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Welcome to the E3 2011 Microsoft Press Conference Discussion

Hello my fellow Giant Bomb-ers! Unless you have been kidnapped by pirates with no TV, phone or Internet access, you know that E3 2011 is upon us. Going with tradition, each of the major three platform companies along with a few of the biggest publishers will be giving press conferences to discuss the past, present and future of their company and the video game industry as a whole. To make the Giant Bomb community more orderly and easier to navigate, we have created an official "sticky" thread for each of the press conferences. This thread is dedicated to the discussion of everyone's general feelings/opinions/thoughts of the Microsoft press conference.

Keep Discussion On-Topic!

This thread is solely for the general discussion of the Microsoft press conference. What does this mean? Well...

• Only discussion of the Microsoft press conference is allowed. Please keep discussion of the other press conferences in their respective stickied threads.
• No off-topic discussion at any time. Want to talk about the NBA or Stanley Cup Finals? Do so in other threads.

Any posts/discussions found in this thread that do not directly relate to the generality of the Microsoft press conference will result in the guilty user(s) being sent a PM by one of the moderators.

Specific Announcements

Naturally with any E3, there will be a lot of specific announcements that you would like to discuss with your fellow users in the Giant Bomb community. We certainly welcome this enthusiasm and drive. However, we want this thread to only be about the overall general discussion of the Microsoft press conference. We ask you to direct all threads/posts/discussions of specific announcements in the forums where they belong. You can learn best how to do this in our E3 2011 and You! thread tutorial.

Game Forums

As with specific announcement, we would like for you to not get caught up in deep discussions of individual games in this thread. Instead, we direct you to take those discussions into their respective forums(again, you can learn more about this in the aforementioned E3 2011 and You! thread). Don't forget, please don't overload the Micrososft forum with discussions of individual games. Breaking either of these rules will also result in the guilty user(s) being sent a PM by one of the moderators.

Some Micrososft press conference related forums you might want to use:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
• Dance Central 2
• *Fable: The Journey
• FIFA 12
• Forza Motorsport 4
• Gears of War 3
• *Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition
• *Halo 4
• *Kinect Disneyland Adventure
• *Kinect Fun Labs
• Kinect Sports Season 2
• Madden NFL 12
• Mass Effect 3
• *Minecraft (w/ Kinect)
• Ryse
• Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster
• Star Wars Kinect
• Summer of Arcade 2011: Bastion, From Dust, *Fruit Ninja Kinect, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
• Tomb Raider

*Newly announced

General Rules & Guidelines

Even during the week of full throttle shenanigans knows as E3, the normal rules and guidelines of the Giant Bomb community still apply. You can update yourself on the forum and wiki rules by visiting the Giant Bomb FAQ thread. In there, you can learn about all of the rules and proper instructions for the forums and Wiki. The sequence of punishments for breaking this rules still apply as well.

Live Streams

The Microsoft press conference will be shown on TV on the Spike TV channel. If you do not have Spike TV or wish to watch on you computer, you may catch the press conference on one of the follow live streams:

• xbox.com
• G4TV Online
• GameSpot
• GameTrailers

This thread is now open!

Please be better than last year. Fingers Crossed.

Hoping the live stream quality will be good.

Looking forward to it 

Thanks for ruining my Microsoft press conference. I don't care what gets shown or announced, if J Allard doesn't take the stage riding a horse I'm going to be severely disappointed.

@Gearhead said:

Please be better than last year. Fingers Crossed.

Sadly, it probably won't be.

 I'm thinking just lots of Kinect and Gears/Halo/Forza? Although I am interested by what Pachter said on the Podcast. Anyone really expecting some amazing surprises?

@leebmx said:

I'm thinking just lots of Kinect and Gears/Halo/Forza? Although I am interested by what Pachter said on the Podcast. Anyone really expecting some amazing surprises?

a part of me wants to be excited for the new fable......

@leebmx said:

I'm thinking just lots of Kinect and Gears/Halo/Forza? Although I am interested by what Pachter said on the Podcast. Anyone really expecting some amazing surprises?

a part of me wants to be excited for the new fable......

I think Fable has a great opportunity to redeem itself but chances are it will just be a kinect game with milo tech.

FORZA 4 FORZA 4 FORZA 4 FORZA 4 FORZA 4

I might be a little curious to know what they have to offer there. Just a little bit. Beyond that, I'm not expecting any tremendous surprises that'll floor the community with awesomeness.

Edit: vvvvv Nope, but someone's fired.

@Gearhead said:

Please be better than last year. Fingers Crossed.

It probably will be. Last year they pretty much just solely focused on Kinect. Now they can focus on other stuff as well.

It'll definitely be better than last years. They don't need to focus on showing what Kinect is capable of and now that it's been such a huge success, developers will be scurrying to actually develop some titles for it. Even if it's still annoying Kinect fluff, they should at least be showing a decent amount of interesting games..

@Ezekeilpurger said:

But not surprising...

Ryse? More interesting than H4LO.

@WinterSnowblind: There was a video with Major Nelson talking about Kinect Fun Labs. From the video that was shortly on the site. There was a thing that let you make your own avatar using the kinect camera, and that looked pretty bad. Also something that looked like Beat Sketcher, using the Kinect... It looks like a big part of the show.

Hopefully there's things other than Kinect and Heylol 4 because I could care less about those. Not much less, but less.

When does the juice start? In 50 minutes?

@Ezekeilpurger: At the very least.. we have two Halo games, Gears, Forza 4 and Kingdoms.

