Microsoft E3 Conference: The Full Story

02 Jun 2009 at 02:21:42 by Tim McDonald

Now that, there? That Microsoft conference? That was bloody impressive.

Perhaps E3 last year dulled our expectations sufficiently that the one this year is capable of really blowing our minds. Or, perhaps, maybe, possibly, Microsoft just hit this one out of the park.

The conference opened with a trailer for The Beatles: Rock Band, showcasing the various phases the band went through, from a small band playing pubs and clubs to a worldwide sensation. The opening section of the conference itself, too, focused on The Beatles: Rock Band, with a few little snippets of information – but not before the game was demoed for us, with a rather spectacular performance of Day Tripper.

And The Beatles: Rock Band looks good. I love a bit of Rock Band – okay, a lot – and the Beatles are, to understate the band heavily, quite good. In terms of sheer fun factor, Rock Band has been above Guitar Hero for me every single time, and the style that pervaded the game in these trailers was nothing short of spectacular.

This was far from all, though, as appearances were made by Dhani Harrison (who, somewhat bizarrely, came on stage, waved, and went back in), Yoko Ono, and Olivia Harrison, followed by a short appearance by Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney who chatted a little amongst themselves, talking about how much they like the game, and how much they liked how they looked in it. Which, naturally, was followed by Paul quietly assenting that he looked good, but Ringo not so much.

There were two big pieces of news to come out of it. One was that there would be DLC albums, the first of which – available shortly after launch – being Abbey Road. The second was that All You Need Is Love would also be DLC, but would be 360-exclusive.

Think about this for a moment. The Beatles: Rock Band was the opener. Appearances by the surviving Beatles was the opener – and, amazingly, the rest lived up to it.

Shortly after Paul and Ringo left the stage, John Schappert – the corporate VP of interactive entertainment LIVE - appeared, and amazingly didn't get half as much applause as they did. Let's face it, though; the Beatles are a hard act to follow. Schappert hosted the majority of the show, but took this opportunity to set up the rest: there would be 10 world-premieres of games never before seen, and plenty of exciting innovations in entertainment. This was filled with all sorts of buzzword-ridden quotes, such as Microsoft “making history” with “revolutionary new experiences for everyone.”

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