E3 2012: Microsoft Press Conference Recap
E3 kicked off this morning with Microsoft taking to the stage at 9:3o a.m. PT. The lineup was kinect-heavy, but had many other awesome updates. Here, we’ll take you through a brief recap, telling what you might have missed.
The show opened with a shadowy figure taking to the unlit stage as 343 Industries’ Halo 4 took to the big screen. We watched the Chief fight his way through new, mysterious enemies, and were given a number of cutscenes.
After a brief introduction by Interactive Entertainment’s Don Mattrick, Microsoft kept us on the edge of our seats giving us game play from Ubisoft’s new Splinter Cell title, Blacklist. The game showcased Sam’s more fluid interaction with the environment, intense combat, and Kinect-enhanced voice command capabilities. The game is set to release spring of 2013.
At about 20 minutes into the conference, EA Sports’ Andrew Wilson took to the stage, showing off the new Fifa and Madden. He announced that Fifa 13 and Madden 13 would both also be enhanced with Kinect voice commands. The integration of mic-technology seemed to really enhance the gameplay, letting you call out plays to your players instead of having to navigate menus.
Lionhead Studios’ Fable: The Journey trailer flashed across the screen for a moment before Phil Spencer, Head of Microsoft Studios, commanded our attention with a world-premiere Gears of War: Judgement trailer, immediately followed up by another for the upcoming Forza :Horizon release.
Half an hour in, Xbox Live info was announced, including a display of voice command capabilities in foreign languages and the announcement of four of the 35 new entertainment providers teaming up with Microsoft to bring more to entertainment to you: Nickelodeon, Paramount Movies, Machinima, and Univision.
Also, more sports are coming to the 360, with impressive new NBA and NHL offerings and an ESPN center.
We were then given a sneek-peek at Xbox Music, a new player coming to the 360.
They wrapped up their showcasing of additions with the unveiling of a Nike partnership to create Nike Plus Kinect Training. The title clearly aims to reap some fame from the same demographic invested in Wii Fitness.
Mark Whitten showcased the newest technological revolution for interactions between different electronic devices, such as tablets, PCs, smartphones, and the Xbox360: Xbox SmartGlass.
It syncs various devices, allowing you to do things like use your cellphone as a remote. Furthermore, it makes surfing the internet on your console an actually viable action, leading into the announcement of Internet Explorer browser coming to the 360. You’ll finally be able to play all those lovely browser games you’re addicted to on your 42 inch flatscreen.
Crystal Dynamics’s Darrell Gallegher and Daniel Bisson showing off some of Lara Croft in her new prequel adventure. The game flaunts great graphics and animations, interesting fight dynamics, and a gritty experience as you witness the trials of an inexperienced Laura thrown into a vicious situation.
As the conference crossed the one-hour mark, we were given more game play, this time of the upcoming Resident Evil 6. It offered a great look at combat in the title and a pretty neat aerial combat cutscene.
Next, we were given a look at Wreckateer, a Kinect game with a heavy “Angry Birds” vibe, set to release this summer; a South Park title, The Stick of Truth; and Harmonix’s Dance Central 3 featuring a live performance by Usher.
Microsoft closed out with a Modern Warfare: Black Ops 2 preview. The game looks nothing less than amazing.
That’s your quick recap of the opening conference for E3 2012. Check out some of the more in-depth posts on these awesome Microsoft updates and more.
hariseldon
June 4, 2012 @ 2:13 pm
I would really like to see some statistics on MS’ customer base. They are a multi-billion dollar company and you would assume they know what they are doing; so they surely realise that they are alienating a large proportion of the hardcore gamer market? But if the stats show they have managed to capture more of the casual market who buy into the whole Kinect, TV/sport channels, music, peripherals etc. then more power to them I guess.
As a hardcore gamer, and self-confessed Sony-fanboy :), I thought their conference was awful. It started off well with Halo (although I don’t particularly care for that series), Splinter Cell (sad to see it so far removed from it’s stealth origins) and then moved on to Tomb Raider. But after that it was terrible- Kinect shovelware, pointless peripherals, Usher, fitness crap, internet explorer etc.
MS have set the bar so low that all Nintendo and Sony have to do to beat MS is turn up :/
Kelsey Miller
June 4, 2012 @ 3:57 pm
I’m MS all the way, since Halo got me hooked on the Xbox. But even I was somewhat disappointed by the conference. I feel like they’re trying to straddle the gap between the Nintendo and PS3, between the more casual gamer and the hardcore,to get the best of both worlds. It’s a brilliant marketing strategy, if they could pull it off without trying to merge the two worlds into one in their games. Plus, the fact that I like to play sports, outside, rather than watch them or practice in the living room, made a good portion of their showing boring for me…
I think Kinect has a lot of potential, especially with the voice commands. And, using a tablet or smartphone as a remote would be nice, but they really didn’t have anything majorly awesome at the show. (Face-palmed at the Usher performance…). Halo 4 was definitely the highlight for me.
Raul Lopez
June 5, 2012 @ 9:35 am
Haha been MS fan since halo as well and I think what makes the conference not as good as the others is that they dont have any real good IP announced there. Everything they showed we already pretty much knew about so no real O_O face moments. I feel like halo is moving to call of duty with stuff like weapon skins. This far in the series no one really cares if you die by a pink or gold gun. Kinect can have the potential to be something great, one thing I noticed during madden there was a huge delay in hiking which that needs to be fixed. You’ll probably have to work triple time just so the kinect can pick up the correct thing you want to do
Daniel Flatt
June 7, 2012 @ 5:57 pm
I used to be a huge MS fanboy. In fact I missed out on a good chunk of the excellent PS2 games because I jumped ship in the middle of last generation and was the first in line to buy my 360 at the store. For a while there 360 ruled all and had exclusive after exclusive.
I began to worry when I noticed that the majority of exclusives were all from third party. Exactly what I thought would happen did. Once third party companies started taking their games to every console Microsoft was left with precious little IPs that actually belonged to them.
Meanwhile Sony has tons of brands and internal studios making critically successful games that are a blast to play. More importantly you can only get them if you own a PS3. As a hardcore gamer I want to play most everything I can, but simply don’t have the time or money to support two consoles.
Last year at E3 2011 I was disappointed that MS didn’t show more new IPs. All they had was Fable (a stupid Kinect spin off), Halo, Forza, Gears. I was sure they would come out swinging this year. Nope, not so much. Halo, Forza, Gears, Fable….all over again. You would think with Sony fast gaining on them sales wise, and a hardcore consumer growing more and more irritated by the lack of exclusives and focus on Kinect, they would have done something about it. Instead they rely on Xbox Live and consumer loyalty. After all once you have all these acheivements it’s hard to leave MS for another company.
I’ve pretty much had it with Microsoft. If all they can do is provide a new Halo (which I enjoy but not nearly as much as something like Infamous) then I’d rather be enjoying a bevy of excellent exclusives I can only get on PS3.
Taylor Parolini
June 4, 2012 @ 4:05 pm
Oh Usher you melt my heart.