I do expect the rest to be taken up with Kinect, and yes, there will be a large amount of focus on casual/family games. Hopefully they show something decently interesting that can be done with more traditional games too though, like how they've integrated useful Kinect features into Forza. They have to know that gamers aren't going to be interested in all the nonsense but at the same time, they're trying to show that Kinect is a viable platform. It'll be interesting to see how they juggle this, especially after last years reception. Maybe I'm just being niave, but I don't think MS are stupid enough to repeat the same mistake, especially after watching Nintendo fall into it year after year, when MS had the best shows.

I really want to see Rare bring back some of their old classics now that the Xbox has found a more family friendly audience.. Conker, Banjo Kazooie, Jet Force Gemini and Viva Pinata please!

Confirmed that Mass Effect 3 will be making an appearance.

Kinect features? Exclusive content?

I'm going to guess just Gears 3 and then the rest is all kinect stuff...

People wondering, here is the E3 schedule -

Microsoft Press Conference | 9:30am

Electronic Arts Press Conference | 12:30pm

Ubisoft Press Conference | 2:20pm

Sony Press Conference | 5:00pm

Nintendo Press Conference | 9:00am

Mass Effect 3 | 1:00pm

Battlefield 3 | 1:30pm

Batman: Arkham City | 2:00pm

Resistance 3 | 3:00pm

Starhawk | 3:20pm

Twisted Metal | 3:40pm

Super Secret Sony Game | 4:00pm

Journey | 4:20pm

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception | 4:40pm

Gears of War 3 (Campaign) | 5:00pm

Super Secret Game #1 | 5:20pm

Super Secret Remake | 5:40pm

Super Secret Game #2 | 6:00pm

Modern Warfare 3 | 6:30pm

Wednesday, June 8th

Spider-Man: Edge of Time | 11:00am

Dead Island | 11:20am

Gears of War 3 (Horde Mode) | 11:40am

Rage | Noon

Prey 2 | 12:20pm

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | 12:40pm

Saints Row III | 1:00pm

Lord of the Rings: War in the North | 1:30pm

Ninja Gaiden III | 2:00pm

The Darkness II | 3:00pm

Street Fighter X Tekken | 3:20pm

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City | 3:40pm

Super Secret Sequel #1 | 4:00pm

Super Secret Sequel #2 | 4:20pm

Super Secret Sequel #3 | 4:40pm

WWE 12 | 5:20pm

Super Secret Sequel #4 | 5:40pm

Prototype 2 | 6:00pm

BioShock Infinite | 6:30pm

Gamespot's countdown just hit 59 mins.

I asked for the staff to open up giantbomb.com/chat during these press conference yesterday. Although there is still time left, it seems that the chat is not going to go up today. Thankfully we still have access to justintv.com/giantbomb chat, which I would recommend using over the forums during the live conferences.

I unfortunately have Spike TV.

Great banner!

I wont be able to catch much of todays press conferences. Microsoft starts at 6.30PM here, and I have tickets for Seinfeld at 8. Not that I'm complaining.

Hopefully they'll announce some more titles.

Is starting on the hour or half past?  I'm getting mixed messages.

ok i admit it, im curious about the Halo 4 trailer, whatever it is

@RagingLion: Half past, according to Xbox.com

I can understand the Halo 4 thing, probably sounds better for marketing (part of the main series) rather than a side story like Reach or ODST. I guess there's also the possibility they'll continue the story from 3 so 4 would make more sense but doubt it...I don't think 343 would touch Bungie's trilogy, story wise.

With Microsoft's recent acquisition of both Skype and the mobile communications division of Nokia, I reckon it's a pretty safe bet that there'll be a communications-related announcement.  At the very least, more on Skype integration with Kinect.

Anybody think price drop on 360 or new SKU?

$99 4GB 360 would sell like crazy!

I can understand the Halo 4 thing, probably sounds better for marketing (part of the main series) rather than a side story like Reach or ODST. I guess there's also the possibility they'll continue the story from 3 so 4 would make more sense but doubt it...I don't think 343 would touch Bungie's trilogy, story wise.

@RagingLion: Half past, according to Xbox.com

@WinterSnowblind said:

@RagingLion: Half past, according to Xbox.com

Wasn't there a half-hour "pre-show" with Geoff Keighley last time?   That may be where some of the confusion is coming from.

Live on Spike now.

and no sound on gt...

It's on Spike. Geoff is on there now. Talking about H4lo.

Halo 4 wut

3 pages and it hasn't started yet.. lame 
 
 
@CitizenKane said:

Some Micrososft press conference related forums you might want to use:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
• Forza Motorsport 4
• Gears of War 3
• Star Wars Kinect
• BioShock Infinite
• Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
• Mass Effect 3
• *Halo 4
• *Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
• *Dance Central 2
• *Kinect Sports Season 2

• 
  

@MoleyUK said:

@WinterSnowblind said:

@RagingLion: Half past, according to Xbox.com

Wasn't there a half-hour "pre-show" with Geoff Keighley last time?   That may be where some of the confusion is coming from.

geoff is tweeting about trailers for games coming up now so that might be it

@Rhaknar said:

@DystopiaX said:

I can understand the Halo 4 thing, probably sounds better for marketing (part of the main series) rather than a side story like Reach or ODST. I guess there's also the possibility they'll continue the story from 3 so 4 would make more sense but doubt it...I don't think 343 would touch Bungie's trilogy, story wise.

if its Halo 4 (well it is) that has to mean Master Chief...right? Hopefully on a completely different planet...like where he seemed to be stranded at the end of halo 3.

I doubt it though unless they do something weird (Hostile Covenant are also on THIS planet, or he gets rescued), cause then he'd be fighting other aliens and...it doesn't really feel like a Halo game anymore. I also feel like Bungie wrapped up their story and 343 isn't really going to touch it, idk. I think we'll see spartans for sure though, no more ODST crap.

Ninja Gaiden 3 trailer.