E3 Press Conference Impressions: Microsoft

Microsoft was the first company to have their press conference at this year’s E3. Not only were they first to showcase their products and games, they decided to have two events within two days. However, neither of them inspired any confidence for the gamers who made Microsoft and the Xbox what it is today.

Sunday night’s event was a Cirque du Soleil-led official reveal of Microsoft’s answer to the Wii: Kinect for the Xbox 360. Essentially a very high end camera for the console, Kinect allows you to play games without the use of any controllers at all. The problem isn’t the Kinect itself, it’s the kinds of games they decided to show with this reveal. Microsoft have very clearly decided to target the crowd Nintendo essentially created when it released the Wii and DS with minigame collections and non-games. There’s a version of Wii Sports called Kinect Sports. There’s a version of Nintendogs called Kinectimals. There’s more generic minigames inside Kinect Adventures. You get the idea.

I understand what the ultimate goal is for Kinect, and from a business standpoint, it makes total sense. But it’s completely not aimed at me at all. Not even their “throw the hardcore a bone” Star Wars game looks appealing, since it looks like the Clone Wars cartoon. Personally I’m not into this shift of focus that Microsoft is doing, and since their regular stable of games doesn’t appeal to me, my Xbox 360 looks to be taking it easy for the next few months.

Speaking of that regular stable, a little time was spent on showcasing each of their major first party releases for the next year. Halo Reach, Gears of War 3 and Fable 3 all got demos and trailers shown. Again, I’m not particularly a big fan of any of these franchises but they all seem to be shaping up well. Halo Reach in particular seems to be making the most strides, with space combat included.

The one new gameplay reveal was Metal Gear Solid Rising, a game initially announced at last year’s E3. It was a very short clip, but from what was shown, it looks stunning. The game is less traditional Metal Gear Solid stealth gameplay and more of an action game in the vein of Devil May Cry or Bayonetta. Still very early, but it looks promising. It was easily my personal highlight, a glimmer of hope in a sea of motion control.

Aside from the games, Microsoft pushed the Xbox 360 as an entertainment device yet again by adding ESPN as a content partner. Personally, it’s yet another service they offer I will never use (does anyone use the Facebook or Twitter services on 360 regularly?) but it works as another bullet point for Microsoft.

Finally, they ended the show with the reveal of the Xbox 360 Slim, a smaller more full-featured console for the same price as the current console. It’s not worth the upgrade if you already own one (the PS3 Slim wasn’t worth the upgrade either) but if you somehow still haven’t gotten your hands on a 360, this is the one to get.

Overall, I was very disappointed in the press conference. With way too much focus on ancillary stuff and not nearly enough information about actual video games that weren’t powered by Kinect, the entire conference felt like a waste. Having the Cirque du Soleil show prior to the press conference made it feel even more bloated and lacking real information. Microsoft in general seems to be going in a certain direction with the Xbox 360, and it’s not necessarily a direction I want to follow.