Why is this little opinion piece a tad late? I threw my laptop straight into the bin as soon as Microsoft’s ‘Entertainment will grow a brain’ promo came on. Xbox One is HAL 9000. Seeing as I spend a gazillion hours a year sitting in front of my console, I grew concerned that it would learn my ways, decapitate me with a disc when the time is right, solder me into its joints and take on the life of Ben 2.0. After building a stick tent in Hyde Park and raising a squirrel army, I returned to scribble some other thoughts, just in case it turns out this console is actually geared towards being an entertainment device, lending my opinions on the conference as a whole…or what stood out in it anyway.
I strolled into this conference with expectations…adrift I guess. I wanted to see games, exclusives and a Kinect based Crystal Maze title, so I like to think I arrived with a blank slate of a brain. That slate remained blank for a good half an hour as I naively sat through the opening statements of the conference with no games to find. Instead, some nifty Kinect integrations with TV viewing made their way onto our screens. No longer do people have to tap the AV button on their remote to watch telly. They can now shout at the telly, and it manages programmes, games and even Skype on the fly. Everything in this instance is pretty darn impressive. The interface looks bloody fluent, speech recognition seems on the mark and Kinect functionality looks a lot more intelligent (though some may argue it should have been this fluid when it originally came out). Will it ignore me if I mention my preference for Google Chrome? Perhaps. The problem is I can’t really see myself flicking in and out of everything all at the same time. I have the attention span of a fly baked in sugar, but even I won’t be casting a movie to one side to talk to anyone. There are lots of nice features here, they just feel like they lack focus.
I’m not looking for new ways to watch telly though. I’m looking to launch my thumbs into new dimensions of gaming. EA were quick to respond to this with a look into their pretty looking Ignite engine, and with that, a peek at the inevitable bunch of sports titles that will come along with it. Yes, it looked pretty swell, but yearly sports titles are as predictable as the sun rising in the morning, and my lack of fitness through life has left me disliking them. Nevertheless, they were delivering what I wanted to see: Games.
Witnessing all the sports titles was like ingesting a roast coated in grisly brussel sprouts, only because you were promised a great dessert was to follow. I didn’t know they’d be serving a cake coated in Angel Delight. Remedy showcased a little sneak peak into their new title Quantum Break which has initially piqued my interest, being a time travel nerd and all. Forza 5 looks glorious as it bloody well should and the promise of 15 exclusives, 8 being new IP’s makes me a bit giddy. You know what would’ve made me giddier though? A Zooey Deschanel topper for that cake…or in other words, showing off some of these IPs and some longer trailers of actual gameplay. It felt as if, even when Call Of Duty: Ghosts gameplay appeared, the Xbox One is holding some cards rather close to its chest…which doesn’t help with the whole ‘Oh God, it’s going to kill me’ paranoia.
So after I was left feeling indifferent to how fast I can perform a switcheroo with games and telly, the merging of the two actually left me pretty excited. My indifference to the Halo franchise means nothing, with my opinions about as strong against its fanbase as an ant in a hurricane. With Spielberg deciding to spearhead Microsoft’s biggest franchise in the televisual era, the concept of seeing a Halo/Band of Brothers combo actually seems pretty awesome. With Netflix dabbling in original programming in recent months, the concept of tying in video games with exclusive shows makes me very excited. If we can gather the lore of some of the richest titles video games have to offer and find a new way of exploring said lore with the backing of some incredible industry names…that really excites me, especially as television drama has become extraordinary in recent years.
It seems that, despite the fact we saw a bare minimum on the game front, Microsoft are eager to jump into bed with the big players of the industry, snagging EA’s support and once again nabbing Call of Duty DLC exclusives with Activision. Even after half an hour of zero game coverage to start with, Microsoft are keen to let us know they haven’t completely forgotten about the console’s roots in gaming. It’s clear to see from this point on however, that Microsoft is tackling their marketing in a completely opposite way to Sony. Not all the concepts for the Xbox One mentioned so far speak out to me as a gamer, or even a general enjoyer of media. However, I’m no longer the sole demographic Microsoft is fighting for…and I don’t know how to feel about that.
In essence? Everything purdy. Everything sleak. Everything is rather suave. The conference certainly ‘Oooooooh’d’ me, but never did it beckon an ‘Arrrrrrr’. They could be saving those satisfied chants for E3, dangling tasty nuggets of exclusives to try and tantalise us into Microsoft territory. However, in terms of practicalities, there’s still a baby elephant in the room which we don’t want to see become an adult, no matter how cute it is. I’m sure the next few days will certainly be filled with speculation, but it’s the stage time at E3 that will be the turning point for pre-orders. Microsoft has everyone’s attention, let’s just hope they don’t Orth this up.
Missed the conference? Sorry for the spoilers.