E3 2008 Part I

Music, movies and megahits. No matter what kind of game makes your heart race, the world of Xbox 360® has become bigger, broader, and more exciting than ever with the game announcements made at the E3 Media and Business Summit (E3) in Los Angeles. Included are new titles for music lovers such as Lips and the exclusive launch of Rock Band 2, family-friendly games from the B-movie maker You're in the Movies to next-generation game shows such as 1 vs. 100, and even surprise announcements to make the hardest-core gamer weak in the knees, such as the reveal of Final Fantasy XIII.

The new music game Lips was announced at E3.

"Xbox 360 delivers entertainment choices so broad that it now rivals what people can find on television and at movie theaters," said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of strategy and business development with Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business. "Whether it's sports, music, movies, game shows, or great games you crave, Xbox 360 is home to the biggest and best out there. From those new to games and eager to jump in, to the hardcore gamer looking for the most intense games experiences, this is truly the year to own an Xbox 360 system."

The New Game Show Experience
Xbox LIVE® Primetime is a groundbreaking channel on the new Xbox experience, a new generation of games and entertainment experiences that will be available this fall. The world's biggest virtual game show stage, Xbox LIVE Primetime, is a place where content is always fresh, play is global, live, and massively multiplayer, and prizes are plentiful. A first-of-its-kind phenomenon, this new generation of interactive game shows lets Xbox LIVE members challenge friends and choose to compete against people from across the globe in real time. Xbox LIVE Primetime launches in the fall with:

• 1 vs. 100 (Endemol): From the makers of Deal or No Deal, Endemol, the world's largest independent production company, brings the popular television game show 1 vs. 100 to Xbox LIVE Primetime. The exclusive game pits one Xbox LIVE member against 100 others from around the world with a live host and great prizes. The goal of "the One" is to eliminate all opposition by correctly answering questions, hoping opponents will answer incorrectly and be eliminated from the game. And stay tuned for 1 vs. LIVE, where one lucky winner will have a chance to compete against the entire Xbox LIVE community.

Bringing Music Games to Life
Whether you're an aspiring groupie, songbird or big-haired rocker, Xbox 360 transforms your living room into a thrilling soundstage for you and your friends. No other system connects you with all the music you love:

• Lips (iNiS/Microsoft Game Studios): An all-new music franchise exclusively for Xbox 360, Lips is the only singing game that offers wireless motion-sensitive microphones and the ability to sing from your own music collection. Start channeling your favorite pop star, because it's you, your friends and, most important, your music that makes this the world's ultimate party experience this holiday.

The Music Studio from Guitar Hero World Tour allows players to share their own created music.

• Guitar Hero^®World Tour (RedOctane/Activision): When the house lights go down this fall, a new generation of axe shredders, drummers, and fearless frontmen will come together and rock with Guitar Hero World Tour. The latest installment from the number one best-selling video game franchise of 2007, this game will transform music gaming by marrying exhilarating guitar gameplay with a cooperative band experience, combining the most advanced wireless instruments with revolutionary new online and offline gameplay modes. The game features a slick newly redesigned guitar, a genuine electronic drum kit and a microphone, as well as an innovative Music Studio music creator letting players compose, record, edit, and share their own rock-and-roll anthems, along with online Band Career and eight-player Battle of the Bands.
• Rock Band 2 (Harmonix/MTV Games): Debuting exclusively on Xbox 360 this September,Rock Band 2 is the next evolution of the franchise allowing you to virtually step into the shoes of your favorite bands as singer, guitarist, bassist, or drummer. This next iteration of the best-selling franchise allows access to all the great songs purchased on Xbox LIVE for the original game, and features new online capabilities and instrument options.

Xbox 360 Is the Life of the Party
Xbox 360 truly gets the party started with a wide-ranging portfolio of exclusive games for the whole family, including the following:

• You're in the Movies (Codemasters/Microsoft): Get ready for your close-up. You're in the Movies brings the cool factor to kitsch as you live out your dreams of becoming a scream queen, zombie, or kung fu fighter. Premiering exclusively on Xbox 360 this holiday season, You're in the Movies is the first and only game of its kind to literally transport players into a magical world of cinema mixed with the hilarious world of improvisation. Using the Xbox LIVE Vision camera, players' actions are captured and placed into short, riotous films. Performances never end up on the cutting-room floor, and are never the same.

Make your own movies with You're in the Movies.

