Day One Analysis: Microsoft E3 Press Briefing

Another Microsoft E3 press conference is on the books, so it's time to begin the job of analyzing just how the effective the software monolith’s annual briefing was. While it's impossible to say who “won” E3 right now – especially when Sony and Nintendo’s conferences are set to go tomorrow morning – its definitely possible to draw some strong conclusions about how this E3 positions Microsoft for the future.

Big Games, Big Exclusives

While, as expected, the unveiling of Kinect was the focus of much of the presentation, it’s clear that Microsoft did not forget that the E3 audience is still made up of a whole lot of hardcore gamers. Where Nintendo has sometimes focused so strongly on its new casual market that its alienated its base – even forcing head Satoru Iwata to apologize for one conference after the fact – Microsoft still provided the gamers in the audience with enough to chew on.

After kicking off with impressive showings of multi-console blockbusters Call of Duty: Black Ops and Metal Gear Solid: Rising, the rest of the conference focused entirely on games that are exclusive to 360. This was a wise move, as recently its seemed as though Sony has been winning the battle of exclusives, due mostly to its excellent in-house development talent. Though, we were surprised that Insomniac, which recently went multi-platform, wasn’t on hand to show a high profile defection from Sony.

Three of Microsoft’s biggest first-party franchises were present and accounted for: Gears of War 3, Halo Reach, and Fable 3. The former two were show as full-on demos and looked extremely impressive. Fable 3 was in trailer form, but introduced by fan-favorite Peter Molyneux, who never fails to be less than charming onstage.

In addition to these established franchises, Microsoft also showed a teaser for a new, 360-exclusive trailer for Codename: Kingdoms, a new franchise by Crytek that drew comparisons to 300 and God of War.

Finally, following the Black Ops demo which kicked off the proceedings, Microsoft’s Don Mattrick revealed that the company had closed a deal to ensure that all future Call of Duty DLC and map packs will appear first on Xbox 360.

Quick Take:

With so much of the company’s internal muscle being devoted to Kinect, it’s seemed that Microsoft was slipping a bit in terms of big-budget, exclusive hits for the console. Thankfully, this year’s press conference went a long way towards assuaging fears of those who felt that 360 might be slipping. However, with so much attention being paid to Kinect, maybe a few montage videos of third-party product would have been useful to show the hardcore faithful that they are not being forgotten. Also, despite all the firepower onstage, we were a little disappointed that there wasn’t a more high profile new exclusive announcement, as Codename: Kingdoms left us a bit cold.

Xbox Live Adds Features

Xbox Live has become an unbelievable home entertainment hub, and it announced some great new features at this year’s conference. While it got buried in all the hype, Windows Phone 7 support for Xbox Live is great news for gamers who never want to leave the Microsoft womb. Now, they just have to figure out how to not get killed by iPhone and Android.

The biggest reveal on the Xbox Live front was revelation that ESPN will be delivering over 3,500 live and archived events (most of them in HD) in the coming months. This is huge. Absolutely huge. With Netflix on Demand, many gamers are ditching cable television contracts and using Xbox Live exclusively, and the inclusion of live sports on the service will only strengthen that trend. However, they did gloss over the fact that the NFL appears to not be supporting ESPN on Xbox Live, which is something that could hamstring this partnership going forward.

Also, while most of the Kinect demos were game related, a live demonstration of Video Kinect was probably our favorite thing about the new peripheral. The ease of use, coupled with the ability to party up and watch video and other media together makes us excited to get our hands on the Kinect. Also, its nice that you’ll be able to contact MSN users via Xbox Live as well as those off your friend’s list.

Quick Take:

Phone support is great, but Windows Phone 7 has a long way to go as a platform before this is really a factor. That said, the ESPN and video chat announcements really popped during the presentation, some might say more than any of the actual Kinect games shown. EPSN in particular seems like yet another way in which Microsoft is setting up Xbox Live to be a truly one-stop entertainment hub. The only disappointment? Where’s Hulu support? We wanted that rumor to be true, hopefully we’ll see it announced in the coming months.

Kinect: Where’s The Beef?

This event was heavy on Kinect. Microsoft demoed a ton of Kinect titles including Kinectimals, Kinect Sports, Kinect Joy Ride, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, and Kinect Adventures. While the functionality with the camera unit appeared to be impressive for all of these, it’s worth noting that virtually all of these games are extremely derivative of games that have already been huge Nintendo hits, namely Nintendogs, Wii Sports, Mario Kart, and Wii Fit. Is this type of software the brave, new ideas that Microsoft has been touting would come forth from Project Natal? If so, color us disappointed.

Other games shown included a new Harmonix title, Dance Central, which updates the DDR formula to this new technology, and a version of Forza Motorsport that allows you to “steer” with your hands and walk around cars to check them out. Again, these are “neat” ideas that don’t really seem to be pushing gameplay or design forward in any real sense.

Finally, a Star Wars Kinect demo at least showed some honest-to-goodness action gameplay, but its hard to tell by video alone just how much fun it will be. Also, we’re going to have to wait until 2011 to see, as it’s not among the Kinect’s 15 launch games.

Quick Take:

We were worried that Project Natal was going to be little more than high-tech window dressing on the casual and party games that have clogged the Wii for the last few years, and this press conference did little to allay our fears. While it appears that Kinect is indeed a real step forward in terms of technology – the system seems to track movement very accurately as promised – there just weren’t any titles that speak to the core audience. Also, many of the games seemed to be designed with the philosophy “Hey it worked for Nintendo three years ago.” When the thing we are most excited about with a new peripheral is menu navigation and video chat, that’s a bad sign.

Papa’s Got A Brand New Xbox 360

The show ended with a bang, as Don Mattrick unveiled the long-rumored Xbox 360 “slim”. This new 360 is smaller, shinier, and – according to Mattrick – “whisper quiet.” He also said that the units had begun shipping to retailers today, and would be available for the same price as existing units later this week. Then, in a move perhaps inspired by Oprah (You get an Xbox 360! And YOU get an Xbox 360! And YOU get an Xbox 360!), he told the assembled crowd that each and every one of them would be getting a new 360 of their very own. Hey, it’s not a bad way to earn a little goodwill.

Quick Take:

It’s certainly a nice-looking little unit. We like the overall look as well. In general, “smaller and better looking” is a solid strategy when it comes to console design. For us, the real question is whether the unit is as quiet as Mattrick promised. We’d love to ditch our old “leaf blower” 360s for something that doesn’t require us to jack up the volume our TVs. We’ll let you know just as soon as we get our paws on one.