Pre-E3 2006: Microsoft Press Conference notes

Here we go, Microsoft had it"s go earlier today now. I"ll try to post relevant information here, and considering MS is the only company not showing off any new hardware (more or less) it should be fairly easy to list what they have planned.

First, I have to mention Bill Gates coming out. I love the guy, seriously I do. Great man, the best humanitarian in the world, gives of himself like no other etc etc. When I saw him earlier, saying how he loves the 360, I just had to laugh. Let"s not forget the 360 is the single biggest loss leader in the company"s history. But enough about that. Games, that"s why we come here. So, here"s a list (not complete) of games announced for 2006 and 2007 for Microsoft"s Xbox 360:

- Fable 2 announced

- Forza 2 announced and will support 1-12 player races and support for the newly announced Xbox live camera

- Shadowrun announced, it is a PC and 360 FPS by a company called FASA

- Grand Theft Auto 4 announced, though no mention was made whether it was 360 exclusive. It will be released on October 16th 2007 (how"s that for stretching a release date eh?)

- Splinter Cell Double Agent launches on the system in September

- Halo 3 Trailer was shown, which promises a 2007 release for the game. Also note, the trailer is now on Xbox Live

- Live Anywhere is announced (by Bill Gates no less) which is a multi-platform toolset to allow games on 360, the PC and mobile systems to share features. Does this mean multiplayer games can be shared now between the systems? I don"t know, that whole part of the conference kinda flew over my head there

- HD-DVD player is shown, it will be launched in the Fall. It is 1/3 the size of the 360 itself!

In addition to those announcements, the following games were also announced to be coming to Xbox Live Arcade:

- Contra

- Sonic

- Pac-Man

- Frogger

- Ultimate Mortal Kombat

- Time Pilot (Konami I believe)

 

So there you have it folks. Considering no new hardware was announced coming out from Microsoft, other than that new camera thingy and of course the HD-DVD add-on player, I"d say it was a decent showing this year. Nothing spectacular really, unless you want to call Halo 3"s trailer spectacular. Yes some of the games looked pretty good, but then again so did the stuff Sony showed yesterday, and Nintendo showed today.

 

Look for the Nintendo round up shortly.

Report a problem with article
Next Article

Pre-E3 2006: Nintendo Press Conference notes

Previous Article

Halo 3 Officially Announced and Trailer