The ScooterBlog

Today I propose a new name for the new E3 … Min-E3 is nice, but in the tradition of Nintendo, I’m going to refer to it as “E3 Lite”. It’s got a ring to it.

Anyways, Microsoft’s press conference was last night. There’s no point in doing a huge re-hash of everything covered; Joystiq, Kotaku, and even Bagder’s rundown do a fine enough job of giving you the news. My takes on everything would be:

• Not shocked about the new controller colors … but not fishing for ‘em either. I got my four pads back in the “white only” days of 360 pads, and I’m not desperate to get new opaque colors to set them apart. Now if they had that cool translucency thing going on like the XBox ones did, then we’re on to something! But yeah, not a need, considering my last 2 new ones cost less total ($40) than a new one ($50) now.
• Gears and Viva Pinata on the PC look like great idea. Wouldn’t Viva Pinata make a great game for PC / 360 combined multiplayer? Seems like a perfect fit. The level editor in Gears could be a lot of fun too (should I ever have a capable system!)
• The Messenger Kit is $30 I surely don’t need to spend, but totally will! I might use it as much as I use my Vista Controller Box (zero), but yet I still must have it. Curse this gadget addiction!
• The XBLA content will continue to be cool things that I’m going to enjoy playing, and I’m so glad they are continuing to support this.
• The Halo System SKU will also be fun for the hardcore players, but it will have a better effect for me and a lot of friends. It will drive the cost of used 360 systems down because I would expect a large percentage of the people buying that system to be previous 360 owners. I hope it’s Elite hardware, and it better come with the drive transfer cable.
• The games are all exciting, but at the same time, they’re games I see myself wanting and never finishing, longer lasting RPG’s that my attention span sometimes doesn’t agree with. Still, RPG’s on the 360 is huge.

If the price drop doesn’t end up happening at E3, and it’s looking like it won’t, my bet is on the price drop to hit on November 1st, just in time for the holiday season and in time to give 360 a boost which could knock out Sony, and give it some more legs against the Wii.

Those are the thoughts. Nintendo and Sony coming later. The Sony conference has started as of when I finish this entry (2:40 PM)