combined. Moore insisted that those numbers "wasn't simply tilted in Microsoft's favor" but still, including Wii's launch period in the comparison seems unfair since Microsoft already had 5 to 6 million units sold by that time.
We too are Family Friendly :
For the new year, Microsoft announced several family friendly titles. Rock Band is your standard music-videogame/guitar-hero-clone but adds the ability to utilize three different instrument-based peripherals to play both online and offline. Rock Band is not an Xbox 360 exclusive though; Rock Band is scheduled for Xbox 360 and PS3 release on 20, November, 2007.
Viva Pinata Party Animals is an Xbox 360 exclusive that promises some 50 minigames with players taking on the role of their own favorite pinatas. Xbox 360 will also get an exclusive port of popular DVD game Scene It , "built from ground up to be fully interactive," with new trivia questions, movie clips in HD, and a new exclusive peripheral that Microsoft dupes the "first controller designed for everyone " (see it in the screens tab). Xbox 360 Scene it will come packed with 4 controllers and the game - similar to Sony's Buzz trivia games - for the standard price.
The boring stuff :
As usual, no conference would be complete without plenty of boring statistics. Microsoft's statistics were about their Xbox Live Network which, says Microsoft, has reached 7 million members and expects another 3 million by the end of 2008. Currently, Xbox Live Marketplace offers 2000 hours of video, 500 of that in HD, amounting to a library more than twice the size of the nearest cable provider.
Xbox Live Arcade will get plenty of exciting classic (read: old) games this year, including: Bomberman Live, Undertow, Hexic 2, Track & Field and Marathon: Durandal. Arcade ports of Sega's Sonic The Hedgehog and Golden Axe are now available on Xbox Live.
Something for the PC :
Most hardcore pc gamers believe that Halo is overrated, but nobody argues that Gears of War is one of the best games ever made. Guess what? Gears of War is Coming to PC this holiday season with five new single player chapters, an in-game map editor, and new multiplayer modes, arenas, and achievements. More interestingly, GoW will be playable on windows XP as well as Windows Vista.
Uh, Viva Pinata too will be ported to PC. Also Sega, Eidos, and THQ had promised more than a dozen Windows Live titles (total) from the three by the end of the year. Meanwhile, Microsoft had partnered with Epic Games to add Games For Windows - Live support to Epic's Unreal Engine 3.
And finally, the heavy artillery :
Both Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and GTA: IV are scheduled for release next October. Both titles are not Xbox 360 exclusive, but Xbox 360 would be the only console to receive two new exclusive GTA: IV episodes by spring of 2008, making it "the only console where you can get the complete Grand Theft Auto experience".
Japanese developers have -finally- started to support Xbox 360. Sega's Virtua Fighter 5 Xbox 360 version is the only version that supports online play; Capcom will bring Devil May Cry 4 to Microsoft's console for the first time (and to PC as well); And Namco Bandai is offering Ace Combat 6 and Eternal Sonata (aka. Trusty Bell) exclusively for Xbox 360.
Finally, Microsoft showcased an impressive demonstration of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed as well as their own Halo 3. Calling the forthcoming September 25th launch "the biggest launch in entertainment history", Microsoft's Peter Moore revealed a "new console for the Halo Nation": a Master Chief-green Xbox 360, with a full line of Halo 3 accessories to follow later.
Make sure to visit the screens tab before you leave.
