ValeYard

Hey duders, so if any of you are there on Thursday, we could meet up during the show or after closing. I know this awesome USSR bar near the Messe called HoleLux.

There are also some great bars/ restaurants and stuff in the town for a meetup after closing of the show at 8 PM...

Hey duders,

I generally go every year, so I'll probably be there too, most likely Thursday to avoid the crazy crowds of Friday and Saturday.

Yep, totally agree with the premise of this thread. Man caves don't need this 'one' entertainment device concept. I go into my cave of evil to game and watch movies, TV used to be a living room thing with the wife until we cut the cable. Now she watches Youtube on her laptop in the living room!

Yep, I've felt a turn of the tide recently against Microsoft. For instance, the recent Joystiq PAX podcast with indie developers made it sound like Microsoft is just happy to earn money through services like Netflix in the next gen and hasn't even got round to informing indie devs on how they could develop for the platform.

Even worse for me, is the trend of this generation when you look back at it: They managed to annoy Bungie on the ODST announcement, Bungie left; they've basically killed Rare; Mass Effect went multiplatform, they should've held onto that sucka tight...

I've always felt worried about a company that would prefer to show their execs embarrassing themselves playing "You're in the Movies" rather than show a game from Bungie. Also, the way they stamped out the UK's pendant to Major Nelson, gave me the feeling they don't care for the gaming community enough. I'm surprised Major Nelson is still there.

Anyway, they could totally blow us all away at there press conference, we just don't know yet. However, I've always felt that Microsoft's structure aka 'The Tribe' is its own worst enemy. They just end up drinking their own cool aid and lose sight of which of their products have potential and which don't. I just hope the great people still in the Xbox department were able to fulfill their vision on the coming console and didn't have to brand everything with Windows.

Oh, and the logo kinda sucks, I mean is it a Y humping an X like chromosomes, but I do like the simple name Xbox if it should turn out to be legit!

Sooo, I'm thinking a new Strider is on the horizon: http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/19/rumor-new-strider-coming-to-xbla-pc-double-helix-involved/

I know Jeff had good reasons for hating the Genesis game, and it was too expensive for its brevity and slowed down like crazy, but I still really loved the game and have a fondness for the Strider franchise. I'd be super hyped about an XBLA version.

@mdnthrvst: I have to agree that Polygon can be a bit uptight or even preachy over twitter. In fact, the whole review correction thing seems quite ironic really, since the day before the review went up Arthur Gies was saying over twitter that always online isn't a big deal and gamers who complained about it were 'entitled'. I joined in on the debate with him, basically replying with another guy who was much more vocal and ballsy than me that always online sucks for gamers.

That said, I do appreciate them sending a message that online infrastructure needs to be there if they force us to be online, although metacritic takes the first review score anyway, which is the score that matters for the publisher.

I felt the event overall was positive and am really looking forward to how Microsoft positions itself now. The backwards compatibility just wouldn't be feasible with a chip architecture change, so really the loss of BC (digital or disc) is part of Ken Kutaragi's heritage.

The cloud stuff and the actual specs for the box seem to be 'up in the air' right now, probably until it's clear how much production of each unit will cost and/or Microsoft shows its cards. I just hope they have given themselves enough time to design the housing well enough so we don't have a repeat of overheating problems.

If it's pronounced German, it's more like 'cock', in fact [kɔx] in IPA. So the consonant at the end is like 'ch' on loch of Loch Ness. Koch in German means 'cook' (Sg. der Koch, Pl. die Köcher), but is also a widespread second name like many occupations such as Miller (Müller). Check out the second pronunciation on this link's audio if you want to hear it: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/koch

However, some German names are pronounced differently in the US, and some German expats prefer their name to be spoken in an anglicized manner (the soccer player Jürgen Klinnsmann for example). I'd still put my money on the German pronunciation though.

Who knows what will happen to a company that is so big as Microsoft. Rather than predicting doom and gloom for the company as a whole, I reckon Steve Ballmer's days are numbered though.

What does worry me is the way the Xbox department appears to be losing its independence. I mean, the dashboard is full of ads, it looks like Windows 8, Smart Glass has no utility so far... The Xbox department was like a shiny island of creativity at Microsoft and I feel that has changed towards the end of the 360's life.