Tag Archives: microsoft e3 pc 2008

Sony vice president of product development, Scott Rohde said in a video interview (see below) at E3 this week that the company “knew it was coming” when asked about Microsoft’s capture of Final Fantasy XIII at its press conference on Monday.

However, Rohde seems unperturbed by the news, proclaiming that 2008 is “the year of the PlayStation.”

See for yourselves.

By Mike Bowden

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After the drop. If you’re wondering how the new Xbox 360 dashboard will work and what it will look like, all is explained below.

Dashboard update coming “fall” this year.

By Mike Bowden

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In a lengthy interview with 1UP, Microsoft head Shane Kim said that the capture of Final Fantasy XIII should unlock many doors in Japan.

“Well, the Final Fantasy XIII announcement has some beneficial side-effects,” said Kim.

“The more games of this nature, and of the Devil May Crys and Resident Evils, that we secure on 360 opens doors for us in Japan, and gets developers over there interested in the 360, so it’s a step-by-step process.

“Take Capcom for example: they took a chance with us with Dead Rising and Lost Planet, and have had great success, with both of those titles selling over a million units each,” he continued.

“Japan is obviously a very unique market to crack and gain support in, but I think we’re making good headway with what we’ve accomplished on 360 so far, and we’ll continue to surprise you.”

Full interview through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to GI after the Microsoft E3 press conference last night, exec David Gosen has fobbed off PS3′s Home by saying its impact may have been overstated.

“I think what Sony does with Home is up to them, and my advice is that we shouldn’t hold our breath, because that could be quite a dangerous thing to do,” he said.

Gosen added, talking of Microsoft’s newly-announced Xbox Live Avatars: “Avatars go back to this concept of a social experience on a social network – [we have] 12 million members [on Xbox Live] globally, and we have a very actively engaged member-base.

“So we’ve got a really active community already, and what we need to do is create an identity for those people. Personalisation isn’t really new – we know people want to personalise their experience. Now, the avatars we’ve got are Xbox avatars, and they have arms, necks and legs, which other people’s avatars maybe don’t.

“But that’s just the start point. They’re appearing in the game, and what you’ll see us do more and more is make sure that avatars are truly integral to everything we do. It just goes back to true personalisation and creating a social network that really works and is really relevant to all people.”

There’s a full interview here.

What’s red or green, and also an Xbox controller? Not the current Xbox 360 controllers. Well, straight from the horse’s mouth, things are a changin’.

Coming September 30, Microsoft will release limited edition red and green Xbox 360 controllers. They’ll come packed with a play and charge kit, and will run you $64.99.

All of this begs the question: where are the matching consoles?

By Nathan Grayson

Update: You can get exhaustive news from the Sony and Nintendo conferences here.

In case you’re some kind of oddball that doesn’t like spending evenings immersing yourself in the glory of videogaming news on the internet, he’s absolutely everything that happened in the Microsoft and EA press conferences at E3 last night. Don’t say we don’t do anything for you.

News from the Microsoft E3 press conference

• New in-game Fable 2 screens released
• Shane Kim explains 360 push into casual space
• Banjo Nuts & Bolts E3 trailer posted
• Gears of War 2 site gets overhaul
• Two Gears of War 2 hands-ons
• Gears 2 MS E3 press conference movies posted
• FFXIII teaser site now live
• Watch the FFXIII Xbox 360 movie in good quality
• See the new Xbox 360 dashboard in video
• Microsoft E3 presentation – full audio
• Final Fantasy XIII not available on 360 in Japan, Versus XIII still PS3-exclusive
• Hands-on with Resident Evil 5, two new movies
• Fallout 3 gameplay movie posted
• Microsoft’s E3 press release: all the games in one place
• Uno Rush confirmed for XBLA
• NBC and Universal adds names to Live movie list
• Xbox Experience photos posted
• Microsoft details Xbox Experience, confirms full hard drive installs
• No new Halo game shown in MS E3 conference
• Square Enix confirms FFXIII for 360
• Star Ocean gets tentative release date
• Rockband 2 is an Xbox 360 exclusive, 84 tracks listed in full
• Lips to be the first game to let sing along to your own music collection
• Lips confirmed for 360
• Metallica album to release on Guitar Hero at same time as retail
• You’re in the Movies announced for 360
• Original Banjo for XBLA, says Kim
• Over 1,000 games available for 360 before 2009
• Netflix 360 partnerhsip confirmed
• Portal: Still Alive 360 exclusive
• Geometry Wars 2 announced
• Microsoft’s Lips supports motion-sensitive wireless mics
• Mattrick: We will sell more consoles this generation than Sony
• Avatars confirmed for 360 at E3
• New Xbox 360 dashboard shown at E3
• Gears of War 2 to include five-player co-op “Horde” mode
• Gears of War 2 releases on November 7
• Fable II is finished, out October, says Molyneux
• Resi 5 release date Friday 13 March 2009
• Resi 5 online co-op featured for first time at E3
• Xbox 360 to get exclusive Fallout 3 DLC
• Fallout 3 played live for first time in E3 press conference

