Microsoft E3 2012 press conference summary

DJSigma

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For those who didn't watch it, or who are finding all of the info hard to find in one place, here's a summary of Microsoft's E3 press conference, excluding the third party games that they demoed. Other announcements were made outside of the conference, but this is just a summary of the main conference itself. I've also added the info for Summer of Arcade on XBLA.

Exclusive games: -

Halo 4 - Developed by 343 Industries. The beginning of a new trilogy. Releasing on November 6th 2012.

Gears of War: Judgement - Developed by People Can Fly/Epic Games. A prequel to the existing Gears titles. "The hardest Gears game yet" according to Cliffy B. It will feature dynamic enemy spawns, so single player playthroughs aren't exactly the same each time. The release date is TBC.

Forza Horizon - Developed by Playground Games/Turn 10. A more open world Forza game than the previous track-based games. The primary dev team is built from developers that worked for Bizarre Creations (Project Gotham Racing, Blur) and Black Rock Studio (Split Second: Velocity, Pure). Releasing on October 23rd 2012.

Fable: The Journey - Developed by Lionhead Studios. This is a Kinect-only open world game set 5 years after Fable 3. Releasing in Q4 of 2012.

LocoCycle - Developed by Twisted Pixel. Very little was shown of this aside from an extremely brief teaser trailer, but it looks to be some kind of racing/action game. It's due for release in 2013.

Ascend: New Gods - Developed by Signal Studios. Again, very little was shown of this but some sites are describing it as kind of a mix of God of War and Demon's Souls. It's an action game where you play as a giant. Release date TBC.

Matter - This is being directed by Gore Verbinski, the director of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. It seems to be some kind of cross between Portal and Marble Madness. It's described as "Kinect-enabled", but I don't know if that means Kinect is required or not. It's due for release in 2013.

Dance Central 3 - Developed by Harmonix. A Kinect-only dancing game featuring over 40 tracks. Due for release in Q3/Q4 of 2012.

Wreckateer - Developed by Iron Galaxy Studios. It's a physics-based destruction game. Due for release as part of the Summer of Arcade XBLA promotion.

Nike+ Kinect - A Kinect-based fitness game/app. It comes with a companion app that you can use on your smartphone (Windows Phone definitely, but not sure of other platforms) that allows you to monitor and track your progress, get reminders etc. Release date is TBC.

Kinect integration in upcoming games: -

Voice control via Kinect was demoed in the following games, although obviously Kinect is not required in order to play them: -

FIFA 13
Madden NFL 13

Timed-exclusive DLC deals: -

Timed-exclusive DLC deals were announced for the following titles: -

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
Tomb Raider
Resident Evil 6
South Park: The Stick of Truth

New features/services/dashboard changes: -

The dashboard will be updated to add a Favourites tab. This will allow you to pin your favourite games and apps for quick access to them. They're also slightly changing the order of the tabs, moving Games further to the left, which should make some people happy, lol. They are also making improvements to the dashboard in order to improve performance and speed it up, and voice search is being expanded so that it'll work in the YouTube app and you can also use it to search for genres when looking for movies and TV shows.

Internet Explorer is coming to the 360. It will be integrated with the SmartGlass feature mentioned below.

SmartGlass is a feature that works with your existing smartphones and tablets. It offers a number of features. It will allow you to use a smartphone as a remote control for the 360, mimicking the dashboard. It will allow you to watch a film or listen to music on a tablet/phone, then "swipe" to pick up watching/listening it on your TV. It will also work as a second screen to add extra functionality when you're playing games or watching movies, so for instance, they demoed someone selecting plays in Madden using a tablet. They also showed it working as kind of a companion device for movies and TV shows, pulling in extra additional content based on whatever it is you're watching. You can also use SmartGlass to control the functionality of IE on the 360.

Xbox Music will offer a subscription service featuring 30 million songs that you can access across various devices. There are rumours that the service will be able to scan your existing collection, so you then "own" those songs on Xbox Music which implies that you'll be able to buy music as well as rent it. It seems like a rebranding and expansion of Zune Music, but they're definitely pushing this a lot harder to coincide with the upcoming release of Windows 8.

New apps: -

The following apps will be released over the coming months: -

Absolute Radio – U.K.
Ameba TV – Canada, U.S.
BreakMedia – Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Singapore, South Africa, U.K., U.S.
Comedy Central Stand Up – U.S.
Comoyo – Denmark, Norway, Sweden
Corus Entertainment's Franklin the Turtle – Canada
GameSpot TV – Australia, Canada, U.K., U.S.
Headweb – Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden
Indie Flix – U.S.
Machinima – All Xbox LIVE markets
Napster – Germany, U.K.
Nickelodeon – U.S.
Paramount Movies – U.S.
Picturebox – U.K.
Quickflix – Australia, New Zealand
Rakuten ShowTime – Japan
Revision3 – Canada, U.K., U.S.
Rhapsody – U.S.
RTL XL – Netherlands
Slacker Radio – Canada, U.S.
SnagFilms – U.S.
Terra (Sunday TV) – Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico
The AOL On Network – Australia, Canada, Netherlands, U.K., U.S.
The Weather Channel – U.S.
The Whistle – U.S.
TOU.TV – Canada
TV3 – Spain
Twitch TV – U.S.
Univision – U.S.
Wuaki – Spain
Youzee – Spain

There's also these new sports services: -

NBA Game Time with NBA.com League Pass Broadband (U.S.) and NBA League Pass (outside of the U.S.). Fans who subscribe to NBA.com League Pass Broadband will have access to hundreds of out of market live games (blackout restrictions apply in the U.S. and some international markets), plus highlights from around the league and up to the minute stats of your favorite players.

