Phil Spencer from Microsoft Studios then took the stage to show some footage from Forza 5, out later this year, that consisted primarily of cut scenes and camera angles sexily running along the contours of a car. Spencer also showed glimpses of a new game from Max Payne creator Remedy games, called Quantum Break, which consisted of real footage of a mother and daughter juxtaposed against grandiose imagery of ships smashing into bridges and the like. Let me be clear: THIS IS THE FIRST TIME DURING THE PRESS CONFERENCE WHERE I SAW A VIDEO GAME THAT I MIGHT WANT TO PLAY.
“Mommy, will the new Xbox play video games?”
“I don’t know, honey. I… I just don’t know.”
Spencer proceeded to reveal some more good news: There will be 15 first-party exclusives from Microsoft within the first 12 months after launch, eight of which will be new intellectual properties. This is encouraging, considering the almost nonexistent trickle of first-party releases for the 360 over the past few years.
Spencer departed the stage allowing for Nancy Tellem, the Entertainment and Digital Media President of Microsoft, to make her appearance and welcome the first actual game developer of the press conference onto the stage, Bonnie Ross of 343 Studios (Halo 4). Ross expressed her excitement to work with Microsoft and *drumroll* Steven Spielberg to create a brand new live-action Halo series for television. The audience was then greeted by Spielberg himself on the big screen, expressing his excitement as well, and reminding everyone watching that he has been a gamer for decades. Yes, Steven, we all remember Boom Blox.
A real game-changer, that one.
Just when it looked like things were shifting into a realm that hardcore gamers might actually care about, another exciting new partnership was announced with the NFL. Cue a bunch of live-action footage of football games where the aforementioned fantasy football feature came into play. Apparently, you can now have all of your fantasy league’s players and stats updating in real time alongside whatever game you are watching, which, in all honesty, is pretty cool if you’re into football. But if you thought that the banter between Yusuf Mehdi and D.J. was awkward, here’s Don Mattrick and NFL commissioner Roger Goodall hanging out in chairs, walking around on a football field, and being weird, mismatched buddies in general.
At this point, there isn’t much time left in Microsoft’s allotted hour of broadcast, so it seems like they’re going to try to fit in one more big announcement. Enter Activision’s CEO to unveil the next Call of Duty game, alleging that, “We didn’t want to do the safe thing; we wanted to do the right thing.” The “right thing” is apparently Call of Duty: Ghosts (correct me if I’m wrong, but hasn’t that been up on my 360’s dashboard for awhile now?) The game boasts enhanced graphics, storytelling from Traffic screenwriter Stephen Gaghan, and PUPPIES!!! That’s right, Call of Duty: Ghosts will let players partner up with a canine squad member. The montage reel even had a German Shepherd wearing a motion capture suit.
A hero was born that day
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