• Scene It?® Box Office Smash (Krome Studios and Screenlife/Microsoft Game Studios): Ignite your game night this holiday season with totally new questions, movie puzzles, and more high-definition content from real movies including some of Hollywood's latest blockbusters. Trivia night goes global as players challenge each other online over Xbox LIVE, customize their own characters, and access extra questions and localized content from films around the world.
• Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (Rare Ltd./Microsoft Game Studios): Available exclusively on Xbox 360 in November from the creative masterminds at Rare, this action-adventure game breathes new life into a franchise that has entertained people of all ages for a decade. In a platform genre first, players create their own abilities by building vehicles for Banjo to pilot over land, sea, and air in a variety of challenges where choice of vehicle and tactics determines the course of the adventure. Test your customized vehicles against other players' creations online, or simply compare and share inventions with friends. The original Banjo-Kazooie also debuts withStop 'N' Swop on Xbox LIVE Arcade later this year.
• DanceDanceRevolution® UNIVERSE 3 (Konami): Celebrating its tenth anniversary,DanceDanceRevolution UNIVERSE 3 dances its way to you with fun new modes—including DJ Mode and Quest Mode—and settings for players of all skill levels. In addition to one of the biggest soundtracks—more than 70 songs from the 70s to some of today's hottest tracks—you can bring friends together from around the world via Xbox LIVE. Character customization features more than 400 options of clothing, faces, skin tones, and hairstyles, allowing players to create the ultimate dancer.

Dance your way into the heart of DanceDanceRevolution UNIVERSE 3.

• UNO RUSH™ (Microsoft): Developed by the same team that brought the original, best-sellingUNO®to Xbox LIVE Arcade, this challenging and exciting party card game for up to four players boasts a wide range of gameplay and social features—multiple variants, house-rule options, local and Xbox LIVE multiplay, camera support, avatar support, and more—plus fast-paced gameplay to keep the party going. UNO RUSH is coming exclusively to Xbox LIVE Arcade in 2008.
• Viva Piñata®: Trouble in Paradise (Rare Ltd./Microsoft Game Studios): In this sequel debuting in September, venture outside the boundaries of the ever-changing garden to retrieve exotic piñata species from two new lands, the Dessert Desert and the Piñarctic. Developed by Rare, the game allows up to four players to work together to create the ultimate online garden via Xbox LIVE. Race your favorite piñata or enter them into the P-Factor, Piñata Islands' very own talent show and beauty pageant, online against friends, or against other gardeners from the island. Use the Xbox LIVE Vision camera to drop a new piñata right into your garden, change the weather, or share your custom piñatas with others.

The piñatas are at it again in Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise.

Biggest Blockbusters of 2008 and Beyond
With the most blockbuster million-selling games and the most anticipated titles of 2008 and beyond, Xbox 360 is the pre-eminent place to play all the big titles gamers thirst for, including the following:

• Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix): This eagerly-anticipated title from Square Enix takes full advantage of the superior power and technology in Xbox 360, providing intuitive controls while delivering seamless transitions between real-time gameplay and stunning in-game cinematics. Using the latest in cutting-edge technology, this latest addition to theFinal Fantasy series is worthy of the title "next generation."
• Galaga Legions (NAMCO BANDAI Games): The legend lives on with Galaga Legionsdebuting exclusively on Xbox LIVE Arcade in 2008. Featuring table-turning game dynamics, updated graphics, and vast waves of ferocious enemies, Galaga Legions was created by the same team that developed the best-selling PAC-MAN Championship Edition™for Xbox LIVE Arcade.
• Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 (Bizarre Creations Ltd./Activision): The latest version of the frenetic retro shooter, and debuting exclusively on Xbox LIVE Arcade in 2008, newcomers and pros alike will be blown away by the screen-melting intensity and insane new features, including six action-packed gameplay modes, new enemies, scoring strategies, and a diverse list of exciting Achievements. The game also supports multiplayer mayhem for up to four players, with versus or co-op modes, and features razor-sharp 1080p graphics and new, pulse-pounding music.

More Arcade goodness with Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2.

