Engadget & Joystiq live from Microsoft's E3 2007 keynote
By Ryan Block 
posted Jul 10th 2007 11:15PM
posted Jul 10th 2007 11:15PM
8:19PM PDT - Hip hop and Chemical Brothers blasts out amid the green neon lights and giant silver balls. Microsoft's decision to hold the event outside is taking its toll on us. The chilly breeze is making us wish we wore jackets. Pants too.
8:20PM PDT - The intensity of the green stage lights seems to be increasing. It's somewhat disconcerting to view the people next to us turning a bright shade of green in the resulting glow. We're surrounded by aliens...or very ill people.
8:23PM PDT - "Ladies and gentlemen, the show will begin in ten minutes." A mysterious fog is appearing on the edges of the stage. Did a 360 just overheat? LOLZ!
8:28PM PDT - Two white 360s and a black Elite are up on stage. If there's a gray system around we don't see it.
8:30PM PDT - There's a low object covered in a black shroud on the left side of the stage. What could it be? Maybe the return of the original Duke controller?
8:28PM PDT - Two white 360s and a black Elite are up on stage. If there's a gray system around we don't see it.
8:30PM PDT - There's a low object covered in a black shroud on the left side of the stage. What could it be? Maybe the return of the original Duke controller?
8:32 PM PDT - "Please turn off your cell phones and pagers." We're pretty sure nobody here has a pager.
8:34 PM PDT - Five Halo fans from Libertyville, Illinois, are playing Halo 3 music. Two guitarist, a violinist, and a drummer -- there's even an electric fiddle. The audience is drooling profusely.
8:36 PM - The violinist is flipping out to a hard rock version of the Halo theme. Well, flipping out as much as she can. It is a violin, after all.
8:38 PM - Peter Moore steps out and thanks the band, Capareal. "These fans represent the people who will be playing Halo 3 in just 11 weeks."
8:40 PM PDT - Every demo shown tonight will be released this year. "It's the greatest lineup in video game history." A giant Rock Band logo appears on screen and Peter starts playing.
8:42 PM PDT - He's singing now. Somebody get us out of here! The drummer is thoroughly abusing his fake drum set. Moore accidentally pauses the game. "It's me." he cries.
8:44 PM - "The Strokes, Black Sabbath, Nirvana, The Who and more bands coming later this week." You can build bands online too ...
8:45 PM The Viva Pinata crew appears on screen. "The party animals are coming." A series of mini-games with the Viva Pinata animals. It's... Viva Pinata: Party Animals.
8:47 PM PDT - Moore goes from cuddly critters to Mass Effect. A video with large cities and characters discussing a disgruntled alien plotting to wipe out the galaxy.
8:48 PM PDT - Mass Effect will be coming in November. On to the numbers. "Xbox 360 has the largest installed base with 5.6 million units in the US. ... We're outselling PS3 by nearly two to one."
8:50 PM - Moore: "Since November, Xbox 360 third party games have cracked the top 10 list 18 times. Number of Wii and PS3 titles in the charts in the third-party top selling sales charts: zero, nil."
8:52 PM PDT - Half of all consumer spending in this generation is on the Xbox 360. The top five games of the last gen were all Halo and Grand Theft Auto or Madden.
8:53 PM PDT - The only console that has GTA, Halo and Madden this holiday is ... well, you know. Take out Halo though ...
8:56 PM PDT - A crapload of video demoes on screen. Project Gotham Racing 4, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam, Call of Duty 4,Stranglehold, Guitar Hero 3, Beautiful Katamari, Lost Odyssey, NBA LIVE 08, Mass Effect, Fatal Inertia, Medal of Honor Airborne, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, Ace Combat 6, NHL 08, Assassin's Creed, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, The Simpson Game, Splinter Cell Conviction, Nascar 08, Eternal Sonata, BioShock, Madden NFL08, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, Crash of the Titans, Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix, The Orange Box, Bee Movie Game (YEAH!), Rock Band, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja.
8:57 PM PDT - MS VP Jeff Bell steps out to show of an Xbox Live version of the DVD game "Scene It!" It's a hideously mutated remote with an enormous red button. "Four controllers and the game are included for the price of one Xbox 360 game."
