Last night saw Microsoft present the first major presentation of E3, and boy did they deliver. The press conference kicked off with Senior Vice President Don Mattrick saying that 2010 will be “a year of transformation” and will ‘transform the way you play games and connect to friends and family.’
Of course, Microsoft’s biggest claim to transforming the way we play – and perhaps design and develop games – comes with the introduction of the Kinect, the motion controller for the Xbox 360.
Kinect – the device formerly know as Project Natal – will be released in the United States on Thursday, November 4th with 15 exclusive title’s including the Rare developed Kinetic Sports. No European date has been announced yet, but it’s likely it’ll be some way behind the USA if it follows the pattern of the new Xbox 360 Slim. While the new console is ships in the United States today, it won’t be available this side of the Atlantic Ocean until July 16th.
Train2Game Game Designers, Game Developers and Game Artist & Animators will no doubt be encouraged by Microsoft’s Phil Spencer stating “Microsoft Games Studios is constantly looking to partner with talented new development partners.” Perhaps if you play your cards right, you could be developing games exclusively for the Xbox 360 in the years to come.
In addition to announcements about Kinect and the Xbox 360 Slim, a number of highly anticipated games were given release dates. Peter Molyneux himself took to the stage in Los Angeles to reveal that Fable III will be available on October 26th this year. Meanwhile, Dead Space 2 executive producer Steve Papoutsis revealed that the horror sequel will be released on January 25th 2011.
These are just some of the many announcements made last night, and E3 isn’t even in full swing yet with Nintendo and Sony still to give presentations today at 5 p.m. and 8.pm. respectively – that’s the British times anyway!
So it’s over to you. Are you impressed by Microsoft’s announcements? If so, what are you most looking forward to? Kinect The Xbox 360 Slim? As usual, let us know either in the comments section below, or on the Train2Game Forum.
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I guess if the Americans are going to do all the playing for a good long while on their new “controller” it will save the UK the bother should it turn out that after 20 minutes you are thoroughly exhausted and want to sit down, or that the system becomes very much a gimmick.
then again if the Nintendo Wii is proof of anything, it’s that a gimmick can go a long way.