E3 2012 Roundup – Microsoft Predictions

With E3 week officially over, let’s take a look back and see how well our crystal ball served us in predicting the show. First up – Microsoft.

• Kinect shovelware – Of course…Dance Central 3 (a third one, already?), Nike+, and Wreckateer proved that Microsoft is still trying to grab that elusive casual audience that Nintendo already has wrapped around their little finger.
• Kinect for the core gamer – Splinter Cell: Blacklist specifically, which will have Kinect functionality.
• Halo 4 – It kicked off the conference with a surprisingly impressive demo showing new enemies and enhanced gameplay.
• Forza Horizon – It was there, though only with a brief trailer.
• No New Xbox – Microsoft said it wouldn’t be shown at E3 this year, and they were telling the truth.
• From “Game Console” to “Entertainment Center” – A huge chunk of the conference was devoted to touting new “entertainment” features coming to 360, from expanded Bing search to sports apps and Nickelodeon.
• Internet Explorer – Coming to 360, with Kinect voice integration.
• Black Ops II demo – MS chose to end the conference with the annual requisite Call of Duty demo, and the usual “DLC coming first to Xbox 360!”

• 360 Price Drop – For the second year in a row, we predicted this, and for the second year in a row we were wrong. Microsoft is locked into that same $199/299 price point for the sans-Kinect 360.
• Xbox Live Android app – Not announced at E3, but it’s likely that it will happen at some point in the future.
• Alan Wake 2 – Not a peep about this – it’s probably not coming until next gen at this point.
• Final Fantasy XIII-3 – This was admittedly a long shot, as FF games are usually announced at TGS, and with the 360’s unpopularity in Japan it’s likely that it’d be announced for PS3.
• Fable 4 – Nope. Microsoft is still concentrating on Fable: The Journey to represent the next entry in the series.

Overall not bad at all: 8 out of 13. Of course, part of that is because Microsoft’s conferences have become so predictable. Check back soon for Sony and Nintendo!