8:58 PM PDT - "I'm pleased to announce that our friend at Ubisoft will be bringing Naruto: Rise of a Ninja exclusively to the Xbox 360." OK!
8:59 PM PDT - Naruto demo shows on-screen. Hyper-kinetic fighting is the order of the day. The graphics capture the anime quite well.
9:01 PM PDT - Jeff Bell pimps out the fact that this year's EA Sports games will be "twice as fast" as last year's games. Reggie Bush comes out and proceeds to wallop Bell, running four gazillion yards for a touchdown.
9:06 PM PDT - Xbox Live has more than 7 million members. "We've added a new member every eight seconds." New games for XBL Arcade: Bomberman Live!, Undertow, Hexic 2, Sonic the Hedgehog (finally!), War World by Ubisoft, Sensible World of Soccer, Every Extend Extra Extreme, Geon by Eidos, Wing Commander Arena, Feeding Frenzy 2, Track and Field, Spyglass Board Games, Golden Axe, Space Giraffe, Super Puzzle Fighter II HD Turbo Remix, Marathon: Durandal, Poker Smash, Switchball, Tetris Splash, Puzzle Quest.
9:08 PM PDT - The video store is the fastest growing part of Xbox Live. Two thousand hours of entertainment in the last year, 500 in HD. $125 million has been spent on this content. Disney movie titles are coming to Xbox Live!
9:10 PM Disney movies will be available tonight and in high-def!
8:44 PM - "The Strokes, Black Sabbath, Nirvana, The Who and more bands coming later this week." You can build bands online too ...
9:08 PM PDT - The video store is the fastest growing part of Xbox Live. Two thousand hours of entertainment in the last year, 500 in HD. $125 million has been spent on this content. Disney movie titles are coming to Xbox Live!
9:10 PM Disney movies will be available tonight and in high-def!
9:12 PM PDT - Elite is coming to Europe on Aug. 24. VP Shane Kim comes on stage. He runs down a list of some of the same games we saw earlier. Yawn.
9:15 PM PDT - The Project Gotham Racing 4 team comes out to show off the game. "For the first time ... bikes will be introduced to PGR4 ... Honda, Suzuki, Ducati, and more."
9:16 PM PDT - Dynamic weather effects are shown off. There's fog in Shanghai. You can share photos and videos online when the game comes this September.
9:18 PM PDT - Alan Wake, Too Human, Fable 2 and Halo Wars show how MS has "given game creators the resources to shoot for the stars, take risks, and go for things other creators can only dream of."
9:19 PM PDT - Lost Odyssey is next up. "What is the cost of my immortality?" asks the protagonist.
9:20 PM PDT - Intimidating architecture and loud noises aplenty in the trailer.
9:22 PM PDT - Games for Windows now. Gears of War coming to PC ... big surprise (not!). New content, a game editor, and "some very big surprises are in store." Cliffy B comes out to show Gears on the PC.
9:23 PM PDT - Co-op will be in the Windows version. Marcus Phoenix goes against a massive Brumak in a typical dilapidated Gears environment.
9:25 PM - Five new single player levels in the PC version. The game is clearly running at 60 FPS. Cliffy leaves and Moore comes back on stage.
9:27 PM Sega, Eidos and THQ are delivering a dozen Games for Windows Live games this year. Epic is building GFW Live into Unreal Engine 3.0.
9:29 PM PDT - Nearly ten million gamers have moved to Vista. Games like Crysis, Hellgate: London, and Conan: Hyborian Advenures on Windows are all joined by: Thrillville: Off the Rails, the Bee Movie Game
(YEAH x2!) Age of Empires 3: The Asian Dynasties, Stranglehold, Bioshock, Universe at War: Earth Assault, Blacksite: Area 51, World in Conflict, Lost Planet, Kane and Lynch: Dead Men, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, Zoo Tycoon 2: Exctinct Animals, Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights, Viva Pinata, Spider-Man Friend or Foe
9:31 PM PDT - Call of Duty 4 gets shown off. A scary (and obscenely loud) voice talks about honor and economies. Probably a villain of some sorts then.
