Microsoft E3 2005 Press Conference Report
Posted by Tracy Erickson on May 16th Email this Article
Author: Tracy Erickson
Being the Managing editor is all about writing, you know, randomly mashing keys to make words.
For the last week, anticipated has been building for the opportunity to go hands-on with Microsoft’s recently announced next-generation console platform, Xbox 360. Even if the announcement made on MTV was a bit underwhelming, the philosophy behind the Xbox 360 and the impressive footage of games currently under development for the console are encouraging. Pushing the next-generation a bit early, Microsoft looks to have good reason with a solid slate of titles and hardware for E3 2005.
Beginning the immensely energetic press conference, Robbie Bach, J Allard, and Peter Moore jointly took the stage to explain the current state of the Xbox platform and the philosophy behind moving to the next generation. Amazingly, Microsoft will eclipse two million Xbox Live subscribers by the end of June, making the Xbox the online console platform. The company naturally wants to expand upon base with the Xbox 360; heretofore, the system will feature a number of enhancements to Xbox Live, as well as a slate of online games. Of course, before moving on to the Xbox 360, footage of games currently set for release on Xbox was shown. Of particular note was a short trailer for Half-Life 2, which confirms its presence on Microsoft’s first system.
Upon moving to discuss the Xbox 360, the company proudly announced that the system will be fully backward compatible with the original Xbox. Enhancements made to Xbox Live will afford two levels of service: Xbox Live Silver and Xbox Live Gold. All consumers who purchase an Xbox 360 will receive Xbox Live Silver for free, enabling you to access friends’ lists, messaging, and other basic Xbox Live communication features. Microsoft hopes that tempting players with basic service will cause them to purchase an Xbox Live Gold account that provides online gameplay, voice messaging, and other goodies.
Continuing the company’s push into high definition as outlined at Game Developers Conference in March, each game appearing on Xbox 360 must have certain essentials including a minimum 720i resolution, 16
aspect ratio, full screen anti-aliasing, and 5.1 channel surround sound. Those without a high definition display can still play on the Xbox 360, but those who own HD sets will now be certain to have every Xbox 360 compatible with HD.
The system will amazingly launch during the 2005 holiday season in all regions in the first simultaneous multi-region console launch ever attempted. Naturally, Microsoft hopes to push the Xbox 360 by promoting its launch library which includes a number of original titles and established series. Twenty-five to forty titles are estimate for the launch window of the Xbox 360, with the conservative estimate being closer to twenty-five. Following in tradition, Dead or Alive 4 was announced as a launch title for the system, shown in real-time form. Sadly, the game appeared a bit choppy and clearly...
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