• Portal^™: Still Alive (Valve/Microsoft): Portal: Still Alivefeatures the full award-winning Portalsingle-player game from Valve plus a new challenge mode. Designed to change the way players approach, manipulate, and surmise the possibilities in any given environment, Portal has earned more than 70 industry honors for its innovative gameplay, with more than 30 Game of the Year Awards. Solve physical puzzles and challenges by opening portals to maneuvering objects, and yourself, through space. The game debuts on Xbox LIVE Arcade in 2008.
• South Park (South Park Digital Studios/ Doublesix/Microsoft): Based on the Emmy- and Peabody-award winning show, a South Park game (title TBA) is coming exclusively to Xbox LIVE Arcade in 2009.
• Fable® II (Lionhead Studios/Microsoft Game Studios): This Xbox 360 exclusive action role-playing game offers players an epic storyline and an unprecedented level of freedom and choice. Every decision defines who the player becomes and influences the evolving world around them. The game features an innovative dynamic cooperative mode, allowing you to invite a friend on the same couch to play or over Xbox LIVE to experience the world together. The journey begins in August with a first-of-its-kind exclusive Xbox LIVE Arcade title, where you can get a head start on earning gold to transfer to the rich world ofFable II when it arrives at stores in October.
• Gears of War® 2 (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios): Epic Games' design director Cliff Bleszinski gave a stunning new look at the Gears of War 2 campaign during E3, and confirmed the ability to ride the fearsome Brumak. Also detailed was the all-new five-player cooperative mode Horde, where players unite to battle a seemingly endless onslaught of Locust Horde forces. This most-anticipated Xbox 360 exclusive title releases worldwide November 7.

The world awaits Gears of War 2.

• Grand Theft Auto IV™ (Rockstar North/Rockstar Games): Continuing its blistering pace on the Xbox 360 platform, the first of the Xbox 360 exclusive downloadable episodes for this record-breaking game will be available this fall—the only console with new Grand Theft Auto IV content available this holiday season.
• Halo Wars™ (Ensemble Studios/Microsoft Game Studios): Microsoft expands the Halo universe with Halo Wars, the blockbuster strategy game designed exclusively for Xbox 360. A piece of the Halo Wars story is revealed through "Five Long Years," a trailer from Ensemble Studios and Microsoft, showcasing the brutal struggle for control of Harvest early in the Human-Covenant wars. Halo Wars puts gamers in command of the entire battlefield, leading both UNSC and Covenant forces.

Continue the Halo experience with Halo Wars.

• Infinite Undiscovery™ (Square Enix): In the newest fantasy role-playing console game from Square Enix, experience a real-time world woven of countless threads where player choices spin untold discoveries, and only on Xbox 360. Players are confronted with a variety of dramatic situational battles, such as executing a daring escape while a gigantic ogre follows in hot pursuit, or waging battle amid towering tidal waves. Dynamic environments change and respond in real time, creating an entirely new experience never before seen in the genre. The title is scheduled to release exclusively on Xbox 360 in North America on September 2, 2008.
• The Last Remnant™ (Square Enix): A new role-playing game crafted using the finest artistry and technology Square Enix has to offer, The Last Remnant is set in a fantasy world, war-torn, and scarred by years of conflict. Gameplay revolves around mysterious artifacts—Remnants—that possess magic powers. Groundbreaking graphics possible only on Xbox 360 bring the intensity to a whole new level. The game launches worldwide on November 20 exclusvely on Xbox 360.
• Resident Evil 5 (Capcom): Destined to bring new fans to the series, Resident Evil 5 is the sequel to one of the highest-rated video games in history (according to Metacritic.com and Gamerankings.com). Promising to revolutionize the series by delivering an unbelievable level of detail, realism and control, Resident Evil 5 unleashes an unprecedented level of fear for the next generation. New technology developed specifically for the game, as well as incredible changes to both the gameplay and the world, make this a must-have game for gamers across the globe.
• STAR OCEAN®: The Last Hope™ (Square Enix): The long-awaited continuation of the celebrated science fiction and fantasy role-playing game series is slated for release on Xbox 360 in spring 2009. This prequel set during the aftermath of World War III spans multiple planets and the vastness of space itself to recount the origins of the STAR OCEAN universe. Exhilarating combat expands upon the franchise's famous real-time battle system, introducing the amazing graphics and visual effects possible only on Xbox 360.
• Too Human™ (Silicon Knights/Microsoft Game Studios): An epic action game with integrated role-playing game elements, Too Human will be available in North America August 19 and in Europe August 29. The game features a rich storyline with deep character development, both hallmarks of Silicon Knights' legendary tradition of video game development.