Sony’s conference was underwhelming, Nintendo’s was fun but what was Microsoft going to do? The expectations were high as, everyone knew Peter Moore had a few surprises up his sleeve (pun intended)… Xboxic provides you with everything you need to know without the boring salestalk.

All the big gaming sites had streams for all of the conferences except Microsoft’s, what was that all about? Well at least we had something to do since all the trailers that were shown during the conference were available on the Xbox Live Marketplace as soon as the conference kicked off. Not that you were able to download anything, Halo fanboys were leeching the Halo 3 teaser en masse and stuff got terribly slow. Now the dust is settled, the video of the conference is available to everyone and you’re able to download all the Marketplace at a normal speed. Conference time!

Gears of War

Microsoft’s conference started of with the Gears of War trailer that’s also available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. After the trailer ends lead designer Cliff Blezinsky takes the stages. He shows off the first level of Gears of War in which the player has just been pulled out of military prison and he has to make it through an area filled with the locust horde to get to a chopper. The game look is looking pretty spectacular and far in production. Lots of blood spilling and gunslinging. Still no exact releasedate but my guess is that it won’t be long anymore. After the presentation Cliffy hands over the mic to Peter Moore.

Peter Moore

Peter Moore talks about the second generation of Xbox 360. He announces that Microsoft merged it’s Xbox, Games for Windows and Casual Games divisions into a single entertainment and devices division. Good stuff but more on that later. He tells that there weren’t any Xbox 360’s hidden in area 51 to create a false demand. For the last sixth months they made it their top priority to get consoles on the shelves as fast as they could. The Xbox 360 had the fastest launch in console history, over 5 million sold by the end of next month. More than Xbox, PS1, PS2 or any other console at this point in their life cycle. But not just consoles, the Xbox 360 is bound to reach the 5 million marker faster than the iPod. Also, 3 of the top 10best selling games in March were Xbox 360 titles (Fight Night Round 3, Oblivion and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter). Next year Xbox Live will surpass 6 million members. More figures follow but I won’t bore you with those.

Xbox Live Arcade

A trailer for all of the new Xbox Live Arcade titles starts of. Several new games are being shown. A major expansion in the Xbox Live Arcade catalog is announced. Partnerships with Namco (Pacman, Ms. Pacman, Galaga, Dig Dug and Rally X), Konami (Frogger, Contra, Super Contra, Track and Field, Time Pilot and Scramble), Midway (Defender, Paper Boy, Root Beer Tapper and Ultimate Mortal Kombat) and SEGA (Sonic the Hedgehog). All the games will be updated with High Definition and Xbox Live Multiplayer and Leaderboards for some. Peter Moore compares the Arcade with the Sundance Movie Festival as it’s a space for independent developers. As of today there are 100 partnerships with independent developers. A surprise addition to the Xbox Live Arcade is shown in the form of Lumines Live. Someone in the crowd has an orgasm. Lumines is played with a Madonna video in the background and Peter Moore explains that MS has struck a deal with Warner Music Group so you can buy music video which will play while you’re playing Lumines.

The next wave of 360 games

The ‘Xbox 360 Montage’ trailer that is currently on the marketplace is being shown showcasing a bunch of second generation Xbox 360 titles. 100 titles available this holiday season. The only console that has next-gen Madden by the start of the NFL season. And good news for those of us that like a different type of football; Pro Evolution Soccer will also make it’s next-gen debut on 360. Moore welcomes the newest addition to the Microsoft Games family, the Fable 2 CGI trailer (also on Marketplace) is being shown. Moore welcomes Lionhead again, Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux is in the audience and gets a round of applause.

The Forza 2 CGI trailer is being shown which is also on the Marketplace, more Forza 2 info here. The wireless racing wheel, the wireless headset and the webcam are announced. Webcam support for Rainbow Six: Vegas and World Series of Poker. All the accessories are available this fall. Peter thanks the Blue Dragon team and a Blue Dragon trailer is being shown. He talks about Japan and Japanese developers for a bit.

The Splinter Cell: Double Agent (also on Marketplace) is being shown. After that Moore invites Jim Veevaert from Microsoft Games Studios to the stages who showcases Viva Pinata. A really awesome demonstration which convinced yours truly. Peter Moore takes the stage again.