9:34 PM PDT - Two Infiinity Ward developers come out. They're promising "variety" in their next game. A real-time demonstration begins with the character inching his way through a bleak field, shadows bouncing off a very detailed rifle. He scans the grass for enemies, takes aim and kills an enemy from a far. "He's down. Goodnight."
9:35 PM PDT The shadowing is impressive, with seemingly every branch of a nearby tree casting an inky shadow on the soldier's weapon, and his comrade.
9:38 PM PDT - Exclusive multiplayer beta of CoD4 coming to Xbox Live. Check the Call of Duty web site for more details. Back to Peter!
9:41 PM PDT - Now we've got Grand Theft Auto 4. Real time footage is all from the 360 version, Moore notes. Episodic content coming sometime in Spring 2008.
9:42 PM PDT - Resident Evil 5! It won't be out this year, unlike every other game shown today.
9:43 PM PDT - The RE5 protagonist seems to be in a creepy, dusty African town. Oh, and crazy sickle-wielding citizens? Yeah, they're back. Full trailer on XBL marketplace July 26.
9:44 PM PDT Assassin's Creed. Jade Raymond comes up, accompanied by hooting and whistling. A new sprawling city is shown, with the protagonist high atop a tower. He leaps into a passing hay cart. "Luckily no one saw that."
9:46 PM PDT - The city is Jerusalem. "Part of your experience in the game is getting to know the city, and getting to know the people. They may help or hinder you. ... Last year we showed you the monks as one way to get in, but tonight we're going to show you a different way to get in."
9:47 PM PDT - Altair (the protagonist) distracts some guards with a well-placed, err, corpse. He dispatches another feeble guard and enters a dusty home. He then runs into a trap and is surrounded. "So now since we're cornered ... it's a good time to fight."
9:48 PM PDT - Altair's perforating his enemies with deadly efficiency, hurling an enemy through a set of nearby shelves. Animation seems a little rough in parts. "No two chase animations are the same," says Raymond. Altair pushes people out of the way as he chases someone across the rooftops. They still slow him down a bit.
9:50 PM PDT - November '07 for Assassin's Creed. Peter Moore returns. "Now each generation brings with it a few select stories that are groundbreaking and define storytelling. For many, that story was Star Wars. Thirty years later, a new generation is claiming a new story, and a new title ..."
9:51 PM PDT - Moore: "I'm very pleased to present to you a unique partnership between Bungie Studios, Weta down in New Zealand, and director Neil Blomkamp. This live-action trailer gives you a chance to see what they've been working on, and a new chance to believe."
9:52 PM PDT - Green text on a computer screen. "Re-armament initialized." Machinery in a large factory is manufacturing UNSC helmets, a young man is getting his head shaved. A huge array of Warthogs and weapons are shown, with a Pelican rising from beneath a cargo door.
9:53 PM PDT - The gray console is back! It's a new console for the "Halo Nation" (read: you). A Halo 3 special edition with a gray controller and other accessories.
9:54 PM PDT - The special edition is out this holiday as part of the greatest holiday lineup in history, sez Moore. Reaction in the crowd is lackluster.
9:58 PM PDT - A voiceover warns that "your world will BURN." A wide variety of locales is shown: underground caverns, a murky swamp, a desert. We see Cortana clutching her head and falling to her knees. Glimpses of a large space battle, Master Chief firing a stationary turret from within a Pelican. He seems to have a violent disagreement with the Arbiter at one point (oh, those two!)
9:59 PM PDT - The conference is done. The band from earlier returns to play us off to our appointment at the chiropractor (this ampitheatre is not comfortable).
9:16 PM PDT - Dynamic weather effects are shown off. There's fog in Shanghai. You can share photos and videos online when the game comes this September.
9:18 PM PDT - Alan Wake, Too Human, Fable 2 and Halo Wars show how MS has "given game creators the resources to shoot for the stars, take risks, and go for things other creators can only dream of."
9:20 PM PDT - Intimidating architecture and loud noises aplenty in the trailer.
9:25 PM - Five new single player levels in the PC version. The game is clearly running at 60 FPS. Cliffy leaves and Moore comes back on stage.
9:27 PM Sega, Eidos and THQ are delivering a dozen Games for Windows Live games this year. Epic is building GFW Live into Unreal Engine 3.0.
