LiveSide - News blog : Xbox 360

Surprises abound at Microsoft’s E3 Press Briefing

Chris Poirier — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:38:00 GMT

Microsoft started E3 on a high note yesterday, showcasing a myriad of new products, ranging from expansions of popular franchise titles (including Forza Motorsport 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Crackdown 2) to the reveal of Big Park’s latest title, a free-to-download avatar enabled cart racer by the name of Joyride.

Many of the games featured included gameplay demonstrations and release dates, which are as follows:

September 2009
The Beatles: Rockband (9/9/09)
Halo 3: ODST (9/22/09)

October 2009
Forza Motorsport 3

Fall 2009
Splinter Cell: Conviction
Tony Hawk: Ride

November 2009
Modern Warfare 2

Winter 2009
JoyRide

Spring 2010
Alan Wake
Final Fantasy XIII

TBD
Crackdown 2
Halo: Reach
Left4Dead 2 (360 exclusive!)
Metal Gear Solid: Rising

In addition to announcing these titles, Microsoft had a few surprises to show off; particularly planned enhancements to the Xbox 360 dashboard, coming with the console’s fall update, a reveal trailer for Halo: Reach, and an announcement regarding Metal Gear Solid: Rising, a new MGS game starring Raiden.

Regarding the fall dashboard update, several enhancements were revealed – among them partnerships with Last.FM, Twitter, and Facebook, all subsequently resulting in sections for each in the interface, the re-branding of Video Marketplace to Zune Video, 1080p instant streaming, and for those of you in Europe and the United Kingdom, the first in kind, no additional hardware required ability to watch live tv via SkyTV.

While the games and NXE enhancements themselves already made for a strong showing this year, Microsoft had one final product to reveal; Project Natal, a full body motion sensing camera, both voice and facial recognition. If Natal were to be fully implemented, it could well change the dynamic of in-game interaction.

Several tech demos were shown of Natal’s motion sensing and facial recognition abilities, such as an Arkanoid-style brick breaking game, and a paint gallery, both utilizing the unit’s motion sensing technology.

The most impressive demonstration of Natal’s capabilities, however, came in the form of a video shown by Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux, featuring a CGI boy named Milo. In the video, the player was enable to interact with Milo, by speaking to the simulation, and by motion. Using Natal’s voice recognition technology, Milo was able to respond not only to questions asked, but also to react accordingly based on tone and infliction of the player’s voice.

You can view a video of Milo in action here:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

All told, Microsoft’s E3 Press Briefing showcased some fantastic new products, and set a high standard for Sony and Nintendo to follow up with in their respective press events.

Messenger 9, GTalk integration, Messenger API, new client for Mac OS X - news unveiled at Georgia Tech presentation (whew)

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 01:00:00 GMT

In a presentation to the Georgia Institute of Technology's IEEE Student Branch yesterday, Microsoft employee and Georgia Tech (edit: ~~graduate~~ former student - Jenks went to work for MS before graduating) Andrew Jenks had some surprises in store. "It wasn't originally planned to be announced yesterday, but when he found out he was coming down (since this is his alma mater) he wanted to announce it", so instead of his planned talk on "Life and development at Microsoft", he spent the hour announcing a new Messenger API - "the Tech Preview will be released during MIX 08 and the Beta 1 will be released when WLMessenger 9 ships in late 08 or early 09", according to Steven Hollingsworth (known online at Neowin and elsewhere as AmpCoder), a Georgia Tech student and IEEE Student Chapter member who attended the presentation.

According to his "Ampcoder" post at Neowin, Hollingsworth said "The API is very basic right now but by the time the first beta is released, the team hopes that they can include full support for everything that the full messenger client uses, including audio/visual protocols and other things on top of the basic text messaging and nudge messaging that the API currently includes". Hollingsworth was upset that he didn't bring a camera, but did take notes on the presentation:

Internal builds are already at WLM 9 and includes many of the API components. They have a team working on multi-person audio/video chat for WLM that may or may not be in 9, but should be in by 10. They are also trying to work out a way for WLM users to chat with AIM/GTalk/ICQ users like the way Yahoo! works now, and they have an internal version that works with GTalk already (but very basic). MS will no longer update the MSN Messenger for Mac, but they are going to release a brand new client for Mac OS X that is according to him "Really, really cool and awesome" but he would not provide anymore details due to his NDA.