Xbox Live Marketplace

Over 18 million downloads since launch, over 1000 pieces of downloadable content. Fight Night Round 3’s pre-orders increased by 5 times after the demo was released. Peter announces that starting tonight you can download high def. TV content on the Xbox Live Marketplace. It starts of with a show called Gears of War: Race to E3. A docu-drama that takes you behind the scene, starts on Xbox Live and finishes on MTV next week with a half hour special. Peter presents the HD-DVD player which will also be available this holiday.

’some guys do rubber ducks, some guys do tattoo’s’

Peter begins to talk about a franchise that generates more excitement than almost anything out there. Could it be Halo? Peter takes his jacket of. Another tattoo? Peter shows the Halo 2 releasedate tattoo. He says that “some guys do rubber ducks, some guys do tattoo’s”, the crowd goes wild. He reveals his latest addition, a tattoo saying ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’. “Microsoft and Rockstar Games are bringing Grand Theft Auto IV, the next generation of the wildly successfull Grand Theft Auto series to Xbox 360 on October 16th 2007 in North America and October the 19th in Europe. The first date it’s available.” says Moore. But it gets even better, Microsoft and Rockstar Games have entered into strategic partnership to provide exclusive episodic content via Xbox Live. he continues. At this point several big games sites such as Gamespot and your beloved Xboxic report that GTA IV is coming to the Xbox 360 exclusively, sorry about that. I blame Peter Moore for getting a tattoo of something that isn’t really that spectacular and unexpected. After this it’s all talk about Vista and DirectX 10.

2 New exclusive franchises

Microsoft has landed 2 new exclusive publishing deals. Alan Wake by Remedy (known for Max Payne) and Shadowrun by FASA (Crimson Skies). There are trailers for both games on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Both titles are only on Xbox 360 and PC. Shadowrun is a Vista launchtitle (when did operating systems get launchtitles?). Vista is expected next January. A date for Alan Wake has not been given.

Live Anywhere

Bill Gates takes the stage for the first time ever at an E3. He admits that he’s a heavy Xbox 360 user, a PGR3 addict. He announces an Xbox Live-like system called Live Anywhere for Windows Vista and Windows Mobile. It means that you one online community with a gamertag you can use across different PC’s, just as you can use your Xbox Live gamertag on other Xbox’s. When the announcement is done Scott Harris (sp?) takes the stage. He starts up a game of Shadowrun on the Xbox 360, he connects to Xbox Live. Nothing special but then he hits the guide button and heads over to the friends list and you’ll notice that the friends list received a subtle but powerful cosmetic update.

Not only can you see your Xfriends but you’ll also see what your buddies are doing on the PC. At that moment Major Nelson is working on his PC and Scott sends him an invitation to play Shadowrun, the same way invitations are working at this moment on the Xbox 360. You heard it correct, he sends an invite from his Xbox 360 to Major’s PC.

After that the presentation switches over to the Windows Vista desktop where you’ll see that the Live Anywhere friendslist is integrated into Vista’s sidebar. After that the invite that was just sent pops up and the user gets the choice to accept, deny or compare achievements, across platforms. Just as you currently can on the Xbox 360. And the achievements work cross platforms as well, you can unlock the same achievements on your PC as on your 360.

If you choose to accept the invite you’ll be thrown in the game within seconds. You can play against 360 gamers on your PC and visa versa. All with the same ease as you currently are enjoying on your Xbox 360. Without all the IP addresses, port forwarding etc. hassle you currently have if you want to play multiplayer games on your PC. Voicechat works cross platform as well.

After that a mock up is being shown on how this system could work with Forza 2. The Forza 2 team came up with a system for customizing the skin for your car on multiple platforms. The demo kicks off with a message on the mobile phone, from Major Nelson, containing a new skin. Scott loads up the skin on his mobile phone and customizes it a bit. After that he sends the skin to his PC and customizes it some more. When he’s done he sends it over to his 360 and you’ll see his car driving around with the skin that he just created. This whole process looks pretty awesome and there are a lot of new possibilities with this new form of connectivity.

After that Peter Moore takes the stage again, wraps up the conference with some predictions for next year. He predicts that there will be 6 million units sold by next years E3, more than 160 titles to choose from and 6 Million Live members. He heads towards the exit but Bill Gates says that they have something fun to show, something in-game, something the audience might recognize. The Halo 3 teaser trailer that’s currently on the Xbox Live Marketplace is shown.

All in all I’d say it was a pretty good conference for Microsoft, especially the new Live Anywhere system surprised me in a positive way. And they didn’t even steal any ideas from Nintendo… Good times!