Earlier today the announcement was made that Microsoft would be opening the E3 event with a 90 minute press conference regarding the future of the Xbox 360. The Microsoft portion of E3 has started and after a couple weeks of speculation, fans, critics and industry folks finally get to see what the company has in mind for the future of gaming. We all know that Microsoft Kinect really stole the show over the past two years as the company really made strides to improve controller-less gaming and let’s be honest, sort of stole the show from the Nintendo Wii. Many gamers are likely to wonder whether Microsoft will release a new Xbox console or some other product that will make any gaming experience just that much better.
Apparently Xbox is not already in every corner of your gaming experience as the president of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment group said “This holiday we’re going to take Xbox entertainment beyond the console to your phone, PCs and tablets”. I will speak for myself when I say “Good”. The experience that I have with Microsoft Xbox, whether it is gaming or other entertainment, is the best I have come across so far. It appears that Halo 4 is taking center stage as well, which is a good thing since the game is one of the best selling franchises for the company and gamers love to play it. This game is more than likely to be a super hot seller for the upcoming holiday shopping season.
The Kinect playing system has revolutionized the gaming experience for the Xbox and I see that EA Sports is pulling out all of the stops as it adds more voice commands for games like FIFA 13 and Madden 13 games, which are set to arrive this fall. Even though players will be able to use their voice to command the games in one way or another, the game will also be listening to how the gamers react to calls by the refs. EA Sports boss Andrew Wilson said, “If you make a poor choice of word, you’ll be sure to hear about it”.
Voice commands for video games? I wish I would have had that option while I was playing Spyhunter or Final Fantasy back in the day. At the same time it would have been a very bad experience to have my words heard while playing Tecmo Super Bowl as I watch Bo Jackson run on my defense for a 90 yard touchdown!
Either way, it really looks like Microsoft is set to impress with the E3 event this year and by the end gamers all over the world will have something to look forward to.
