Smaller, thinner game console includes built-in Wi-Fi"
"Microsoft unveiled a redesigned Xbox 360 Monday and offered additional details about its forthcoming motion control device Kinect. The slimmer Xbox will be available at stores later this week for $299. Kinect will arrive Nov. 4."
"A smaller, lighter and thinner Xbox was unveiled Monday by Microsoft. The game console has a 250-gigabyte hard drive as well as built in Wi-Fi, and will sell for the same price as the current Xbox 360 Elite model — $299. The new model should be in stores by the end of this week. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
The announcement came as part of Microsoft’s press conference this morning in advance of the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. E3 is the gaming industry’s biggest and flashiest trade show and gets started officially Tuesday with press conferences from Nintendo and Sony, who are also expected to have some surprises in store for gamers.
The Xbox 360 redesign comes on the heels of a Sunday night event showcasing Microsoft’s forthcoming motion-control device. Previously called Project Natal, Microsoft said the motion-control system is officially called Kinect and will launch Nov. 4 with 15 games, executives announced today.
Kinect lets people interact with not only their Xbox and their Xbox games, but also with movies, music and live video chat by using only body movements and voice commands. Microsoft did not announce how much the peripheral will cost.
“We believe interactive entertainment is the greatest form of all entertainment, and it should be open and approachable to as many people as possible,” said Don Mattrick, senior vice president for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “It is this belief that led us to remove the last barrier between you and the entertainment you love. By making you the controller, we will transform how you and your friends experience games and entertainment.”
At its press conference Monday morning, games executives from Microsoft and third-party publishers revealed a variety of largely casual games that will be played with the use of Kinect — from a pet simulation game called "Kinectimals" to an Ubisoft-published fitness game called "Your Shape Fitness Evolved" and a Harmonix-published dance game called "Dance Central."
“The Microsoft Kinect, will mark a significant change in how consumers use their Xbox 360, not just for traditional gaming, but how consumers interact with all forms of entertainment,” says Jesse Divnich, a video game analyst with EEDAR. “Kinect is Microsoft’s answer to creating a true multi-media experience the whole family can enjoy.”
Not Kinecting with the core
But Microsoft also sought to remind hardcore gamers — gamers who have expressed reservations if not downright derision for motion controls — that they were still a top priority.
Microsoft started the event showing off game footage from blockbuster shooter franchises including "Halo: Reach," "Gears of War 3" and "Call of Duty: Black Ops" to big cheers from the audience.
However, none of those games appeared to make any use of Kinect. Games expert Scott Steinberg, Game Exec Magazine and Game Industry TV, says that while Microsoft may have reached out to core gamers by showing off their big gun titles, they made “a vital strategic mistake” by not showing off any big core games that make use of Kinect.
“It’s hard to get excited when they haven’t even begun to make a case for hardcore or triple A games.,” he said after the press conference. “Essentially what we’ve seen is mini game collections and simple applications. They didn’t even show something as simple as holding a gun in a first-person shooter which is one if not the most popular genres out there.”
And while Microsoft did show off a “Star Wars” light saber battle game, Steinberg felt it probably didn’t do much to impress avid players, who would be likely to notice that the game appeared to plays on rails.
When it comes to Kinect’s future success, he says, “I think there’s a key component missing here in that there is no single killer app that stands out on the gaming side — that must-have title that absolutely demands that the hardware get into millions of home.”
At the same time, he acknowledge that the technology is new and that it will take developers and publishers time to figure out how to but it to use in truly impressive arrays.
“Right now you’re seeing early and primitive uses of the technology,” he says.
Motion competition
Certainly, when it comes to motion, Microsoft is going to face some serious competition not only during this week’s E3, but in the months to come as Sony reveals more about its own motion control device known as PlayStation Move and Nintendo continues to unveil motion control games for Wii and, more importantly, games that make use of Nintendo’s more-precise control device known as MotionPlus.
But all of this news and these new gaming peripherals couldn’t make Frank Gibeau, president of the EA Games label, happier.
“For us, whenever there is a hardware war we win because we make the bullets,” he says. “We’re a platform agnostic company and the more devices out there, the better it is for us.”
At a press conference on Monday afternoon, EA executives showed off a number of games they are developing for the various game consoles. They showed of “Crysis 2,” and “Bulletstorm” – which will appear on PS3, Xbox 360 and the PC.
EA also revealed its latest fitness game – one that they’ve adapted for the motion controls on all three game consoles. It’s called “EA Sports Active 2”and it puts the Kinect, Move and Wii motion controls to work in different ways on each platform, helping players work out and get in shape while playing games.
When asked which motion control game device he thinks will come out on top, Gibeau said it was much too early to tell.
More importantly, he pointed out, “They’re so differentiated as platforms that really it’s a win for consumers because they have so much choice out there.” "
