E3 06: Microsoft booth rides new wave of games
Xbox 360s, Vista galore as company shows off upcoming lineup; funky kiosks, green ambience abound, but Xboxes barely invited.
LOS ANGELES--Microsoft may not have a brand-spanking-new console to show off at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, but that doesn't mean E3 attendees didn't flock to see what the M-machine had to show off. The Xbox 360 is almost six months old, and many of the console's "second-generation" games are gearing up for a holiday season showdown with the launches of Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3.
Microsoft was once again stationed in the rear of the South Hall, near third-party companies like Ubisoft and Blizzard. The front portion of its space was wide open, with meeting rooms and private screening rooms located in a makeshift building in the rear.
Microsoft has been fond of making untraditional gaming kiosks for its events, and this year's E3 hosted some of the most bizarre yet. The Xbox 360 was obviously the main attraction of the booth, but Microsoft's new line of PC games also took up a surprisingly sizable chunk of space. The Xbox was very scarce--THQ's Destroy All Humans! 2 and Stacked with Daniel Negreanu were among the few current-gen titles.
As for next-gen games, several were on hand to play. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Prey, F.E.A.R., Chromehounds, Ninety-Nine Nights, Madden NFL 07, Too Human, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and Crackdown all made appearances.
The side of the booth showcased some of the 360's hardware, including several limited-edition faceplates. Some were skinned with Microsoft's Zero Hour launch party event, while others had French house duo Daft Punk's logos all over it.
Gamers also got their first glimpse at some of the new Xbox 360 peripherals. The external HD-DVD player, which debuted at Tuesday's Microsoft pre-E3 conference, shared a display case with the deluxe remote control for the system. In a neighboring case, the wireless, force-feedback steering wheel was held aloft by wires, and next to that were an Xbox 360 controller, the wireless Ethernet adapter, the Bluetooth headset, and a wireless receiver, which makes Xbox 360 gear compatible with PCs.
67 comments
It was awesome watching E3 stuff over xbox live when more games start flooding 360 and more developers master live service demos will come left and right marketplace is amazing. I cant wait to see the future of marketplace this is the best $399 I have ever spent and I cant wait for all the new controllers and camera and all the other thing that will come out in the future
I hope all this demos on E3 are making their way to Xbox Live. C'mon Peter Moore bring E3 to the Live members. May you be the first to bring E3 to the gamers and not just the press. Lost Planet is GOOD.........
Nice!! Halo 3 is gonna rock, F.E.A.R., Prey, GTA 360!! More more more!!! WHoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Nighty-Nine Nights and Too Human are high on my want list. Halo 3 kinda goes without saying. :)
Maquis dont react to 5 year olds, the guy is brain dead and blind. I'll buy ps3 on the release day, just to sell it on ebay and form the money i make to get 360 with muchh better games than ps3, and get ps3 in 2 years when all the cool games will come out and the price will drop to 300 or something.
yes but the DS is outselling the psp 2 to 1, hows that for your Fony dominance? wow look ps3 has motion controllers. just like Nintendo showed one year ago. losers. so what was your point, please? troll.
Microsoft is helpless. When PS3 comes out, they are gonna get owned (again)!! The PS2 is still highly outselling the 360. ha ha ha ha ha
Nice Booth! at least with Microsoft we know what we are getting. Can't wait for HALO 3! and Lost Planet, and Fable 2, F.E.A.R.! and even Viva Pi
Hmm. For some reason, I am not really that interested. I am not saying that any of those games will be bad, but they don't stand out for me.
They'll probably have demos out on LIVE soon enough. Gotta make it somewhat worth it to those who travelled to L.A. ;) They're already giving us many of the trailers and some of the behind the scenes stuff. Great stuff and in HD. Better then online streaming that's for sure. Not to mention that we DID get a demo of Lost Planet.
tisk tisk tisk..... i like microsoft dont get me wrong, but if they wanted to do something impressive, they should give the fans what they want.... all the demos playable at e3 playable on xbox live, as theyre announced mind you, not 1-2 months after ie, saints row.... alas well all just have to wait to play the games patiently
I think it was a nice booth I mean at least the games that are playable there are ones we new they had in dev. And plus they are mostly new games not MGS 252 or GTR 125.
I think Optimusv2 is right about the Japanese titles being saved for Tokyo. At first I was disappointed not to see them, but it does make sense. The booth line-up looks great overall. Obviously there's a lot of attention focused on the two new consoles, but I think the 360 has more than held its own with some amazing stuff coming in the next 12 months.
Very nice line up overall. I wish that they would had some more info on Halo 3 though. Showing a trailer just doesn't do it for me.
Chromehounds is going to fuggin' rock! YOU GUYS BETTER GET IT SO I HAVE SOMEONE TO PLAY WITH AND BEAT!!
I really love Microsoft's approach to PC games; it's great that they're trying to unify the communities instead of dividing them. I'm a PC gamer, but i may get a 360 to support Microsoft (like they need it!) and of course GTA IV!!
Tomamagic... i agree. Will we be able to play these amazing games over xbox live service? As for the lineup... it is very solid. Does anyone know if there is more ot come from Bungie... do they have a booth? Or are there any big things that are yet to be revealed? Is the conference pretty much determined rigth now?
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