Judging from last night’s underwhelming event, probably not. While the Redmond behemoth easily stole the show last year, with their Project Natal reveal and announcement of Metal Gear finally making its way to the 360.
Last night’s keynote had no such impact; The big exclusive games they showed – Gears of War 3, Halo Reach and Fable 3 – were all games we knew about ages ago, and even the reveal of the newly redesigned Xbox 360 was spoiled by a leaked advert. The problem? It all boils down to Kinect.
Microsoft’s keynote focused largely on Kinect, the recently rebranded controlerless motion peripheral. A problem – which many suspected – is that Microsoft were trying to capture the casual market, the family oriented stuff that’s made the Wii so successful. That problem was realised last night when all that was showcased was a series of very casual Wii-like games.
Admittedly the Kinect technology seems to be working pretty well, and games like Dance Central and Kinectimals will no doubt elicit squeals of pure joy from young gamers – and money from the wallets of their parents, but there was almost nothing shown for the “sore†gamer. Sure, there’s that star Wars thing – but it looks to be a guided, on rails experience – and the lightsaber action seemed more like that of a glowing baseball bat.
The one announcement that will no doubt have an impact on local gamers is that of Xbox Live finally being launched in South Africa. The press release alluded to a launch time of “this summer†so it’ll be before the end of the year. The most immediate impact this will have is there’ll be many, many new local players and downloadable content should no longer be blocked or additional content removed from special editions of retail game.
It wouldn’t take much for either of the other console manufactures to have a more impressive E3 showing though. Nintendo is believed to be showcasing a new Zelda title and quite possibly entertain us with how they intend to use that silly vitality sensor. I also expect more Metroid Other M footage, and perhaps the announcement of a new game or two from Nintendo’s rich legacy.
All Sony really needs to do is show Last Guardian, Killzone 3, show some “core†gaming experiences with Move and announce just one as yet unannounced game and they’ve got it in the bag.
What were your thoughts on Microsoft’s keynote. Did I get it all wrong? Did you find it incredibly exciting?
Last Updated: June 15, 2010
pantsula
June 15, 2010 at 12:50
It was all a bit meh. Nothing really new and then the Oprah moment.
RSA-Ace
June 15, 2010 at 13:03
Kinect in terms of a UI ‘controller’ is amazing (some of the functionality could easily be replicated by the PS Eye).
I don’t know why people are so excited about the whole star wars thing. Surely PS Move with star wars will be a lot better? I mean you actually hold something which is basically a light saber… And the analog sticks allow you to actually move around.
I think the Kinect ‘Fit’ things will do well though. Wii Fit sold millions and the Kinect side of it is better imho.
I think Sony needs to show some GT5 (with release date), then the sequels we know about (KZ3, Infamous 2, Motorstorm 3), some 3D stuff (please not too much), some ‘hardcore’ Move games, Last Guardian and FF Versus XIII showing would be an awesome surprise. I really hope something will come from the two FCC filed PS3’s. A $50 price cut when MS is in this ‘weak’ spot would also really help sales! As for Move pricing $50 and $25 for the sub controller would be great. I’m sure it will be $60/$30 though…
RSA-Ace
June 15, 2010 at 13:06
A slightly updated interface for the XMB wouldn’t go unnoticed either (although I don’t have many problems to begin with – change is nice sometimes).
Fred
June 15, 2010 at 13:22
Suppose i’m getting too old for gaming if gesture based controls and dance games are the future . I’d like to sit on my ass playing like we used to do it back in the day .
doobiwan
June 15, 2010 at 13:31
A bit lackluster definitely, for sure, there was no big wow.
DubiousOne
June 15, 2010 at 13:51
Microsoft failed hard witth this sony already one with excellet games it announced already
this web say xbox live coming on 24 octobir
http://www.techcentral.co.za/hi-its-wii-again/14947/
AC!D
June 15, 2010 at 14:27
What i liked and will definitely buy are Fable 3 and Gears 3 from the core games they showed. I dont know enough about the Crytek game to comment. As for Halo ive never liked the gameplay so i cant see that changing any time soon. As for Kinect i think all except for one game will be huge. Well done to Harmonix again because that dance game will definitely sell to a huge female audience and i for one would rather buy something like that to get fit than some shitty fitness game. The Star wars footage as posted around the entire net was faked. The gif’s are all over the net showing how the lightsaber moves before the actor on screen even moves his hand so again i cant comment on that till i get some reliable opinions and realtime unscripted footage. The UI functionality as others have said looks great. All in all though if Kinect ( What a horrible name ) retail’s at $150 as rumoured i didnt see enough to justify a purchase for myself. The new slim looks beautiful from the front but kinda weird from the side. All in all i love it though. I defended Sony when they shipped all their functionality in the box at launch and im happy MS give you the full package now. This is the 360 console that should have launched from day one and ill be picking one as soon as im 100% certain this doesnt have some new kind of design flaw. All in all i would give the conference a respectable 7/10 but last years was much better.
As for Sony and Nintendo obviously we will have to wait till tonight. Sony though have already announced a stellar lineup of core games with inFAMOUS, Killzone 3, The Last Guardian, LBP2, Socom 4, GT5, Motorstorm 3 and the Sly Cooper HD anthology that ive always wanted to pick up and now i have the chance. Nintendo have a Megaton of their own with Zelda so i dunno. For me its a battle between Nintendo and Sony.
As for tonight its rumoured that Dead Space will be introduced with Move support at the Sony conference and anyone who has played Resi 4 on PS2 and Wii know that it plays better with MC so im looking forward to that. Its also rumoured Dead Space 2 is a timed exclusive but i dont believe that.
The Kojima prouction’s website has a third game with a question mark and it seems he will announce his new game that he is directing at either Konami, Sony’s or Nintendo’s conference as an exclusive or multiplat game so place your bets.
David Jaffe has been spotted at E3 so its a good bet his new game will be announced at the Sony conference since he said he wouldnt attend E3 at all 😉
There are also rumours that Starhawk, Resistance 3 and Syphon Filter for PS3 will finally be announced so its looking really good for Sony. I hope Agent makes an appearance in gameplay form finally. I could care less about the Sony Move casual games though.
All in all im most excited about tonight!!!!
Bobby Kotick is not impressed
June 15, 2010 at 15:18
I thought it was pretty disappointing, but than I have to admit I never had high hopes for Natal (Kinect is such a stupid name). Their decision to FINALLY grant us mere mortals access to LIVE (and hopefully content won’t be censored again) is definitely a plus (but it’s not nearly enough to win me back to the box’s camp).
Having said that, it’s bound to make the hardware race in South Africa interesting.
Fox1
June 15, 2010 at 15:27
“All Sony really needs to do is show Last Guardian, Killzone 3, show some “core†gaming experiences with Move and announce just one as yet unannounced game and they’ve got it in the bag.” – That’s half the show MS did :whistle: