Yea I was expecting them to be like WTF, but they seem to be on their best behavior.

I actually enjoyed the whole MS conference. I didn't watch it live but at least a lot of info was given out. Nintendo feels like a business lecture.

Absolutely horrible conference.

I don't even know where to begin. Nintendo is totally abandoning gamers that want more substantial or content rich games released for the platform.

Yup it felt like a confrence for their share holders more than it did the gaming press.

Why is Nintendo so proud about getting grandparents and women to play their games? A good chunk of their conference was focused on just that.

a good chunk? try 95%...

Yeah im in agreement here, they didnt show anything that i would want but im not surprised, i havent liked the wii games before hand, i only bought my wii specifically for SSBB anyway so im not necessarily disappointed cuz i knew going in they likely wouldnt have anything i desire.

All they showed was how to bend you over and take you for a ride.
Oh shit did I just say that out aloud. haha

They could have at least shown a pre rendered video of the next Zelda anything to get their hardcore fans excited, but nothing... I feel quite sorry for hardcore nintendo fans.

Thats assuming they exsist still.Are you serious, the MS conference was one of the best ever, they had some really amazing stuff, and FF13 just topped it off.

Oh they exist alright. They exist below the surface world and you might now be in danger. I can't say anymore, they might be on to me.

Simon, are you mad? Microsoft's E3 press conference has already won E3, unless Sony has some stunning things to show. I highly doubt there is anyway that conference can be outdone. What megaton this E3 will beat out FF13 being announced for the 360? Oh and lets not forget that Bungie still has something to announce ;)

Microsoft showed games, but then they also showed how serious they were about expanding the 360's core functionality. They were firing on all cylinders yesterday.

Thats not it though Simon, they spent way too much time on the graphs and charts, we have sold this this and this, which could have been put to much better use.

The gaming media don't want to hear it (they already know it), we don't want to hear it (we don't care), and casual gamers don't want to hear it either.

It seemed to me that they were trying to reassure developers that their console has a market (which im sure those developers already know, they aren't stupid), but the fact is that the majority of developers don't want to make those type of games otherwise they would have jumped on board a long time ago.

Nope, there's no way you can put Microsoft's conference in the same league with what Nintendo just did. I don't think so.

Microsoft actually had a Gaming Press Conference with several exclusives and TONS of new Live content. FF13 was huge and unexpected but the MS press conference over-all was very entertaining.

Yea your probably right, it just never seemed so boring when Sony and MS did it :S

100% correct, i'm afraid that NT conf was a complete waste of time and energy.

MS doesn't own Bungie anymore though. I wouldn't be surprised to see it's title go PS3 too, no?

Deep publishing contract with Microsoft. Not to mention Bungie knows it's fanatical base is already installed with Xbox 360.

Bungie isn't going multiplatform, at least not for their next release.

Yea in the grand scheme of things for someone like myself the ff13 announcement changes nothing for me since i own all 3 of the consoles, but that is huge and definitely game changing for Microsoft. What announcement can Sony make this E3 that will be unexpected or game changing? The fact that Sony no longer has FF13 to themselves is incredible.

The netflex partnership is a pretty big deal. The new dashboard re-design, optional full game installs on your hard drive (old and new games) The avatar stuff isn't really much of anything. I will definitely be creating an avatar though, but I don't see it as much of a big deal. Well you can use it as a means to jump into other games as a group I think?

To be able to say you have Tales of Vesperia, Infinite Undiscovery, to a far lesser extent, Last Remnant, Star Ocean 4 as soon as Spring 2009 and Final Fantasy XIII on your console day and date with the PS3 release in the USA and Europe, in addition to more possible Sakaguchi game announcements at TGS is a truly incredible thing. Cry On is expected to be shown at TGS as well.


There is also Fable 2, Gears 2, Resident Evil 5, Banjo, Bungie's new announcement incoming and a host of other things. Microsoft has the games lineup and are doing as much as possible to please all kinds of gamers by bringing as many big franchises to the platform as possible, they gave the dashboard an overhaul and are increasing functionality of the system itself by allowing the install of full games and a nice touch is that they are totally optional. They now made a 120GB HDD purchase look like a good move.

The significance of the FFXIII announcement is that, with that, Microsoft is now officially on equal footing with Square Enix support as Sony is. FF13 is going to sell millions on the 360 as it will on the ps3. This will create a situation where future big square franchises will be guaranteed a place on the xbox platform, be that the 360 or a future microsoft console. FF13 coming to the Xbox 360 has far bigger implications for the xbox brand and the game industry as a whole. The degree of significance that announcement holds, will not be outdone by anything this E3. Final Fantasy 14 is now actually a guarantee for the next Microsoft console. Think about that. Other japanese developers will look at that and take a note of what one of the biggest publishers in japan with one of the biggest IPs is doing and throw more support behind the 360. MGS4 is pretty much a sure thing after FF13, even though i already have it for my ps3.

Microsoft's announcement was really game changing. It doesn't take the game away from Sony, but it does ensure a lot of other good things will be coming Microsoft's way.

Tinks, Microsoft has Halo locked up it seems. So a Halo on a Sony console likely isn't happening anytime soon and yes they could definitely potentially work with the ps3, but that wouldn't be enough to outdo the FF13 announcement UNLESS Sony was getting a big halo game. That would be quite a steal. Microsoft and Bungie's relationship is just so strong though that I don't see Bungie going anywhere for quite some time.

They seem to be really comfortable with Microsoft, they just wanted more freedom to do their own thing while continuing their partnership with MS.

Very well said.

Optimus, I'm sure Simon was talking about Microsoft's conference, not the state of Xbox 360 as a platform. Microsoft conference wasn't good by any means, it had a lot of embarassing moments when they were showcasing casual games and it did not have many exciting announcements.

As a platform 360 is doing as great as ever, sure, but I think it won't be hard for Sony to have the best conference of them all. Still, I don't expect too many announcements from them, I think they'll focus on their 08 stuff as well.

Wow seems im the only person who thought the MS confrence was good, yea they had nothing much new games wise to show but what they did show was pretty amazing.

The RE5 and Gears 2 stuff was just awesome, and I don't even like those games much.

I didn't expect to see anything new from MS in all honesty, Sony on the other hand.. well they have to show us alot of new stuff.