Official MS E3 press conference thread

[Shifty Geezer]

Though I too award MS 'best of show' this year, some of those analyst points just sound plain wrong! Relative newcomer needing to work harder? They've had as long as PS1. I don't think they should be being cut any slack for being 'new' - they'll grow based on their ability to appeal. And innovation online, doing things differently? They're all a bunch of clones! Home, Avatars and Animal Crossing:City Folk or all variations on the same theme. MS set the online groundwork. Sony announced the most feature-rich take on online community with Home, borrowing from existing other online community ideas. Everything now is just more of the same, dressed up differently.

 

[Scott_Arm]

What I like about Microsoft's conference is everything is coming soon, with the exception of final fantasy. Everything else will be in our hands before Christmas. So while most of the news is on the same level as what Sony showed, I think the short term anticipation makes it a little more interesting.

 

[DrJay24]

What I like about Microsoft's conference is everything is coming soon, with the exception of final fantasy. Everything else will be in our hands before Christmas. So while most of the news is on the same level as what Sony showed, I think the short term anticipation makes it a little more interesting.

RE5 is 2008?

I only read the live blogging and saw game play videos released to PSN/Live/GT. In that respect the differences are non-existent. If you guys are grading the on stage presentation then that's a different beast, but very few people ever see the presentations.

 

[AlNom]

RE5 is 2008?

Fiscal 2008 for Capcom ends March 30, 2009, two weeks after the release of the game.

 

[DrJay24]

Fiscal 2008 for Capcom ends March 30, 2009, two weeks after the release of the game.

Everything else will be in our hands before Christmas.

I was responding to this, not fiscal stuff.

 

[AlNom]

Christmas, no. 2008?....yes if you consider fiscal.

 

[Scott_Arm]

RE5 is 2008?

I only read the live blogging and saw game play videos released to PSN/Live/GT. In that respect the differences are non-existent. If you guys are grading the on stage presentation then that's a different beast, but very few people ever see the presentations.

For got about Resident Evil 5. But it's still in our hands within' the year.

 

[liolio]

RancidLunchmeat I mostly agree with you (there is always a but ).

MS have not over promised and have done a good job at advertising up coming title: OK.

But we know some title have to come during 2009:
Alan wake
SC 5 (not sure about the number)
Likely a new halo

But at some time without going as far as Sony they need to give to theirs costumers a "horizon".
I would be concerned if in the up coming shows MS doesn't reveal some huge projects.
Just a new Halo wouldn't make it for me (I've no console right now, so my choice is in the air).
Even if they have to really on CGI to tease us.
They need to show something that will make consumers think "OK games will look like taht in the seconf part of the console life, great!" (i don't expect anybody to say that anyaway.. ).

OK UEIII is impressive on the 360 widely available, lots of games will benefits and look good.

But they need excellence (no matter how it compare to whatever Sony offers).
They have some gap to fill:
for example, in fighting genre I expect tekken to stay exclusive to the playstation.
OK, SF IV looks as great as it can, SC is cool too, but Sony is right on something you need exclusive.
So for example if there is a DOA coming I would want to know before the end of the year and it would better be woa looking (who know what namco could came with the next tekken).
If Rare plans a KI, idem for me they had to raise expectations in consumers minds.

Same for Forza III they should show target render(edit I would favor demo on powerfull PC)

They start making they should try harder to secure an exclusive with "ninja" devs.

Shortly it's about balance, but as a future costumers I want to know what is coming, a horizon.
Nobody ask to know the whole line up for the two/three upcoming years.

I would be extremely disapointed if they don't announce something that "looks" BIG (important word I'm more graphic whore (at art money...) than a party gamer if you know what I mean ).
KzII looks great, I know that GOW III will looks absolutely stunning.

Ms need some ninja, if they don't show me that in this regard they are going in the proper direction they won't count me as a costumer.

 

[PARANOiA]

Same for Forza III they should show target render(edit I would favor demo on powerfull PC).

You're criticising MS for not showing CGI videos? You're praising the CGI GoW3?

All I can say is I strongly disagree. I'm 100% in favour of MS's approach of showing live demos and in-game footage rather than not in-game footage, CGI movies, and "target renders". We couldn't possibly disagree on this issue more from the sound of it.

 

[obonicus]

You're criticising MS for not showing CGI videos? You're praising the CGI GoW3?

All I can say is I strongly disagree. I'm 100% in favour of MS's approach of showing live demos and in-game footage rather than not in-game footage, CGI movies, and "target renders". We couldn't possibly disagree on this issue more from the sound of it.

I just wish we knew what was in store for 2009. It's a bit early, yeah, but I really don't want to see big announcements at GDC anymore, which is when MS announced/confirmed 2008's big hitter(s).