(YEAH x2!) Age of Empires 3: The Asian Dynasties, Stranglehold, Bioshock, Universe at War: Earth Assault, Blacksite: Area 51, World in Conflict, Lost Planet, Kane and Lynch: Dead Men, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, Zoo Tycoon 2: Exctinct Animals, Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights, Viva Pinata, Spider-Man Friend or Foe
9:31 PM PDT - Call of Duty 4 gets shown off. A scary (and obscenely loud) voice talks about honor and economies. Probably a villain of some sorts then.
9:43 PM PDT - The RE5 protagonist seems to be in a creepy, dusty African town. Oh, and crazy sickle-wielding citizens? Yeah, they're back. Full trailer on XBL marketplace July 26.
9:50 PM PDT - November '07 for Assassin's Creed. Peter Moore returns. "Now each generation brings with it a few select stories that are groundbreaking and define storytelling. For many, that story was Star Wars. Thirty years later, a new generation is claiming a new story, and a new title ..."
9:51 PM PDT - Moore: "I'm very pleased to present to you a unique partnership between Bungie Studios, Weta down in New Zealand, and director Neil Blomkamp. This live-action trailer gives you a chance to see what they've been working on, and a new chance to believe."
9:52 PM PDT - Green text on a computer screen. "Re-armament initialized." Machinery in a large factory is manufacturing UNSC helmets, a young man is getting his head shaved. A huge array of Warthogs and weapons are shown, with a Pelican rising from beneath a cargo door.
it's xbox time!
NEW! XBOX 360 SUPER ELITE and UBER ELITE... neither of which have a built in HD DVD player...
Or that will last more than 3 months...
Would you rather have a 360 that might break and takes 2 weeks to get back to you to play a impressive library of great games , or a PS3 that works perfect and will never overheat ( Because why in the world would you turn it on if they have no games ??? and Most Blu Ray movies are only 2 hrs or less far to short to overheat
They're just going to make the Elite into the Premium and drop the prices by $50-$100.
I just wanna see tomorrow a price cut of ~50$ (or bundled with a second remote-nunchuck) for the Nintendo Wii, than I'm happy :)
Rock on! They forgot to mention that Wii is outselling ps3 by 3 to 1
I need a price drop announcement tonight so I can go back to Circuit City and as for the difference back.
Come on Peter Moore! Drop those prices!
Sony better not come up with some additional PS3 surprise. I've already ordered mine from Amazon today. I know about the 80gig coming out. I'm not interested on that one. Other than that, I hope we're done with PS3 news for awhile.
I'm looking forward to any announcements on the new PSP. I haven't heard anything about it. But, it'd be nice to hear if they've done anything new with it.
Maybe they will announce some new games to come out about 3-4 years from now to keep the few loyal fans they have left tagging along.
Congrats on your new blueray player
Announce they are soooooooooo sorry for anyone who bought a launch PS3 (like myself ) for the horrible online interface and games (lack there of) .. And offer to send everyone FREE canned air to get the dust off there PS3's cause they just sit there
LOL
Nah, Gates will announce that he's quitting Microsoft because he couldn't deal with Apple's competition. =)
PLUS, the ZunePhone!
Yeah, having only 90% of the market for OS must be killing Gates.
No, but having 90% of the world's shittiest OS IS killing him. ;)
Well, Jobs do have a lions share of the world's mp3-player market with the shitty and worthless iPod. Guess he's feeling kind of sick too then? :)
shifty and worthless iPod? From what I hear people like it and it's doing somewhat better than the Zune. Anyone else care to comment on this? ;)
Oyarses,
Ask a non-techie which mp3 player they like and they'll likely tell you "you mean ipod?"
Ask a non-techie which OS they like and they'll likely tell you " you mean windows?"
Why do most people use an ipod? because they think it's the only option.
Why do most people use xp? because they think it's the only option.
Among the tech-oriented crowd, it's hit or miss on either.
The point? Being popular doesn't necessarily make one product better than another. Besides, when you said:
"shifty and worthless iPod? From what I hear people like it and it's doing somewhat better than the Zune."
You could have just as easily said:
"shifty and worthless Microsoft OS? From what I hear people like it and it's doing somewhat better than the OSX."
