E3 has officially kicked off with the Microsoft press conference to talk about the Xbox One today.
In their previous unveiling this past May, it was all about the system. You can see the highlights in this handy infographic. So today’s show focused on what gamers wanted – games.
The conference showed off stunning titles such as the next installment of Halo, Forza Motorsport, Dead Rising 3, and new titles Ryse: Son of Rome, Titanfall and many more. The team behind Xbox One is definitely sending a message to hardcore gamers to say, “we haven’t forgot about you” regardless of content deals with Netflix, HBO, ESPN or Syfy. To add icing to that cake is the announced deal with Twitch.tv where you can stream your gameplay session to your friends. I have a friend who’s going to love this the next time I smash him in the next iteration of NBA 2K.
The Xbox 360 was a good system. It succeeded in several areas maintaining a strong initial balance between gaming and entertainment. However, over the last few years, it was obvious that gaming was taking a backseat to content distribution. Most of the people on my friends list weren’t playing games but instead playing music or videos.
While nothing was said about the entertainment aspect of the Xbox One (after all, Microsoft’ll need something to talk about next year) it’s not something that is going to go away. But the strategy to focus on the gaming aspect of a game console is a good way to reignite the passion in their core audience and easily put them on the hook for the $500 price tag when the system becomes available this November.
The console wars continue to heat up and now eyes will point to Sony (starting at 6PM PT tonight) to see what tricks they have up their sleeve. What system exclusives will they announce? Will their system cost less? Will it be out at the same time as the Xbox One?
I’m very interested to see how they execute what they’ve learned in the last 10 years, but right now, your guess is as good as mine.
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