E3 2010 - Microsoft
Microsoft unveiled its brand new Xbox 360 console
E3 2010 kicked off with a bang thanks to Microsoft’s incredibly diverse keynote session which opened to the deafening bombast of Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops and ended with the company all but betting the farm on controller-free motion gaming being the future of the industry.
The firm behind the super-successful Xbox 360 held a show which attempted to appeal to everyone from casual players to hardcore armchair generals.
The biggest news was arguably Project Natal – now officially known as Kinect – which is nothing short of revolutionary. Utilising sophisticated technology to track movements and recognise human figures, Kinect certainly has promise – but we knew that already, having seen the device for the first time back at last year’s E3.
Clearly aiming for the casual audience which has grown up with the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft lifted the lid on a Wii Sports clone cunningly entitled Kinect Sports. Coded by the near-legendary UK studio Rare, it’s set to include multiple events and plenty of ways to make yourself look sweaty and stupid within the comfort of your own living room.
Elsewhere Kinectimals turned the cute factor up a notch by wheeling out an impossibly adorable child onto the stage to illustrate its potential. While the degree of communication between the pre-pubescent demonstrator and her on-screen pet tiger was impressive, it’s clear that this kind of product isn’t going to lure hardcore gamers away from their bloodthirsty first-person shooters.
The Kinect title which may have the power to do that is Dance Central, a suitably hyperactive boogie simulation from the Harmonix, the guys behind the bestselling Rock Band series and the founding fathers of Guitar Hero. Regardless of your talent on the tiles there’s no denying that Dance Central looks seriously appealing and could do for leg-warmers and sweat-bands what Guitar Hero did for plastic musical instruments.
However, Microsoft was quick to point out that it’s not all about flailing your arms around like a demented fool this year. In addition to the aforementioned Call of Duty: Black Ops there’s the highly anticipated Halo Reach, which is set to offer interstellar ship-to-ship dog fighting as one of its many new features. As awesome as that sounds, the title we’re most excited about is Lionhead’s action RPG Fable III, which has been confirmed for launch in October and is looking particularly lush.
In addition to Kinect Microsoft also had another hardware announcement up its sleeve, although before you get too excited it’s worth noting that it’s merely a repackaged version of the existing Xbox 360 console.
The new Xbox 360 is smaller, quieter and comes with Wi-Fi and a 250GB hard drive as standard. Microsoft has already confirmed that the redesigned console will retail for a very reasonable £199 and will be hitting UK stores on 16th July.
There’s definitely a big question mark over just how suitable Kinect is going to be for immersive gaming experiences and Microsoft’s reluctance to reveal the price point of the new device doesn’t bode well, but the company’s E3 showing did give the impression that the firm is onto something genuinely groundbreaking – the next twelve months will show if that staggering potential is going to be realised.
