So MS didn' t really have anything interesting to say much, however they announced Pro Evo 6 and Fifa 07 would be exclusive to 360 for 12 months!

I don' t like football games much, but this is a big deal against sony, especially in the UK.

ORIGINAL: IGN

August 23, 2006 - Directly following Nintendo' s press conference this morning in Germany, Microsoft followed up with a press conference of its own. The press conference was held in a round elevated theater in the middle of the booth, which is basically the same as last year: an outdoor theme with Astroturf, sand, and lots of fake trees.

Although he was pre-taped, Speech from Arrested Development opened up the press briefing. Speech was followed by Stephan Brechtmann, Director of the Home and Entertainment Division for Microsoft Germany.

Brechtmann also said that Speech from Arrested Development would perform live onstage later, and soon after introduced Chris Lewis, the Regional Vice President of Entertainment Devices in Europe.

Lewis opened up by giving a few stats, stating that Microsoft has shipped 1.3 million consoles in Europe, and claiming that this is the fastest console launch in history. However, they didn' t comment on hard sales numbers in Europe. Chris Lewis did say Microsoft expects to have 10 million units shipped worldwide by this Christmas, along with a catalogue of 160 high-def games.

Lewis then went on to talk a bit about the Xbox 360 expanding into Eastern Europe. Gamers in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia can expect the Xbox 360 to launch there on November 3, 2006.

Hughes Ricour from Electronic Arts then took the stage and showed off the new FIFA ' 07 engine, and stressed that realistic physics and movement would be key.

Next it was time for more stats as well as some partnership announcements. MS reported that more than half of all Xbox 360 users in Germany were on Xbox Live, and that online gaming key to the European market. Microsoft then announced that they were forming a partnership with BMW and Mini, and unveiled an Xbox 360-branded Mini Cooper. However, they didn' t explain much about the partnership or how it would affect gamers, if at all.

The focus of the presentation then changed from the Xbox 360 to Windows gaming as Rick Wickham from the Windows Gaming Business Entertainment and Devices Division took the stage. Several high-profile developers talked a bit about Windows gaming and how Vista is going to be an even more powerful and tailored platform for gaming. Bill Roper showed up on video to show about 15 seconds of Hellgate: London, and also talked a bit about the smart save snapshots which will show you a screenshot of your current save game. Cevat Yeril from Crytek was up next and talked very briefly about Crysis, which is looking incredible. Funcom' s Conan was up next, which was also looking amazing. Expect hands-on reports from all of these games soon.

Wickham took the stage again and talked about Microsoft' s new brand name for Windows games, simply entitled " Games for Windows." This new label should start showing up on Microsoft games later this fall. After the brand announcement and a quick announcement of Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania, MS showed about five seconds of Halo 2 for Window' s Vista, which consisted of a multiplayer match. A few other games were shown, most notably about five seconds of Shadowrun. Unfortunately it was just CGI footage, so no gameplay was shown.

For hardware, Wickham announced that Microsoft would be bringing back the Intellimouse 3.0 and also announced a new mouse they were branding in conjunction with Razor. Wickham then announced that all Xbox 360 wireless accessories will work with Windows starting later this fall.

Scott Andersen, Business Development Manager showed of Flight Simulator X, and played the game using an Xbox 360 wireless controller. There was then a very brief demonstration of Crysis, showing off some of the dense jungle with fully destructible environments as well as a burning aircraft carrier.

Although it was pulled from the show last minute, Microsoft did show a bit of Forza 2 at the conference. Like Shadowrun, the footage was only CGI, so we didn' t get to see any actual gameplay at the conference. However, we should have a chance to see plenty on the game before it is released this winter.

Chris Kimell from Microsoft Game Studios showed off some of Viva Piñata, which was very choppy at this point. Kimell did say that the game would tie in with the television show, and you could even get tips on how to play from Fergie the Fudgehog.

