Microsoft E3 presser is all Kinect

Microsoft had the least to lose with their E3 press conference this year, so it’s not surprising that the overall feeling by the time it wrapped up was one of evolution as opposed to revolution.  Nowhere was this felt more than the sheer number of Kinect related news. After all, how do you top the launch of the wildly successful Kinect? The hands free system has been a huge success for Redmond, and that’s probably a large part of the reason why the 360 was the only console to significantly increase its sales in the past year when compared to the PS3 and Wii, at least in North America. Building on the Kinect and further integrating it into the 360 makes sense. That same evolutionary tone can be said about the Metro UI stylings first introduced with Windows Phone 7, which will become the new console look when it gets a facelift this fall.

Microsoft is continuing its push to make the console more than just a gaming hub with the latest announcements. Recent stats suggest that the average Xbox Live user spends 60 hours a month on the system, and a full 40% in non-gaming activities. That struck me as quite a high number, until I considered how much Netflix I’ve streamed in the past month. To that end, Microsoft announced a new push into IPTV style entertainment, with partnerships in multiple countries (alas, no Canadian providers were announced), which allow TV to stream directly to the box. This appears to be an extension of the IPTV services such as Bell Fibe and Telus Optik, that allow the console to act as a settop box for your live TV. Of course, this is largely useless when you live in a country that isn’t going to be getting the features. The one thing we have to get used to when it comes to digital media is that we’re second class citizens, given how carefully our ‘providers’ manage to lock up exclusive digital rights. Oh well.

Onto more interesting news, the 360 also expands voice commands and navigation, including integrated search that spans Bing, YouTube and other services such as Netflix and Hulu (depending on whether that service is available in your country of course). All this allows users to do voice searches directly on the console, avoiding the need for a keyboard. While not stated explicitly, I suspect you’ll need the Kinect for this, although it would be interesting to see them add standard headset support.

Kinect Fun Labs also looks to be interesting. It’s a playground of mini-games and toys that allows users to play with the features of the system, including an admittedly cool Kinect avatar generator called “Kinect Me”, which scans your face and body to make a truly unique representation, down to clothing and hair style. Right now it exists only as a sandbox, but if Microsoft could figure out a way to get these avatars into Xbox Live it has potential to be something more. Let’s hope it’s sophisticated enough to detect nudity and at least toss a fig leaf or two in the right place. The last thing anyone needs to see is avatars Rated M For Mature… or maybe it’s the first thing… Kinect Fun Labs is available now for free in the Marketplace.

Wait, this IS a gaming console right?

With the Kinect heavy focus, it’s easy to forget that the 360 still is a game console. On that front, there were few major surprises. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 got its screen time, since it’s a foregone conclusion that the franchise is a license to print money. It sure looked pretty, but I’m pretty much done with the series myself. I’ll take my combat games with a little less of that realistic ‘committing war crimes for fun’ vibe. I know, I’m a dirty hippie. Gears of War 3 and a new Lara Croft game also got a lot of screen time.

The only real surprise is that indie PC hit Minecraft will be coming exclusively to the Xbox 360 console this winter, and will have cross-functionality with the PC version of the game. Oh, and you’ll be able to use Kinect with Minecraft, though I don’t believe that it’ll be a requirement.

Peter Molyneux made another appearance this year, but Milo was absent. Instead he was announcing a new Kinect-oriented entry in the Fable franchise called The Journey. Unlike previous installments, this is an on rails first person game. What could make it compelling is the spell casting technique. Each hand has independent control for straight up attacks, but combination gestures allow you to cast different types of spells. Depending on the variety and depth of such combinations, this could either be really cool, or just a Fablized House of the Dead.

A number of traditional games will be getting Kinect features, mainly focusing on in-game voice commands and navigation. Mass Effect 3 will, for example, allow the player to simply tell NPCs to move around in formation. Also in ME3, the player will be able to speak the dialogue chunk he wants to select instead of using the controller. It sounds a little less useful (ie slower) than using the controller, but in a game that depends on emotional involvement, actually delivering the lines might actually work. Now if I can just say “Scan planet using a grid search”, instead of constantly moving that reticule around, I’ll be in Mass Effect heaven.

Halo is also making a comeback, in the form of the Anniversary edition of Halo: Combat Evolved. The title that showed that FPS games can work on a console is being remastered for the 360, with robust Xbox Live support. Many Halo fans were hoping that the game would get this treatment, and its finally happening. Also on the Halo front is Halo 4, which marks the return of Master Chief. A very brief teaser and a date of 2012 is all we’re getting on that front for now.  How they’ll shoehorn this in will be interesting, if not a bit of a stretch, but the keynote left the impression that they’re planning on doing a whole new trilogy.

It was also expected that Xbox Live would roll out cloud storage of game saves and profiles, but as the keynote wrapped up, there was nary a peep about it. Maybe it was an issue of timing, but Microsoft decided to save that particular announcement until after the live stream, and let it trickle out via an email recapping the event. Your profile and game saves will be stored in the Xbox Live cloud service an accessible on any network connected Xbox 360. Gone are the days of having to do Gamertag recoveries to move from console to console.

Noticeably absent

Nothing was said about Windows Phone 7 and further Xbox Live integration, though if I had to take a guess, that won’t happen until Mango officially sees a release this fall. It would have been nice to see them tease something though. In the same vein, nothing was announced regarding Skype integration, but given the recent acquisition, that probably won’t happen until the fall.

When all is said and done, Microsoft is sitting in a pretty good position in the console race. Unlike Nintendo’s Wii, which is showing its age, and Sony’s recent security woes, Redmond didn’t have a lot to prove. There wasn’t that one ‘mindblowing’ moment that floored everybody.  Instead, it was a very iterative affair, and just a little underwhelming.  On a purely personal level, I have to say that what I’m most looking forward to is seeing the original Halo remastered in HD.  I don’t know if that says more about the state of the press conference or my own personal tastes.