Gamers all over the world were shocked and surprised by Microsoft to no limits. The Gaming scenario was completely changed by the heavy artillery attacks by Microsoft on it’s competitors, the Sony Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. The Xbox 360, before this conference, was one of the most preferred gaming consoles in the world, since Sony’s Playstation was just too expensive and Nintendo’s Wii didn’t have comparatively good graphics or any good games for that matter. Microsoft always managed to keep it’s foot hold in the gaming industry by keeping the console up to date along with exclusive releases, which made gamers purchase the Xbox 360 machine. Now, after this conference, gamers all over the world realised, that just low cost of this system isn’t the only reason to buy this insane machine, something new and insanely advanced has been developed. Here is the follow up of the important eye-catching stuff seen in Microsoft’s Keynote Conference at the E3 Convention, held on 1st June, 2009.

*Note: Not ALL announcements are mentioned here, only important ones, which are in interest to the Geeks and Gamers alike.

The conference started with an awesome trailer of the new Beatle’s game The Beatle’s – Rockband, with a few of their everlasting hit songs being played as background scores for the trailer. The cinematic trailer blew everyone away, even non-Beetle’s fans. The game features 45 of the Beetle’s songs and 10 of which were displayed at the E3 in the never before seen trailer. The image on the right shows The Harmonix House Band, playing one of the famous Beetle’s songs. The game is due to launch on 09.09.09 and has a massive Xbox-Live content, which would be released along with it. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr take the stage as well to promote the game a bit.

The lineup of trailers and news kept on flowing as the crowd got wilder by the minute, hearing all the updates Microsoft had been working for the last fiscal year. The press knew Microsoft had something under the wraps and was going to announce about it the same day, but no one had the slightest idea what it was and how BIG was it going to be.

The Corporate Vice President for Xbox, Mr. John Schappert, takes the stage to continue hosting the show. As soon as he starts speaking, the first thing he lets everyone know that this year, they will NOT present ANY kind of boring and uninteresting Bar graphs, charts or any other graphical representation of their fiscal year and their sales or anything to do with the finance regarding the company. Instead, They will blow everyone away with the latest and unseen cinematic trailers of the the 10 hyped and quite awaited games for the year.

The trailers of the following list of games were shown:

Stage Images:

Trailers:

Those were the games expected by the end of this year and the first quater of the next. Expectations are high and people are left wanting more after watching those theatrical trailers. The games list is never ending, with Microsoft announcing around 364 games to be released this year, which means one less to a new game per day! That’s something to crow about for sure! So much for the games, let’s move on to the latest incorporation and updates regarding the gaming console, Xbox 360 itself. The Corporate VP, Schappert returns onstage to talk a bit more about the Xbox Live and it’s contents. The following new features were added:

• Last.FM Added to the Live Menu.
• Dedicated Last.fm menu box like that of Netflix, and will be free to XBL Gold members later this year.
• Netflix gets a complete overhaul, with new features such as Adding and Editing Movie Queues.
• Live Streaming 1080p Video will be available on the Xbox Live, codenamed: ZuneTV.
• Live Party is back, which allows avatars [called Reals] to watch the Movie onscreen, like a theatre.
• Customised menu for GamerTags & Facebook.
• Twitter has landed on Xbox, giving quick tweets from the dashboard and within the game.

The conference was nothing but over. Instead, it was getting intense by the minute. The reporters and the other audiences were holding on to their seats, in hopes that Microsoft will launch something revolutionary. Microsoft, as usual, lived up to their expectations. So much, that the people in the audience actually stood up to give a standing ovation to the company. What made them do this? Well, the latest bad boy from Microsoft is finally here, alias, Controller-Free Gaming.

Welcome to a new age in gaming, where nothing is artificial anymore. Microsoft has broken the barrier that we used to be limited by, the ‘controller’ to gain a complete and wild interactive feeling with the gaming console. Natal is one of a kind technology, which diminishes the standards set by Nintendo’s Wii and Sony Playstation’s Eye-Toy. This interactive development makes use of our hand to eye co-ordination and completely removes the actual need of using a controller. This came as quite a shock to everyone, when they witnessed the great amount of features they had developed in this particular area. Have a look at the E3 demonstration of their latest technology in the following video.

If you think the above video blew you away, wait till you learn what Microsoft had in store next for the viewers. They didn’t just create a controller free environment and stop there, they went on to make a complete interactive system, by involving a character that they’ve developed, which is so intense, it can actually read your mood and feelings by just looking at your face! The character, codenamed Milo uses the camera and hand and facial gestures made by the user to read and understand what the person is trying to say. This feature is so advanced, the character actually talks back to you responding to the things you say to him. He displays almost all types of emotions, including fear and happiness which is shown in the following video.
Please watch the Video in HD, it will surely blow your mind away..

Amazing? Truly is!! This thing is going to be the base of gaming everywhere from now on and not just that, Microsoft ensures that except the camera, no other extra hardware would be required for this beautiful mechanism to work. This means, all the old Xbox 360 users will STILL be able to use the controller free environment, with Milo to back you up without having to buy the console all over again. That is one thing that impressed me the most.

Well, That being said, this wraps up the E3 conference brought to us by Microsoft. 2009 seems to be an extremely promising year in technology, even though the economic crisis still prevails. Maybe Microsoft might be the ship that hauls us out of this raft of crisis and takes us back home? With over 300 games to be released this year for the Xbox 360, along with the new Natal interface coming right to us, we have more to expect from Microsoft in the coming year. Lets hope they can break more barriers then again..

For TechMirage,
Pranav Shirodkar