E3: Microsoft Press Event Recap

July 11th, 2007 by James Hyde in Business, E3, Xbox360

Microsoft’s E3 press event just ended, here’s a quick recap of what was announced, revealed, and showcased.

New announcements: Xbox Live has 7 million members, 10 million by E3 2008. New deal with Disney brings a lot more movies and content to the marketplace. Canada and Europe getting access to the marketplace later this year. Xbox Live Arcade has dozens of new games coming this year. A new quiz game was announced, Scnene it!, comes with four new small (and rather ugly) controllers. Viva Pinata: Part Animals announced, coming later this year.

Halo 3: Halo 3 got a new trailer, and a live action short film, made by the people behind behind the upcoming Halo motion picture. Halo 3 will be out in 11 weeks, and will be the biggest game launch ever, according to Microsoft.

Games for Windows: Gears of War demoed, will be out alter this year with a map editor as well. A montage of upcoming games for the platform, including Crysis, Stranglehold, Bioshock, Universe at War: Earth Assault, World in Conflict, Viva Pinata and many others. Nearly 10 million gamers have switched to Vista, according to Microsoft

Stage demos: Gears of War was demoed by Cliffy B, the game will be out later this year on XP and Vista. Assassin’s Creed was demoed, the gameplay looked exactly like last year. Project Gotham 4 was demoed, showing off motorcycle racing for the firs time. Call of Duty 4 was demoed and looked stunning, a multiplayer beta is coming soon. Madden NFL 08 was demoed with NFL star Reggie Bush, the game looked no different from Madden NFL 07.

New trailers: A brief Resident Evil 4 trailer showed the first glimpse of the game. Mass Effect had the usual plot-driven trailer showing nothing new, and finally, a new Halo 3 trailer.

All in all a usual press conference, there were no huge announcements, but none were expected (except a price cut perhaps). Microsoft says the Holiday 08 season will be the biggest in gaming history, and it certainly appears so. For pictures, check out Joystiq’s coverage and Kotaku’s coverage as well. You can watch the event on GameSpot and G4TV.

Tags: Business, E3, Xbox360