Microsoft became popular through Apple. Do you not remember Apple's first computers ran on Dos. Then Steve Jobs takes a trip to Xerox's Lab changing
Apple forever. Apple went with GUI while Windows stayed DOS. Then good old IBM started mass producing Dos clones for businesses. Microsoft is cash soaked and decides to back engineered Mac's GUI. Since Apple's computers weren't in businesses like IBM clones there wasn't as large of a established demographic. In any case I see Windows popularity due to IBM mass producing the first commercially viable computers to businesses.
IBM thought the money was in the machines.
Microsoft foresaw the money in the software.
While Apple tried and is still trying to make the cash on both ends. We all know how it turned out for IBM.
Hey Engadget posters, being in Australia I'm really bad with working out when your 8pm is and all that. Can you put a clock on the site for your local time. Then I can just work out how many hours to go until an event etc?
Thanks.
Douglas.
its 2 hours till event =)
Thanks Ant but the trick is.. when did you post your comment? 19 minutes after me sure. But I can't remember when I posted mine and it wasn't 9:16pm.
65 nanometer please.
They will announce they will stop making great games because Antitrust laws say that if the PS3 has no games , the 360 cannot make games and have a monopoly on the True next Gen market ..
so so true LOLz
personally, i am looking forward to nintendo's conference.... i am excited to see what they have to announce... i know they have been seeking 3rd party developers, a definite change in strategy that will likely help make the wii even more popular than it already is...
actually....now its 19minutes till it starts....
if you need to figure out a timezone...clikc on your desktop clock...go to timezones...change it to US and canada pacific time.....and it will change it to the time there....and it would say 7:41 now..
at least thats what i do...
anything yet?
Well the OS cant be that shitty considering everyone seems to use it.
Turn it to G4 channel if you have it and they have it live. Just thought I'd share that because I didn't know till checking out xbox's site.
Prepares to F5.
Ctrl + R in fox
and Cmd R if you're on a Mac. Oh, the irony... me, Mac fanboi, enjoying Microsoft keynote.
What are you guys shooting with? dSLR? Canon? Nikon? Sony (Alpha)?
My guess is it's a Sony since all of the shots have janky white balance. It's called an Expodisk, look it up with your iPhone on EDGE when you're in the cab going to your next gig. Hopefully the page will load in time....
looks like they're using an iPhone... :) hahaha
noone buys vista
Hey, this is my high school (GO SAMO) and I have never seen it this nice. Microsoft has really spiffed up the Greek theater.
if you go to gamespot you can watch it live as well..thats what im doing
live feed right here:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3160961
this guy sucks at reporting, all he is doing is bashin microsoft with tottally unrelated things... seriously, that isnt humor, maybe if microsoft actually did do something stupid, comment on it, but dont go around making so called jokes on tottally stupid stuff.
here ill make one.
gasp, engadget is takin long to load... could it be that the replaced all their servers with winME's?!'s
engadget fire this guy.
Engadget always tries to add humor to all of it's reports. I think you just need to calm down.
but the fact is it aint funny. need to get better writers.
At least he didn't say what I was thinking... Bring Peter out on stage and stick some out of tune fat chick with him to draw the attention away from his sad performance.
go watch eureka just utt itt
Guess Rock band isnt a timed exclusive after all.. :)
I'm watching on G4. I REALLY could have done with out him singing. I think my ears are bleeding.
"but the fact is it aint funny. need to get better writers."
Oh it's funny alright.
Oh God, they have the WORST metal track playing right now with their collage of games.. ughhhh. my ears!
New Freaking CONTROLLER! .. looks lame though.
isn't that just for the scene it game?
This is being streamed live from www.g4tv.com if anyone is interested.
Is that Blink 182 or a Japanese band??? I can't tell.....
G4TV's coverage is terrible, they have to dump it to commercials right before they announced the new controller.
I wish I was as hip as Jeff....
this "coverage" is crap. G4 really sucks at this whole TV thing.
They keep cutting the fottage from the main screen to pan around the audience, when theres nothing going on.
war world and that chess game look sick for the arcade not to mention a few others that look like buys for me
WOOO! MARATHON ON XBLA!
