Microsoft's press conference was quite a surprise. Having seen Sony make a huge blunder and NCL give a solid show, I was wondering where Microsoft would end up. They seem to have acquitted themselves very well. It was probably the best of the three shows.
Microsoft had the luxury of having released the console and were able to relax. All they had to do was show off what they had coming for us. They showed Gears of War which looks like being quite a spiffy title and we also saw a trailer for "the best kept secret", Halo 3. What we were being shown with Halo 3 was rendered with the in-game engine and with Gears it was good to see it being played in front of us rather than have a movie showing.
Alll well and good but the thing that intrigued me the most is that they clearly know where they are strongest. Just like NCL in that respect, they made sure there was good focus there. The Live Anywhere announcement was slightly dry but it shows a great idea. Take one of the most attractive parts of your strategy and spread it. So we are told to expect cross-platform compatibility between games on the 360 and those on a PC (those that support it) and the ability to check out achievements, gamertags and whatnot from all sorts of devices.
It's a very shrewd tactic, a way of consolidating and strengthening just due to the ubiquity of your wares. It makes it tough for others to follow in any space. I'm still in no way convinced with Vista and I doubt I will be making a switch to the OS when released (if current imformation holds) but this is a nice way of trying to get people to accept things and make the switch over.
All in all, it was a balanced show from Microsoft, showing that they also have clear ideas and directions on where to go. It's gone a long way to get people interested in the long term of the 360, the only real niggle that remains is the seeming lack of announcements for the short term. Again, like NCL, I guess we'll need to hear the noise coming from the show floor to see how it holds.
Microsoft had the luxury of having released the console and were able to relax. All they had to do was show off what they had coming for us. They showed Gears of War which looks like being quite a spiffy title and we also saw a trailer for "the best kept secret", Halo 3. What we were being shown with Halo 3 was rendered with the in-game engine and with Gears it was good to see it being played in front of us rather than have a movie showing.
Alll well and good but the thing that intrigued me the most is that they clearly know where they are strongest. Just like NCL in that respect, they made sure there was good focus there. The Live Anywhere announcement was slightly dry but it shows a great idea. Take one of the most attractive parts of your strategy and spread it. So we are told to expect cross-platform compatibility between games on the 360 and those on a PC (those that support it) and the ability to check out achievements, gamertags and whatnot from all sorts of devices.
It's a very shrewd tactic, a way of consolidating and strengthening just due to the ubiquity of your wares. It makes it tough for others to follow in any space. I'm still in no way convinced with Vista and I doubt I will be making a switch to the OS when released (if current imformation holds) but this is a nice way of trying to get people to accept things and make the switch over.
All in all, it was a balanced show from Microsoft, showing that they also have clear ideas and directions on where to go. It's gone a long way to get people interested in the long term of the 360, the only real niggle that remains is the seeming lack of announcements for the short term. Again, like NCL, I guess we'll need to hear the noise coming from the show floor to see how it holds.
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