E3: Microsoft Conference

Microsoft had a solid showing during its E3 press conference, but suffered from a severe lack of surprises.

The star of the show was of course the Halo 3 teaser – saved for the very end of the conference but completely expected. They showed off the HD-DVD accessory some more but didn’t give a price point. They showed clips of games previously announced, announced that Grand Theft Auto would be time-exclusive (no word on how long the exclusivity will last) and brought out Bill Gates to bore everyone, There was some talk about Windows Vista (it’s supposed to be “the best gaming OS ever,” but they’ve been saying that since 1995) and then they called it a day. No surprises, but damned if the games didn’t look good.

The biggest piece of news (as in, new) from the conference was announcing the Live Anywhere service which will integrate Xbox Live with Windows Vista, Windows Mobile and of course the 360. With Live Anywhere, players will be able to challenge other gamers, check stats, message people on Live and more regardless of the Microsoft platform you are on. One example was customizing a car on a mobile phone and sending it to the 360 to play.

Everything looked droolworthy, although I’m getting a little sick of generic shooters on the console. Microsoft just might grab themselves a bigger piece of the marketshare than expected this generation, especially with the announced price of the PS3.