NHL GameCenter LIVE™ (Worldwide except Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden). Hockey fans will be able to enjoy every moment of the live action as it happens on the ice, with live games (out-of-market and blackout restrictions apply), more in-game interactivity, and replays and highlights on demand any time.

ESPN (U.S.). Later this year fans will enjoy 24/7 live programming through WatchESPN from ESPN Networks – ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN 3 and ESPN U. All the favorites, including “SportsCenter,” “SportsNation,” “The Mike and Mike Show,” as well as ESPN's coverage of the NFL, MLB and the NBA, will be live on Xbox.

Summer of Arcade: -

Summer of Arcade is the annual XBLA promotion where 5 bigger XBLA titles are released in 5 consecutive weeks. A release schedule has not been announced yet, so these games aren't necessarily listed in the order they will release. It usually starts in mid-July. This year, if you buy any 3 of these games you will get a 400 MS Points rebate.

The games: -

Deadlight (Tequila Works/Microsoft Studios)
Dust: An Elysian Tail (Humble Hearts/Microsoft Studios)
Hybrid (5th Cell/5th Cell)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD (Robomodo/Activision)
Wreckateer (Iron Galaxy/Microsoft Studios)

A promo video showing short clips of each title: -

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6za7YD2G3zU][E3 2012] Summer of Arcade - E3 Trailer - YouTube[/ame]
 
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Where is Skype and the inclusion of the Arcade games Metro box on the dashboard? I thought they were coming too.
 
MS don't seem to have done anything with Skype since they bought it. Even their name is only mentioned in one section of the T&C, otherwise you wouldn't even know it had anything to do with them. It is supposedly coming to the 360, but they're obviously in no rush to get it sorted.

What do you mean by "the inclusion of the Arcade games Metro box on the dashboard"?
 
You can watch it on the dashboard and YouTube I am disappointed really Im not looking to many of those games at all.

Everything seems to be loving social gaming its getting annoying now.
 
Regarding Summer of Arcade, Tony Hawks is going to be a must buy I think. Might be interested in Deadlight, doubtful; on the others.
 
Dust: An Elysian Tail looks great. Wreckateer is a Kinect game (and it looks crap) so I won't be buying that one. Hybrid looks good if you like online multiplayer shooters, but I'm not into 'em. I heard that the beta of that was a bit rough, but then betas often are.

 
noisecrime said:
Regarding Summer of Arcade, Tony Hawks is going to be a must buy I think.

Agree, carnt wait for this one relive the childhood haha
 
MS don't seem to have done anything with Skype since they bought it. Even their name is only mentioned in one section of the T&C, otherwise you wouldn't even know it had anything to do with them. It is supposedly coming to the 360, but they're obviously in no rush to get it sorted.

What do you mean by "the inclusion of the Arcade games Metro box on the dashboard"?

Skype was announced last year at E3, but the dashboard was meant to be updated so it included a Arcade window to make finding Indie and Arcade games easier. I just wondered if that has been updated or is planned on a forth coming update.
 
Forza horizon could be interesting but little else interests me if I'm honest.
 
The conference was terrible im only saying what others think who actually watched it
 
I sold my 360 after the MS conference.

Nothing on the horizon of any real interest and anything that is will be out on the pc which has become my platform of chioce over the last couple of years.
 
SparkShot said:
I sold my 360 after the MS conference.

Nothing on the horizon of any real interest and anything that is will be out on the pc which has become my platform of chioce over the last couple of years.

I should sell mine to be honest as it just sits in the corner of the room gathering dust.
 
CAS FAN said:
I should sell mine to be honest as it just sits in the corner of the room gathering dust.

You don't really get much for them now, you never know you may get the urge to play it
 
You don't really get much for them now, you never know you may get the urge to play it

Got ÂŁ135 (probably around ÂŁ115 after fees) for mine, which i was more than happy with consider its lack of use.

Can put that cash towards another SSD or something:D.

Kept my PS3 for the time being as its still handy as a media and bluray player plus there a couple of games i want to play on it (Uncharted 3 and Last of Us).
 
SparkShot said:
Got ÂŁ135 (probably around ÂŁ115 after fees) for mine, which i was more than happy with consider its lack of use.

Can put that cash towards another SSD or something:D.

Kept my PS3 for the time being as its still handy as a media and bluray player plus there a couple of games i want to play on it (Uncharted 3 and Last of Us).

I've got a 120gb elite with kinect and a bunch of games so may just take it to game or game station and put it towards a ps3 or a Vita for the boy.
 

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