News from the EA E3 press conference

• First Sims 3 in-game footage published
• New Crysis Warhead shots posted
• In-game Mirror’s Edge trailer looks awesome
• New Left 4 Dead screens posted
• Dead Space boss fight movie posted
• Wright: “Spore fans 38% God”
• Pictures from the EA E3 press conference
• Left 4 Dead confirmed for November 4 release
• Dragon Age confirmed for consoles
• New Rage movie shown, looks amazing
• EA to publish Rage for consoles, PC and Mac

On Kotaku. The RPG was shown in the Microsoft E3 press conference last night, and was declared as “finished” by Peter Molyneux. Have a look.

Xbox boss Shane Kim’s explained the focus of last night’s E3 Microsoft conference, saying the firm’s aim is to attract non-core users with 360.

“It’s fair to say that we still have a lot of work to do to extend our appeal into the non-hardcore space, but our aspiration is absolutely to attract those people,” he said, writing on Edge-Online.

“That’s why we spent the majority of our briefing on service features and on content that will appeal to a broader audience.”

More through the link.

After the break. You have to love it. The game was shown last night in the Microsoft E3 press conference, but we were having a bit of a Gears 2 heart attack at the time. Take a look. There are some new screens on X3F.

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The official Gears of War 2 site has been bumped up in the wake of last night’s Microsoft E3 press conference, to include new art, the E3 trailer and more. Go see.

1UP and IGN have both posted up hands-on impressions of the now-announced Gears of War 2 five-player “Horde” co-op mode.

From 1UP:

Running on an updated version of Unreal Engine 3, Gears of War 2 is still one of the best-looking games around. The addition of new lighting filters really adds depth to the world. It’s also nice to see some variety in the color palette and environments. While the lack of four-player co-op through the story campaign is very disappointing, Horde is a blast and will most likely provide hours of fun with friends who coordinate effectively. Ultimately, all of the tweaks that have been made to the game (improved party system, balanced shotgun, and bullets slowing down opponents) are transforming the shotgun-dancing, bullet-lagging, weapon-sliding online atmosphere of the first game into the strategic and brutal experience it was supposed to have been all along.

Lots more to read through there.

After the break. These are taken from the Gears of War 2 “Rendezvous” demonstration given by Epic in last night’s Microsoft E3 press conference. We were having kittens at the time, but the game looks nothing short of stunning. See for yourself.

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Square’s put up a new teaser site for Final Fantasy XIII, following last night’s announcement that the game will release on Xbox 360 as well as PS3.

There’s not much up there, but it does let you watch the video from last nights Microsoft press conference. Again.

After the break. Quite why you wouldn’t want to watch this is beyond us: it’s showstopping. In case you missed it, Square announced FFXIII for 360 in the Microsoft E3 press conference last night.

Take a look.

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After the break. It’s a snippet from the IGN feed from the Microsoft E3 press conference last night, and shows the design of Xbox Experience and the look of Avatars.

There’s also stuff in there about navigation and how you can reach photos, games, and so on. Look.

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The Major’s posted up an audio file of the entire Microsoft E3 presentation from last night, so if listening to executives tell you how great Xbox 360 is for 90 minutes and not being able to see the FFXIII movie is your thing, you know what to do.

As things weren’t exactly clear on the issue last night, we thought we’d better post this: according to this Joystiq story, Final Fantasy XIII will not be available on 360 in Japan, and Versus XIII is still a PS3-exclusive.

FFXIII was announced for Xbox 360 in the Microsoft E3 press conference last night, but it was hard to make out from the following Square conference exactly what was going on in terms of international releases.

More through the link.

Both Gamespot and Eurogamer have posted hands-on impressions of Resident Evil 5. Read these: the game sounds brilliant.

The two new movies we told you about earlier can be seen on Eurogamer TV, here and here. It’s all good, obviously.

On GamersHell. You owe it to yourself to watch this. The Bethesda RPG was shown being played for the first time in the Microsoft E3 press conference tonight and, as you’d expect, looked stunning. Get it.

If you can’t be bothered to click the Gamershell link, watch the full thing below.

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Microsoft has put out a press release detailing all the game we can look forward to this year and next. You saw most of them this evening but there are a couple that didn’t make it. After the drop, if you please.

By Mike Bowden

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