 

[PARANOiA]

I just wish we knew what was in store for 2009. It's a bit early, yeah, but I really don't want to see big announcements at GDC anymore, which is when MS announced/confirmed 2008's big hitter(s).

Heh, well it's horses for courses I suppose, but given all of the stuff discussed/interviewed, etc that was not shown in the main conference (Tom Clancy game, new Bungie games, GTAIV expansion pack, Halo Wars, Splinter Cell) I certainly don't feel like anything in '09 is largely in the dark. Furthermore, it definitely gives me the feeling that '08 will be huge, rather than a year with the odd good title with breaks in between... it's looking like every month there is a top notch 360 game coming out until Xmas. Many genres were covered. Huge release dates were announced too. Why overshadow all the amazing stuff coming very soon with "and here's some CGI for a game we hope is ready in Christmas 2009">

I posted earlier in this thread that MS's conference, like last year, covered mostly '08, with a minor part of '09. What they showed for '09 will all (bar anything odd or unexpected) be out before next E3. That worked extremely well for them last year, and I'm guessing they're strategy is that it will work again this year.

 

[betan]

Heh, well it's horses for courses I suppose, but given all of the stuff discussed/interviewed, etc that was not shown in the main conference (Tom Clancy game, new Bungie games, GTAIV expansion pack, Halo Wars, Splinter Cell) I certainly don't feel like anything in '09 is largely in the dark. Furthermore, it definitely gives me the feeling that '08 will be huge, rather than a year with the odd good title with breaks in between... it's looking like every month there is a top notch 360 game coming out until Xmas. Many genres were covered. Huge release dates were announced too. Why overshadow all the amazing stuff coming very soon with "and here's some CGI for a game we hope is ready in Christmas 2009">

I'm glad you are happy, but if you don't mind me asking, when and where exactly should MS announce and show (we can drop the CGI talk now), say for example, Bungie's (or your fav dev's) Holiday 2009 game? You want to see it next E3? Some MS gamer's day in between? In a Kotaku rumor post? The day before it comes out?

It may very well be true that the reason MS (selectively) sticks to current lineup not to overshadow any game. But is that what us gamers want now? I'm not talking about your favorite game being overshadowed, but intentional ignorance of future to protect current lineup?

I posted earlier in this thread that MS's conference, like last year, covered mostly '08, with a minor part of '09. What they showed for '09 will all (bar anything odd or unexpected) be out before next E3. That worked extremely well for them last year, and I'm guessing they're strategy is that it will work again this year.

Worked in what sense?

 

[PARANOiA]

I'm glad you are happy, but if you don't mind me asking, when and where exactly should MS announce and show (we can drop the CGI talk now), say for example, Bungie's (or your fav dev's) Holiday 2009 game? You want to see it next E3? Some MS gamer's day in between? In a Kotaku rumor post? The day before it comes out?

It may very well be true that the reason MS (selectively) sticks to current lineup not to overshadow any game. But is that what us gamers want now? I'm not talking about your favorite game being overshadowed, but intentional ignorance of future to protect current lineup?


Worked in what sense?

I'm more than happy to see my big 2009 Xmas games at 2009's E3 - six months before release. There's also GDC, Liepzig, or whenever MS decide to hold a special conference. From my mind it reduces the "fatigue" you read more and more about with games that are shown waaay too far in advance. I'm also a huge supporter of never showing a game until you can show in-game footage (or at least in-engine footage). CGI trailers are a waste of time IMO.

I don't see any negatives here in terms of "unintentional ignorance" from not knowing what games I'll be playing in 18 months time - Why? Because I have a packed line-up for the forseeable future. This has been the case ever since I picked up my 360 in Q3 '06, and doesn't look to be slowing. This is especially so when the only view I've had on games is CGI or a bullet-point list of features.

For me personally, the distribution of this information from MS in terms of building my excitement only really began to slow for me in last Q1 this year or so. There was a thread about that here (I think Alstrong started it? Anyone remember the one I'm talking about) where this was discussed in some detail. It was a large case of knowing there were a thick pipeline of 2008 games, but not knowing any details, release dates and whatnot. Personally, I'd prefer MS had a mid-Q1 conference where they could discuss this, and cycle information between that conference (1H loaded) and E3 (2H loaded).

And when I say "worked" I mean in having amazing software sales and very decent hardware sales throughout 2007. Look at PS3 vs 360 monthly sales of both of these items through the year and you'll see they certainly did something right.

I certainly agree however that both of Sony and MS aren't doing a hell of a lot against Wii, but that's another story.

 

[liolio]

You're criticising MS for not showing CGI videos? You're praising the CGI GoW3?

