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Microsoft’s E3 Announcements

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If you haven’t yet read, Microsoft had a very impressive showing today during their Press Conference at E3.  The goal continued to be placing the 360 at the “center of the household’s media”, which included games, video, and social networking.  Here are a few notes that we found interesting (after the break, of course!)

  • Microsoft Introduces Project Natal: Full-body motion-sensing camera concept debuts.  The camera can track individual faces, limbs, depth, and audio/voice differentiation.  The camera is a Wii-like sensor-bar concept that sits in front of the TV, tracking the movement of a number of players.  No release date announced yet, but concept should be ready within 1-2 years. (see video below)
  • One of the first demos for Project Natal was “Paint Party“, a concept game that had player flinging virtual paint at a wall.
  • Milo, a “game” developed by Lionhead Studios, displayed a character on-screen that interacted with the user via the motion camera.  These included understanding of voice, as well as picture/sketch recognition.
  • Netflix add an in-xbox que, as well as 1080p, so that users can select movies from within the console.
  • Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm integration announced.
  • Retail games on-demand will be available come August, as purchasing games online through XBox Live will allow them to be downloaded to the hard drive.  These are full games, not Arcade.  Think of this as like the “XBox Originals” line, but with modern games like Bioshock and Mass Effect.
  • Xbox Video marketplace to be relaunched as Zune Marketplace (tied in to the Zune franchise, of course)
  • Games, games, and more games announced!
  • Left4Dead2 Coming in November
  • Halo:Reach announced (demo packed in with Halo:ODST)
  • Crackdown 2
  • Forza 3 coming in October
  • Splinter Cell: Conviction exclusive to XBox 360
  • Final Fantasy XIII coming Spring 2010 to XBox 360
  • Alan Wake (finally) coming in Spring, 2010
  • Metal Gear Rising coming to XBox 360 (and PS3 and PC)

by Dalibor Dimovski

Dali is the Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of SideQuesting, as well as the co-Founder of CarDesignFetish and the founder of MakLink. Dali is also a car designer, deejay, and loves playing Uno.

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