July 11, 2007 -
Even Peter Moore seemed subdued.When, near the end of Microsoft's E3 press briefing the normally irrepressible pitchman uveiled a special-edition olive green Halo 3 Xbox 360, the crowd hardly reacted. Perhaps sensing this, Moore quickly stashed the console - for which no price was mentioned - and moved on to some Halo 3 video clips.
From where GP sat, it was like that all night long - a press conference overly long on details, short on new information and lacking the hoped-for price cuts on 360 hardware.
The night started strong in the outdoor ampitheatre at Santa Monica High, as a five-piece band described as Halo fans played some stirring music from the game series. The woman soloing on the violin was especially good.
But it was all downhill from there - nothing unexpected, nothing exciting. Perhaps it was the smaller, more professional media crowd which lacked the usual enthusiasm of past E3 events packed with fanboys. Maybe it was residual gloom over the 360's ongoing hardware troubles, which have the potential to move from problem to scandal status in the near future.
In any case, not a good showing by Microsoft.
Comments
Re: Low Energy Level at Microsoft E3 Press Briefing
I think they are also way over extended instead on focusing on one product and making it into perfection they keep expanding example Zune I cna not beleive they are still shipping new Xbox 360 that have RROD issues.
Nintendo on the other hand, chose to stay their course and try to handle things in their own manner.
In contrast, Sony put on a more... humbled event, choosing to display Home in addition to trailers without any truthfully active gameplay demonstrations - unless one chooses to count the PSP to TV demonstration. The Chewbacca moment did pull out a tad-bit of a chuckle on my point, atleast. As for the showing in total, They had a decent one. Then again, certain information which has come to light about a certain announcement leaves me in doubt...
The gentleman who presented and played Madden was annoying. I felt like I was listening to a canned infomercial voiceover. It made me feel unclean.
He should have said something like giant enemy crab.
Not to mention the fact that MS has never been about the big e3 reveal, at least not in my memory. They always seemed to be more about hyping up what they already have.
This gets my vote. It's hard to drum up any excitement when your hardware keeps crapping out, and just in time for the game that will make/break your console line.
http://www.gametrailers.com/game/2036.html
All in all, i think that they were focusing on the good points of the Xbox 360, and not trying to build hype stuff on the horizon, at least not yet. After all E3 isn't over yet, and there is still X07 to look forward to...
hope it picks up from there.
Although i really was amazed when they said Resident Evil 5 for the 360? I really wasnt expecting that, was that even anounced before that event, was i living under a rock?
Anyways i wonder if it will launch for the Wii also
Moving back on topic, yes almost all of the people there were just sitting there, no exitement from anyone, although there was almost nothing to be exited at. E3 defenitly need some hardcore gamers and geeks to give it the greatness that it was before.