All I can say is I strongly disagree. I'm 100% in favour of MS's approach of showing live demos and in-game footage rather than not in-game footage, CGI movies, and "target renders". We couldn't possibly disagree on this issue more from the sound of it.

No you didn't get my point
They need to raise expectations so even if the games is just started they have to show something.
CGI doesn't necessarily mean unrealistic.

The message I want to hear is "we will tap this f%%%%g system even if we have to code in assembly"

 

[eastmen]

No you didn't get my point
They need to raise expectations so even if the games is just start they have to show something.
CGI doesn't necessarily mean unrealistic.

The message I want to hear is "we will tap this f%%%%g even if we have to code in assembly"

What you want them to promise that if you just stick with them you might get some good games instead of showing off a ton of great games for this year ?

 

[eastmen]

One of the not-so-cosmetic changes in the fall update will be the ability to let you play your games directly from the hard disk. The new feature will let users install all of the game content directly onto the hard drive to improve game load times. Microsoft reports that it has seen a 30 percent improvement in load times in internal testing. As an interesting data point, Microsoft went out of its way to tell a group of reporters that the full Devil May Cry 4 hard disk installation took roughly 10 minutes on the Xbox 360. The installation took twice as long when we conducted our own installation tests on the PlayStation 3. Another side benefit of having games installed on the hard disk is reduced noise, since the optical disc no longer needs to spin up. However, you will still need to have the game disc in your optical drive while you're playing it, presumably as a piracy check.

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6194093/index.html?tag=top_stories;title;1

10 minutes per disc is not bad at all . 30% decrease in load times is also not bad at all and of course no dvd drive noise

 

[Arwin]

Lol. The harddrive installation on the PS3 for DMC4 was completely screwed up. Not the best comparison material!

 

[AlNom]

I would have been interested to see how much space the installation took - whether or not they require an exact 1:1 image or if they only copy unique files.

 

[betan]

I'm more than happy to see my big 2009 Xmas games at 2009's E3 - six months before release. There's also GDC, Liepzig, or whenever MS decide to hold a special conference. From my mind it reduces the "fatigue" you read more and more about with games that are shown waaay too far in advance.

Fair enough.
Does that mean it bugged you when MS showed RE5 last year or FFXIII this year?
Or multiplatform games are OK to overshadow current lineup?
While we are at this, what does it tell you about MS or the games that are not revealed yet, that MS showed those games?

I'm also a huge supporter of never showing a game until you can show in-game footage (or at least in-engine footage). CGI trailers are a waste of time IMO.

Once again, let's drop the CGI talk, there have been many games that showed realtime rendered graphics much before the release.

I don't see any negatives here in terms of "unintentional ignorance" from not knowing what games I'll be playing in 18 months time - Why? Because I have a packed line-up for the forseeable future. This has been the case ever since I picked up my 360 in Q3 '06, and doesn't look to be slowing.

I applaud you for your rationalism, as a bonus for 360 you seem to be the perfect user.

This is especially so when the only view I've had on games is CGI or a bullet-point list of features.

Again, let's drop the CGI talk

For me personally, the distribution of this information from MS in terms of building my excitement only really began to slow for me in last Q1 this year or so. There was a thread about that here (I think Alstrong started it? Anyone remember the one I'm talking about) where this was discussed in some detail. It was a large case of knowing there were a thick pipeline of 2008 games, but not knowing any details, release dates and whatnot. Personally, I'd prefer MS had a mid-Q1 conference where they could discuss this, and cycle information between that conference (1H loaded) and E3 (2H loaded).

Reasonable and consistent with your 6-month strategy.

And when I say "worked" I mean in having amazing software sales and very decent hardware sales throughout 2007. Look at PS3 vs 360 monthly sales of both of these items through the year and you'll see they certainly did something right.

You are giving too much credit to E3 itself. I'm sure MS did many things right but attributing sales to E3 is a little stretch. Or maybe it's about poor E3s, looking at Nintendo sales.

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6194093/index.html?tag=top_stories;title;1

10 minutes per disc is not bad at all . 30% decrease in load times is also not bad at all and of course no dvd drive noise

30% is a lot lower than I expected.
It's also disappointing in the sense that new 360 games may not feel the need to optimize for HDD.

 

[liolio]

What you want them to promise that if you just stick with them you might get some good games instead of showing off a ton of great games for this year ?

No, looks like my earlier post wasn't clear enough (I'm bored with my english... ).
It's about balance, showing one game coming in a more distant future would not hurt IMO.
And I also state in my previous post that there are others shows before the end of this year.
I just stated that I would be disspointed if I don't hear in the mean time (beofore fall 2008) a big news from them

(thus I agree with paranoia about the other shows coming this year).