I can download Checkers for 2100 points! Awesome!
And surprise, Golden Axe and Sonic tonight!
How much is Sonic and Golden Axe... would be interesting to compare with cost of Wii VC.
Only 2100 pts after you download 5 Guitar Hero 3 Song packs.
wow...this is a pretty lame conference. 40 minutes into it and they haven't really said anything yet. They need to get Steve Jobs to show them how to prepare a keynote...maybe he could convince me a tiny keyboard for my controller isn't a completely idiotic idea.
It's worse if you're actually watching it Live....
Oh...you mean as stupid as putting a touchscreen keyboard on a phone?
I'm sorry....this was just too easy....I mean, I've used the iPhone keyboard before and it's not horrible, but its like I scrolled down and saw a post with a huge 'X' on top of it.
Yeah, I'm not seeing much but: "Ooh, Microsoft is still in the lead." and "Here's a strange look at some numbers to make us look good this year."
OOoooooh Shane Kim is on now.. blah, blah, Halo, blah, blah, Halo, blah... MS is the best.
Craig's not very good at PGR4...
everyone here is buying Lost Odyssey.. face it. Seriously though, this event is weak. There really is nothing new and groundbreaking so far.
Here comes windows game poops :)!! ... gonna be vista only HURRAY GEARS OF WAR
Gears of War on PC ... told ya so!
Wow, 7 million XBL members with an installed base of 5.6 million consoles! People are signing up for XBL whether they've got an Xbox or not!
(Yes, I realize XBL is worldwide... and I'm sure a whole bunch of Japanese have it, right? Anyway, it seems like MS uses whatever number suits them at the time, they clearly weren't hurrying to trot out the worldwide installed base number.)
hate to break it to you...but more than one XBL user can exist per console....ever heard of a thing called "SIBLINGS." Check it out on Wikipedia.
it is true that micro$oft was probalby using us consoles sales figures only cause moore said they were from NPD. also it would probably make marketing sense because the 360 hasnt exactly caught the boat to the island. but it was somewhat disorienting, yes, to use global live accounts and only consoles from the states. also, werent most of the grand theft auto games sold first as ps2 titles? the xbox got its turn only after ps2.
Watching this Live on G4 is the best thing to put you to sleep.....PICK IT UP M$
Cool beans not vistas only for gears
So, the xbox360 portion is over?
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
ok Gears of War on PC looked pretty sweet
woo!! pgr4 is the bomb.. dynamic weather and now bikes!!! i'm so stoked!!!
too many damn commercials.
is it really worth it staying up in the East Coast?
I guess Hi-Def Disney movies was Steve Jobs way of saying thanks to Bill for allowing them to have use of exchange mail compatibility on the Iphone. I only wish Itunes would have them.
I still don't understand why anyone would want to watch a movie through a 360. How loud do you have to turn it up to drown out the noise from the machine?
Can Engadget just report th facts or do you have to poo poo on everything. Is there a way we can filter out all the bs comments. I don't remember you doing this on anything apple. It sounds like you let a 14 yo do the coverage. Sorry just had to vent.
CoD 4 looked bad ass!!!
Actually looks pretty sweet i always hated modern warfare but this is awesome
cod4 looks great !!
sweet online beta demo thingy for CoD 4! awesome!
Wow. Whats the point of 360, everything is coming out for PC as well.. and the PC is the better version.
well for example GTA 4, xbox360 only downloadable content, which was just announced.
Oh jesus resident evil 5 looks jawesome! ( yes that was a Street Sharks ref)
woooooooo! Jade Raymond!
OMFG!! Zombie Skinnies!!! RE5!! I can't wait!! RE is by far my favorite series of games! W00t!!
Assassins Creed looks pretty awesome too! Fully explorable Jerusalem! Pretty impressive looking.
wow i want it too
Seriously lol.. was that awesome looking or what?! A definite buy!
Oh God, Moore is comparing Star Wars with Halo? wtf.. f*cking moron..
I was just saying the samething to myself.. that's blasphemy right there.
What's worse is that they went on to show a trailer with human actors and some pretty weak CGI.
Halo 3 honestly looked pretty weak.. I've never been a big fan of the series but this one and it's crazy console counterpart do not impress me