Those plans may change, Hollingsworth quoted Jenks as saying, but "this is the current schedule". Apparently Jenks provided quite a detailed demo, described by Hollingsworth:

One feature of the API he demonstrated was he created a Vista Sidebar gadget that showed a single contact and their status. Double clicking on it opened up a chat, dragging text, images, or files to the gadget automatically started a file transfer or sent the text. Another use was for servers "talking" to administrators, and he showed how he could have a server linked with the API that would alert the admin through WLM by text whenever the HDD space was low and he could get that forwarded to his cell phone. and he also showed a user-created app that would show exactly where all of your friends were in the world using some of the abilities of the API and the information provided by your contacts. Also, he showed how he could recreate the entire WLMessenger program (with his horrible UI that he joked about) in only a little over 400 lines of code, with full chat/nudge/file transfer support between it and the real version of WLM.

Some additional tidbits, including news of a newer version of Windows Live Messenger for the Xbox:

He did all of his coding in Visual C#, and he said that a newer version of the Server API would be released soon. Oh, he said that the WLM that is integrated into the Xbox Live platform was version 7, and they are currently working on upgrading that to WLM 8.5 and possibly even 9.

I think that is about everything, we talked for a couple of hours after the presentation, but that is all covered under beta NDAs that we are both under.

So just to review, according to what Hollingsworth reported that Jenks said:

New API coming for Messenger, hopefully including "full support for everything the full messenger client uses"
API Tech Preview to be released at Mix08, Beta 1 API ready with Messenger 9 final
Messenger 9 ships in late 08 or early 09
MS is trying to work out a way for WLM users to chat with AIM/GTalk/ICQ: basic internal version of GTalk working now
Brand new version of Messenger for Mac OS X coming - "really cool and awesome", MSN Messenger for Mac will not be updated
Xbox Live, now using Messenger 7, will be upgraded to 8.5 or possibly 9

(Thanks to the tipster who pointed us to AmpCoders post over at Neowin, and thanks to Steven for talking to us via IM)

Our previous posts on Windows Live Messenger, including the current 8.5 beta build, can be found here.

Details on the Xbox keyboard emerge

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 11:26:00 GMT

One more post on the Xbox/Windows Live Messenger marriage. While pricing or availability have not been announced, a picture of the new text input device, which fits in between the "horns" of the Xbox controller, has surfaced.

Kotaku has more. One interesting tidbit, according to John Rodman, Senior Product Manager for Xbox Live and Xbox 360, is that Windows Live Messenger within Xbox "will allow users to have six instant message conversations going at once, each with multiple contacts."

It's official: the press release on Windows Live Messenger on Xbox

Kip Kniskern — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Microsoft confirmed in a press release that Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360 will launch the week of May 7. The 260 million plus Windows Live Messenger users will be able to connect with 6 million Xbox Live community members with a free update to the Xbox 360, and text chat through their televisions using the Xbox 360 virtual keyboard, or a usb keyboard. According to the press release "This summer Microsoft will launch a QWERTY text-input device, a new accessory that will connect directly into the Xbox 360 controller to support text and instant messaging".

Some more from the press release:

Beyond Windows Live Messenger, the Spring Update for Xbox 360 includes hundreds of new features and enhancements including the following:

A richer Achievement notification pop-up will showcase the name of the unlocked Achievement and the gamerscore value without needing to leave the game to check the Achievements list.

Enhanced family settings features for Xbox LIVE communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.

A new Xbox LIVE Marketplace blade lets Xbox LIVE members access the content they seek — whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States) — from one place on Xbox LIVE.

Updates to Xbox LIVE Arcade allow owners to quickly see which Xbox LIVE Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox LIVE members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and Achievements directly with all friends on their friends list. Expanded Tell a Friend capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.

A new option in Auto Downloads provides faster access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox LIVE Arcade games.

New progressive download controls provide easy access to optimal viewing options by letting people fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.

The Spring Update is free beginning the week of May 7 and is easily accessible to every Xbox 360 owner through Xbox LIVE or on Xbox.com.