At Microsoft’s pre-E3 event, the major emphasis was on how mature the platform has come along since its inception nearly three years ago. A lot of numbers were thrown around: subscribers to the Xbox Live service, installed consoles and attach rates. But perhaps the main emphasis is on what Microsoft does best: software. Microsoft then proceeded to show some interesting software for collaboration and also elaborated a bit more on its XNA platform.
To create software, Microsoft emphasized how they were different from the other competitors (namely Sony) by listening to what gamers wanted. They even carried out a spoof on the recent hit NBC show, The Apprentice, to mainly slander their main competitor and get a few laughs out of the audience. Yes, it does seem like Trump was actively participating in it, even awarding the winning company the opportunity to produce an online game in his likeness. If even that sells, who knows what won’t.
When the initial Xbox platform came out, it seemed like the ultimate broadband delivery vehicle. The Live service, however, had not been up at the initial launch period and it took several iterations to finally get some of the neat collaborative features in. Voicemail is definitely one of them. But Microsoft wants to take that a step further by introducing a webcam that is capable of chatting not only with one of your Xbox Live friends but multiples of them with an option in the future to implement such a feature in-game. The service is slated to for testing in Japan before it hits the global market.
The other major announcement vis-à-vis Xbox Live was the introduction of an Arcade that would allow Live subscribers to purchase additional content. Microsoft has a horde of casual gamers on MSN where the market is dominated by female audiences who have developed an appetite for parlor, puzzle and retro style games. Some of the games will be familiar to handheld and cellular gamers, including classics like Dig Dug and standbys like Bejeweled. Some of the titles looked fairly complex utilizing the 3D hardware on the Xbox while others looked like tiny downloads that would certainly not be a burden on an Xbox hard drive.
Microsoft also proceeded to outline several titles that are coming. The usual suspects included a multiplayer demonstration of Halo 2 (which looked a lot like Halo only more advanced and interactive, and was announced to arrive on store shelves November 9th), some reels of Doom 3, Dead or Alive Ultimate, Jade Empire and others. But it was something mentioned in passing that hints at Microsoft’s overall strategy. XNA will be used in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. With this platform, PC gamers on Windows will be able to interchange peripherals with the Xbox (i.e. controllers), and Microsoft also hinted at Live-style play, complete with the voice chatting that made Live famous, coming to PC. Certainly for Microsoft, the line is blurring for their entertainment products.
Finally, the show featured Microsoft’s newest Live partner, Electronic Arts. The EA Sports franchises, unveiled with a variety of athletes (including Marshall Faulk and the ubiquitous boxer Ali) will be brought to the Xbox with Live play from the get go this year. Also promised is a whole slew of new Electronic Arts titles, including one of the publisher’s crème de la crème multiplayer franchises, Battlefield: Modern Combat.
All in all, it appears to be a strong line up for Microsoft for 2004. There were plenty of expectations on Microsoft’s next hardware platform but all that was confirmed that next generation software was being made.
