Topic: CES Keynote: Microsoft Highlights

-Project Nathal coming Holiday 2010
-Game Room announced, share your custom Arcade Room with your friends, visit their Game Rooms, and play old Arcade games, the old school style.
-Game Room is 100% Crossplatform (Games for Windows LIVE and Xbox LIVE), you buy the content once and it's available for you on both platforms
-Modern Warfare 2 DLC, available first exclusively on Xbox LIVE
-Windows 7, fastest selling OS ever
-Fable III coming 2010
-Halo Reach BETA coming Spring 2010 to all Halo 3: ODST owners
-More worldwide TV content coming to Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE (forgot the name atm, it's version 2.0...)
-Windows Phone is awesome, fully compatible with Zune Video
-Zune Marketplace available in more countries, with everything, including 1080p instant-on video through Xbox LIVE

do you have a link. Saw some of the gameroom screens.

I was watching it live on the Microsoft website (watching a live show using Silverlight technology finally made me a believer, it is better, faster and less resource-hungry than Flash)

Here's what Major Nelson posted on his website:

More details will be added on Xbox LIVE through Inside Xbox so we must keep an eye on there too lol

Oh, and the audio from the Keynote is already available on MajorNelson.com , iTunes Store and Zune Marketplace for anyone that wants to listen to it.

With this gameroom. If you have paid for the game do you have to be online to play it. Like indie games. Hope not.

That's not yet been announced, but I guess you don't have to, and that it will be available for online play to Xbox LIVE Silver members too, since it will also be available (and fully compatible) on PC...

On the other hand, Games for Windows LIVE titles require you to be online to unlock achievements, and it could be the case for Game Room on Xbox 360 too... it's done to avoid cheating.

It is known that after paying for the game, is up to you to go to your Game Room either from your Windows PC or Xbox 360, and my guess is you can use it offlline on Xbox 360 (not so sure about PC, since Avatars aren't officially on PC yet, it would need to be connected for that)

This was blacked out during the live streaming on the Microsoft website:

Game Room trailer: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/ces/videoGallery.as...
Halo Reach trailer: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/ces/videoGallery.as...

MW2 DLC!
Fable III!!
Halo Reach!!!

The Alan Wake trailer was awesome.

oh yeah, forgot that!
-Alan Wake is coming not only as a retail game, but episodic DLC will be made too (it's the first psychological action-horror thriller made as a TV program).
-exclusives already announced: Mass Effect 2, Crackdown 2, Fable III, Alan Wake, Splinter Cell Conviction, amoing others
-Game Room launches with over 30 titles available with more being added weekly
-the new TV sevice, UVerse 2.0, coming to Xbox 360 with both SD and HD content

New Natal trailer http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14357198/project-natal-...
I think that this looks far superior to the Wii now. Hopefully it'll have the games to back up the potential.

No Luigi, nooooo! I'm not sure what you saw in that trailer, but all I saw were the same tech demos that have displayed previously. What on earth did you see in that stuffy business presentation that told you it would be fun? :/

Never mind fun, I'm still struggling to get my head around the functionality of the thing. Will it block out other movements in the room? Will it register me having a scratch? I have many questions, none of which where answered by that 'trailer'. Until I see someone playing a game with it (instead of all these tech demos), I won't be convinced. I hope they show some games at CES instead of having to wait till E3.

@Machu I hear you dude.Its more the possibilities in my imagination rather than any of the demo's that make me think it could be great. I think stuff like fighting games and first person exploration gmaes could be awesome if done right. The points you make are valid and I too would like those questions answered but if what they claim is true I think the Wii could have serious competition. I think even casuals would buy into it for party games and things like EA active which would work much better than they do on Wii (they are clunky at best). Given the low low price of the xbox Nintendo should definetly be watching their back IMO.

It's a low price sure, but once you add a tonne on for Natal, it doesn't look quite so good anymore. I'm with you fella, I have high hopes, but just can't get my head around the tech and am intrigued to see how they are gonna get around some of the problems it will face. I just wanna see a game tis all dude. Not these mock-ups, which make me concerned as to why they are showing mock ups.

How annoying is it gonna be having people waving/moving in the background, will it be able to block them out?

Can't wait to see! _{as a gamer, i want them to succeed. regardless of my allegiances}

yes, it will be able to block "noise" in the room... it has a pair of HD 3D cameras, so it can actually make a difference between you nad a person behind you... even in the dark, since it has infrared vision too (can't remember exactly where was this discussed, but it is confirmed). Plus, it has face-recognition, which also helps to actually trace your whole body movements.

They have already "showed" games before, just not publicly... they are trying to keep gameplay as secret as possible to avoid a last-minute ripoff by Sony (see E3 06 lol)

And using it won't have any impact on performance, no more than adding a wired controller at least... Natal has it's own on-board CPU for processing all it needs to, so no problems there either... ALL games, current and future, could add Natal support without much worry...

Last but not least, remember it also has voice recognition, with noise-disabling mics... no matter the kind of noise (be it other voices or cars passing by), it won't affect gameplay.

Fable III is confirmed to have Natal support (perhaps we will have Milo on it!)

That game room feature sounds pretty neat. I wish Ninty could get on the ball with their online and especially account flexibility (being able to access the same games on multiple systems etc).

I also have the same questions about Natal as Machu. I have a feeling although it's designed to block out other things around you, there will still be problems. I have a feeling, you'll have a couple of in house or microsoft owned devs releasing a couple of really great games, and other 3rd parties' will have totally clunkified and broken controls prone to interference issues (see...most 3rd party games on Wii).

It is really neat tech though, so it's one thing i'm very interested to watch and see how it does. Although, I think for the most part, I'd rather hold a controller than not (did that racing game demo at E3 not seem like eventually all the blood would drain from your arms and be tired, and a two player local fighting game, though filled with awesomesauce, would require you to have a LOT of space to high kick and not injure each other). Although I don't like Microsoft products very much, I have to give them credit for at least trying something new on this one as opposed to copycat Sony.

I guess that just like it was with the previous Call of Duty titles, PC gamers will get the packs free, so they shouldn't cry lol...

if the game had been a Games for Windows LIVE title, they would've benefited from the exclusivity deal lol, but instead they have to wait, just like PS3 owners of the game, but unlike PS3 owners, they won't pay.

Well, until I see something that resembles a game, I shall continue to doubt.

You might want to read this dude... http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/105/1059473p1.html

Yep, I actually posted that before reading that they had dismissed rumors of them dropping the Natal CPU, and that everything announced so far wasn't final...

So they are releasing it this year, yet still can't decide on the tech that it will house. I see Natal slipping to early 2011, by which time, they should have just held off and incorporated it into the Xbox 720.

I'm guessing they don't wanna put too many details out there just in case Sony tries to make a last-minute Natal ripoff (Remember E3 06 and Sony's last-minute tilt sensors?)... them keeping as much as possible secret protects them from that... their partners already have the final details anyway, so Software is already being developed...