Microsoft Xbox 360 Event
Collaborate… Commiserate…..Obliterate……
Tags: e3 2005 Categories: Features, Xbox Features
Posted by Travis on May 18th, 2005
Collaborate… Commiserate…..Obliterate…… That’s all part of the slogans on the wall describing the feeling of Xbox Live and the new interactions of games and players. To start the event off they recapped highlights of Thursday’s nights debut followed by the backpack girl once again placing the Xbox 360 on a pedestal for all to see.
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Robbie Bach came out first and began by discussing the current generation games and how Microsoft would still support the Xbox into 2006, a year where they expect to double the number of titles that are currently out. There are currently 160 new titles slated for launch as of now. Some of the titles include Half Life 2, Amazing Spider Man, Full Spectrum Warrior 2, and Star Wars Battlefront 2. And now the 2 words everybody was waiting to hear…. Backwards Compatibility with Xbox favorites. We’re not sure how many games this may be and how many might require a download in order to “patch” the game for it to work. It may very well apply only to a select few of the most recently launched titles.
Xbox 360 will hit the stores this holiday season with a never seen before three Continent release in Japan, Europe and North America simultaneously. Part of Microsoft’s focus will be “working together” with other devices such as media players and music players – even competing devices (shown on the screen were Apple’s Ipod and Sony’s PSP).
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Switching subjects, Jay Allard came out and confirmed once again that Xbox 360 wouldl be out this year – 2005. He then moved on to present Dead or Alive 4 which, upon first take, looked smoother and featured much improved animation and gameplay. Backgrounds were more dynamic and featured some creative interactive environments that could be used against the opposing player.
Jay then moved on to describe the “HD ERA” not only featuring high definition gaming but connecting with the community and personalizing your experience within the 360. Microsoft will be striving to reach 1 billion people using the Xbox Live medium. They desire gaming to be a mainstream entity and not just for gamers. Allard described it as “Bringing everybody back to the living room” and “the player is always at the center” which ended up being the wisdom used to come up with the 360.
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Part of the new design of everything is wireless technology. From controllers to headsets to accessories, everything will have zero wires. The new controller is smaller and lighter than the previous “S”. Live will become personalized and feature a Gamercard. This will be like an online trading card and be used to match up against similar opponents in skill much like the current Halo 2 system but across all games within Xbox Live. Also being added is an achievement section. This will represent a trophy-like design where other players will be able to see what feats you have completed. This would become useful for a friend who might be stuck on a certain level and could then look Live friends up and see who had made it past that particular level and might be able to offer advice. Messaging will work for both on- and offline friends, even while watching TV or listening to music through 360. If you happen to forget a friend that you played with in the past, no problem. Live will remember hundreds of previous opponents for you so you don’t have to.
Out of the box, there will be a free level of Xbox live service. At the first level, “Silver” you will be able to access the most basic functions of Xbox live such as messaging. You can upgrade your account to Gold, which will feature enhanced services that weren’t detailed at the time. Microsoft expect half of the 360’s sold to connect and use Xbox Live. They will do this by tapping into new markets featuring tournament and spectator modes. This will appeal to the “casual gamer” and feature on-demand arcade games such as Texas Hold-Em and Gauntlet.
MS will introduce the “Xbox Marketplace” which contains downloadable content, demos and even trailers of new games. For example, you could design and create for Tony Hawk: shirts, boards, and even a whole skate park itself without ever playing the game and selling it. Xbox was the first to introduce console voice chat – now they will introduce video chat. You can share photos to other “live” users and narrate them over the web to family and friends. The final feature that was shown was invites. Invitations can be received at all times wether you’re watching HDTV or listening to music.
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Next up we were treated to a video of Bill Gates and Steve Balmer playing 360 in the middle of a theater showing Star Wars. Bill was explaining all the technical aspects and steve was countering this with the software aspects of the platform. Ending the video segment was Steve crying out that he beat Bill and the video pans over showing a checkmate. Then, J. Allard cracked a joke saying Microsoft is the only company who could show off their eccentric billionaires and get away with it.
The final MC of the night, Peter Moore, came to the stage after being introduced by J. Allard. There will be an “Essentials” requirement. A minimum specification that all software developers will have to meet for the 360. The first being all games would have to run in 720p, with some 1080i already in the works . Every game will support HD 16×9 format and Moore was sure to stress that even though these are HD games, they would still look great in HD. They will remove the “jaggies” by having Anti-Aliasing support on all games. 5.1 surround sound support finished off the full spectrum of requirements.
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The first game to be introduced by Moore was Project Gotham 3, featuring Velocity based Motion. It will also be the first game to support the new spectator mode called “Gothic TV” This will enable games to view other players’ driving lines, as well as entire races. Microsoft has visions of seeing a worldwide sponsored event through the use of PG3. Gamers each pay $10 to be a part of the tournament lasting up to 6 months. And having the opportunity to win up to 1 million dollars, depending on the size of the tournament, is always nice. Other games that were shown were NBA 2k6, Call of Duty 2 and a possible launch game, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
EA was also there to make its software presence felt. They will have 25 titles released on the 360, their largest product launch ever. Such games include Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Godfather and Madden 2006. EA’s Don Matrick described EA’s presence as “Breath and Depth”.
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Now, on to the biggest news of the night. Square Enix was announced as a new partner to Xbox 360. Final Fantasy XI Online will incorporate the PC version, as well as an Xbox Live version. This is the first cross PC console online game to date. Square concluded with a stunning real-time rendered graphics demo which got most of the press crowd drooling.
Once again Robbie back came out to reiterate some of the Microsoft’s major goals and mentioned that the company wouldl be going after “1 Billion” customers. Microsoft has a lot to prove and its got the 3rd party support to make another dent in the Playstation arena. Time will tell which company has the right approach to the “next gen” of gaming.
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Tags: e3 2005
Posted by Travis on May 18th, 2005 and is filed under Features, Xbox Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
