Microsoft E3 Forecast: Cloudy
Microsoft's E3 2008 line up was easily one of the most surprising of the year, and in comparison to the others, it wiped the floor. That's not really saying much though, considering Sony had a few little announcements with nothing overly shocking, and Nintendo came down to a bunch of sales charts showing profit margins. Microsoft had a large portion of the show dedicated to announcing casual games and showing its "family friendly" side with games such as Lips and You're in the Movies.
The big announcements that came out last year were the introduction of Netflix to the Xbox 360's interface, and of course the announcement that Final Fantasy XIII was no longer a Playstation 3 exclusive which instantly generated the most news out of E3 2008.
So, what's to be expected at this year's E3? Microsoft have been very tight lipped in terms of new announcements and releases. It's pretty safe to say there won't be a new console anytime soon, but possibly some new console bundles for the summer and fall. Still, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to presume that Microsoft will be announcing some new game at their conference this year. They will probably also announce new details about existing games such as Forza 3 and Halo 3: ODST can be expected.
It will also be interesting to see what kind of third party support will come out of this year's E3 as well. Possibly some more news on episodic content for GTA IV. Maybe even some exclusives from Square-Enix again, especially with sales picking up in Japan over the past year.
Whatever it is that Microsoft has to throw out there though, it's safe to say it will be covered by Gaming Union on June 1st as it happens. So stay tuned to see what will come out of this exciting year of E3.
