What makes Microsoft’s press conferences the most entertaining to watch is the handful of celebrities that take the stage, and try to act like they know what’s going on. But my favourite part is when Peter Molyneux or Cliff Bleszinski starts describing their company’s game, which always manages to sound invigorating and revolutionary.
Peter Molyneux is probably the most convincing person in the world, so convincing that he could probably make you pay $150 for Natal and Milo. After dominating the hardcore console space for the last few years, Sony has come from behind and delivered a library full of excellent games in 2009. At this point it’s hard to predict what Microsoft is keeping a secret, but I do have some ideas of what we can expect at their press conference.
- Halo Wars 2 – I played the hell out of this game online, and after hundreds of hours I finally realized how simple it was, and how much better it could have been. Halo Wars sold over a million copies so I don’t see why Microsoft won’t continue this series, and package it with a Halo Reach map pack.
- Xbox Slim and Natal Bundle – There have been a lot of rumors regarding the slim because of a redesigned motherboard, which doesn’t support the regular hard drives.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops exclusive multiplayer maps – We saw the Modern Warfare 2 exclusive maps last year, so it makes sense that we will see it again.
- New Rare title – Microsoft acquired rare a while ago, and have yet to see something impressive from them.
- Microsoft steals another Sony exclusive – People said it wasn’t going to happen with Final Fantasy and Metal Gear, but they were wrong.
- Microsoft announces a new IP – Currently the Microsoft library consists of mainly sequels, so a fresh new game would be suitable.
- Free to play MMORPG on Xbox – The one genre that hasn’t been done right on consoles is MMORPGs. What would be insane is if Microsoft landed a deal with Blizzard, to make a free to play MMO that featured micro transactions in place of the online fee.
- Natal is priced at $100 – As much as people want Natal to be around $50, it’s not like Microsoft to sell peripherals at an affordable price.