Microsoft

LOS ANGELES--And then it was Sony's turn.

After Microsoft grabbed the spotlight with its Monday morning press conference, and Nintendo was the star earlier today, Sony got everyone's attention Tuesday afternoon with its own set of announcements.

Topping the bill for Sony and its PlayStation group was its plans to enable 3D gaming right away. Kaz Hirai, the president of Sony's Networked Products and Services group, touted the company's "end-to-end" 3D offerings, from its Bravia 3D TVs to its new roster of 3D-enabled games for the PlayStation 3.

Immediately, Hirai said, games like Super Stardust, Pain and Wipeout will be available in 3D from the PlayStation Store, and more than 20 additional titles will be added to the roster by the end of 2010. And even more titles will be coming in 3D next year, including Killzone 3, which was given a big, loud demo at the press conference. As well, PS3 users--all of whom will be able to play in 3D--can look forward to titles like Mortal Kombat, Tron: Evolution, NBA 2K11, Motorzone Apocalypse and Gran Turismo 5.

After 3D gaming, the second major piece of the puzzle for Sony Tuesday was PlayStation Move, its motion-controller system, which it first unveiled at E3 a year ago and talked about in more detail in March at the Game Developers Conference. But on Tuesday, Sony was able to talk in much more detail about specific games that will be Move-enabled. … Read more

Monday we told you about Microsoft's ESPN on Xbox Live announcement made at the company's E3 press conference. The service allows Gold Xbox Live members to access content from the ESPN3 portal and stream live and on-demand sporting events right to their consoles.

Unfortunately, a major caveat reveals that not everyone with an Xbox 360 and Gold membership will be able to enjoy the content. According to ESPN3.com and the press release announcing the partnership with Microsoft, only certain Xbox 360 owners with participating ISPs will be able to receive the streams.

Having had a few opportunities to play around with Microsoft's Kinect camera peripheral over the past year (then it was still called Project Natal), we were eager to try the seemingly finalized version displayed at E3 (see the video below for highlights from our hands-on session).

The first thing we noticed was that the Kinect hardware was visually very close (as far as we could tell) to the demo devices seen as far back as E3 2009, despite rumblings from Microsoft reps during the year that the design was subject to change. It's a physically large device, and … Read more

LOS ANGELES--Video game maker Ubisoft announced Monday that it expects to publish a game in time for holiday 2010 based on the life and performances of Michael Jackson.

According to a release from Ubisoft, which was timed to the E3 video game convention, the game, which doesn't yet have a name, will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS, and Sony PlayStation Portable. It will also be compatible with Kinect for Xbox and PlayStation Move.

Although it is planned for a holiday 2010 release, it's not clear if it will be one of the 15 … Read more

Crysis 2 "will be the first major video game on multiple platforms to take full advantage of true stereoscopic 3D," according to an EA news release. Until now, we've assumed the PlayStation 3 is the only current-generation console capable of 3D gaming since it supports a newer HDMI specification.

If EA is correct, why didn't Microsoft announce such a thing at the company's news conference this morning? Sony has certainly been riding the 3D bandwagon, so a Microsoft counter-attack wouldn't be out of the question.

The original Crysis took advantage of the horsepower-demanding proprietary … Read more

Microsoft was quick to show the latest trailer and gameplay footage for Hideo Kojima's latest in the Metal Gear Solid universe. Rising lets players play as the sword-wielding Raiden and gives them ultimate control over where and what the lethal weapon slices.

Still, not a lot is known in terms of a release date and whether Rising will have a timed exclusivity deal with the Xbox 360.

Without a doubt, one of Microsoft's most valuable video game franchises was highlighted Monday at the company's E3 2010 press conference; Halo: Reach takes place before the events of the original Halo trilogy. Gamers can join the Spartan resistance against the Convenant this September when Halo: Reach is set to ship.

The title has already enjoyed success due to the 2.7 million players who participated in the limited multiplayer beta last month.

Just as we suspected back in January, Microsoft has announced an exclusive partnership with ESPN to bring live and on-demand sports coverage to Xbox Live. On hand to reveal the news were ESPN personalities Josh Elliott and Trey Wingo.

The ESPN service will offer 3,500 live events in addition to on-demand content from college football and basketball, MLB, NBA, and soccer games; though there was no direct mention of the NFL and NHL. These streaming games will also offer some DVR functionality too as Elliot and Wingo demonstrated replay modes using voice control through Kinect.

Also enhancing the ESPN … Read more

news analysis LOS ANGELES--If one thing was clear in the lead-up to the Xbox 360 E3 press conference, it was that hard-core gamers felt threatened by Microsoft's obvious move toward casual gaming with its forthcoming Kinect motion control system.

But while the company is indeed hoping Kinect and its ease of use and accessibility to just about anyone can help it capture a much larger audience, it also wants its longtime loyalists to know they haven't been forgotten.

That much was evident at the press conference, which took place here Monday morning. Before Kinect was ever mentioned, those in the audience were blasted with demos of purely hard-core titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops, Metal Gear Solid: Rising, Halo: Reach, and Gears of War 3. The new Call of Duty, from the developer Treyarch, rather than Infinity Ward, which made the record-breaking Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, will be released on November 9, while Halo: Reach is expected in September. … Read more