Xbox Live and Arcade was the focus of the next portion of the presentation. In addition to talking generally about XBLA and reiterating that over halfAnd said popular board games such as Alhambra and Settlers of Catan would be available later this year for download.

Although no definite price or release date was announced at the conference, Microsoft did mention that the HD-DVD player would be released in Europe in Fall 2006. They showed some of the movie Serenity in HD, and showed that you can chat online, check your achievements, send messages, check on friends, and basically perform any Xbox 360 online functions while watching HD-DVDs. They also showed off a wireless headset and wireless wheel, and the wireless gaming receiver for Windows to interface with Xbox 360 devices. The Xbox Live Vision camera also made a brief appearance.

Chris Satchell, General Manager of the Game Developer Group, took the stage next and showed off how XBL will interface with wireless devices such as cell phones to allow you to communicate with your online friends and share achievement accomplishments.

Satchell then gave us a glimpse of XNA and the new suite if game building tools for wannabe developers. He built a very simple side-scrolling plane game in under two minutes. Of course if wasn' t the most detailed game out there, but it does show that the tools will be there for those of you who have dreams of creating your own games.

The video wall flashed with a sizzle reel showing a bunch of their games, including Lost Planet, Table Tennis, Brothers in Arms 3, Mass Effect, NHL 2K7, F.E.A.R., Too Human, Viva Piñata, MotoGP, LotR: BfME 2, Sonic the Hedgehog, Madden NFL, World Series of Poker, Saints Row, Smackdown, Stranglehold, Enchant Arms, Test Drive Unlimited, NCAA Football, and Pro Evo 6. The big announcement for Microsoft Europe was that Pro Evo 6 and FIFA ' 07 would be exclusive to the Xbox 360 for the next 12 months.

All in all there wasn' t much big news that came out of the Microsoft conference, which is rather disappointing since we were expecting at least something since Microsoft used the German Games Convention to announce the release date and price of the Xbox 360 last year.

I don' t like football games but loads of people here are fanatic about them so it might be a big thing or not. Did anyone see nintendo' s conference?....wasn' t interesting at all unfortunately.

Yeah i read about it... I was gonna post that here too, but thought i' d keep this just for ms.

When is Sony' s conference?

I wonder if Konami will do like capcom did in the old days and while pro evo 6 is exclusive release a different version for ps3. Like capcom did with SF on the snes and megadrive

Sony was suppose to be before both ms and nintendo but pushed it back and as far as I know they haven' t confirmed a time yet ut it should be soon.

So MS didn' t really have anything interesting to say much, however they announced Pro Evo 6 and Fifa 07 would be exclusive to 360 for 12 months!

I don' t like football games much, but this is a big deal against sony, especially in the UK.

Not just the UK but all of Europe. We just had the world cup and these tewo games are hotly anticipated (especially Pro Evolution 6).

It should be noted that the Japanese are football/soccer mad too so this could potentially help Microsoft there.

This is actually HUGE news for European gamers bothy casual and hardcore alike. Both series' s sold in massive numbers on PS2 and 12 months exclusivity could mean an awful lot for Microsoft if only in Europe.

Now they need to do exactly the same with NFL titles for the US.

Do you expect to see a work around though majik?

Surely this would put Sony with no football/soccer games for a year.

Maybe there wont be a work around, maybe Sony will have to secure a soccer game elsewhere. But its going to be rough if they cant have FIFA on their console.

i can' t believe MS bought BOTH though, maybe sony will have to come out with their own

Wow... that' s just incredible... The two sluttiest series and M$ willy-waved
them both to exclusivity.

The funny thing is, there is this annoying guy who sits right next to me
at work and talks about games non-stop, he also is getting the PS3 just
for PES 6...........

This' ll put a bee in his bonnet...

Fifa 2007

http://www.xboxyde.com/news_3333_en.aspx

This is a bit of a shocker.. so Sony can' t get any FIFA game fro 12 months?

Or just 07?

It seems as though it is just fifa 07 and pes 6... other games in the series i guess would be fine. Because the titles are mentioned by name, rather than series.

Wow 360 kick ass.

Do you expect to see a work around though majik?

Surely this would put Sony with no football/soccer games for a year.

Yeah, Sony' s own World Tour Soccer. It' s already in development for PS3.

The only other thing is them securing some sort of offshoot, but getting around the licences would be a nightmare. Fifa is huge because everything is 100% officially replicated for the season and Pro Evolution is insanely popular because it' s a " better" game. The fact that Sony will have neither is a big surprise to me and the fact that Microsoft have waited until GC (a European convention and in Germany, the location of the recent world cup) to announce than not one but both of the biggest football/soccer franchises will be exclusive for 12 months is genius.

It' d make sense to have demo' s on XBL soon for both titles to generate hype. EA' s new Fifa technology is supposed to be amazing.

Moving on slightly, i didn' t expect much from Microsoft this week because they' ll need everything they have for TGS next month. Sony' s presence will be huge, as will Nintendo' s and Microsoft will need as much a possible to make sure they don' t get completely overshadowed.

Like majik said - Japanese are crazy about their Winning Eleven games (pro evolution) and so is the majority of European gamers.

This is a really big thing for MS.I didn' t expect this... Very smart move indeed.It' s the Virtua Fighter of football games after all.



lookin good...

It' s the Virtua Fighter of football games after all.

That' s a superb way to put it!

My brother who loves sportsgames and is a sonyfanboy.
Said he is getting mgs4+pes6 for ps3 at launch.

I guess he is in for a suprise

ORIGINAL: QuezcatoL

My brother who loves sportsgames and is a sonyfanboy.
Said he is getting mgs4+pes6 for ps3 at launch.

I guess he is in for a suprise

He sure is cos mgs4 isn' t a launch game....

Yeah,he lives with his GF and has no computer,has been so for a year.
So he doesnt know much

Microsoft LIED at their conference!
They' re evil I tell you! Evil!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/728/728533p1.aspx
" GC 2006: Pro Evo and FIFA Not so Exclusive?
Konami to Microsoft: " BALLS!!!"
by Tal Blevins
August 26, 2006 - Seems like there' s a little confusion floating around the world about at least one of the announcements Microsoft made at the German Games Convention this week.

In their GC press conference in Leipzig that we attended, Microsoft specifically announced that the next iterations of Pro Evolution Soccer and FIFA would only be available on the Xbox 360 for the next 12 months. Given that their press conference was held on August 23, 2006, you would assume that means you would mean Xbox 360 had Pro Evo and FIFA exclusively through August 23, 2007.

However, shortly after the press conference, Konami denied that there was a 12-month exclusivity deal in place for the Pro Evolution series.

We interviewed Pro Evolution Soccer producer Shingo " Seabass" Takatsuka today and he told us that next-gen version of Pro Evolution Soccer 6 would be exclusive to the Xbox 360 through the end of the year, but not for 12 months. He also confirmed that a PlayStation 3 version of the game was already being worked on, and would most likely be released in spring or summer of next year, although no specific release date had been confirmed as of yet.

Seabass also made it clear that the current-gen versions -- PC, PS2, DS, PSP -- will all still be coming out at the same time as the Xbox 360 version.

Konami Japan went so far as to release this statement (translated) to explain the situation:

" There are some articles (or some statements which could lead to the misunderstanding) at some websites and other sources stating that Konami' s soccer game Pro Evolution Soccer 6 will be released as an exclusive Xbox 360 title. However, this is not true. Pro Evolution Soccer 6 is being developed for multiple platforms so that many consumers will be able to enjoy it."

According to what we' ve heard from EA representatives at the show, the FIFA deal seems to be similar, and there could be a much shorter window of exclusivity than what Microsoft originally announced."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I love these kind of news, just to mess with all the 360 fanboys here .