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E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) opened officially today, and at 9:30, Microsoft made their 90-minute presentation.  I’ve just finished watching it in its entirety, and here are my reactions. Your mileage may vary.

The stage practically SCREAMED XBox – green neon everywhere.  Well, it’s an Entertainment presentation, so that was very appropriate.  We’ve been hearing the rumors that Zune is dead, and will be replaced by the XBox brand, so I was expecting to hear more on that as well, but of course most of the presentation was focused on games.  The games were Very Heavily first person shooters (FPSes), which I personally don’t care for, so I’m not going to review the games, but some of the tech implications.
MS came out swinging, noting that the XBox has moved from being #1 in North America to being #1 in the world among consoles.  MS has really been pushing the XBox, and I think Sony took a hit with the security breach in April of last year.  They seem to me (and this is highly subjective) to have become complacent, as well.
The first hint of a massive shift to consolidation simply came from the name of the presentation: XBox Global Media.  That says to me that they’re putting all entertainment – games, music, video – under the XBox label.  That was confirmed in my mind very quickly into the first speaker, MS President of Interactive Entertainment Don Mattrick, as he said that MS was bringing “games, movies, sports, TV, music, and social” together “all through the magic of Kinect.”  In practical terms, bye-bye Zune, hello XBox: XBox Games, XBox Music, and XBox Video.  It also has some other implications of interactivity between form factors, which I’ll get to in a moment.
From Head of Marketing and Strategy, Yusuf Mehdi: Entertainment isn’t “just movies and games” but also music, television, and “all the entertainment you’ve been looking forward to.”  This is a recurring theme, and certainly is going to be a big motivator behind everything that MS will be doing in the immediate future.  It will all be about connections.
Not actually owning an XBox (a serious flaw, I know), I really don’t know the current capabilities.  But evidently a new ability in the XBox+Kinect marriage is searching your video by genre. Or maybe it’s just searching by genre by Voice that’s new, that wasn’t quite clear to me.  I wasn’t aware of the Kinect vocal command abilities, but I think that’s really cool; I think my young Son would think that’s a blast.

Sports:
If you’re a sports nut, you’ll be glad to know that XBox will be adding content from the MLB, the NHL, the NBA, and ESPN.
Which leads us into the presentation from EA Sports’ Andrew Wilson, EA Sports + Kinect.  The first titles to get this combination will be FIFA and Madden.  They even trotted out former quarterback Joe Montana do run the game while Wilson talked about it.
The voice commands give a whole new dimension to the gameplay, imnho.  I can really see my husband, and anyone who has ever been an armchair quarterback, getting into that.

Fitness + Kinect
Holy Mother of God, what an incredible idea!  And I’m not talking Wii Fit, either, or some half-assed fitness wannabe.  Nike is coming out with Nike+, a training application for your XBox (with a companion app for your Windows Phone that reminds you of your workouts. I suspect it will also give you data as well, but that wasn’t specified) that uses the same assessment measures and feedback that they use at their professional athletic training facility.  Nike+ will also connect you to other participants through XBox Live, which is another good idea because we all know that working, and competing, with others can be a strong motivator.
The only concern that I had with this while watching the demo was that there were a lot of knee bends and jumping activities.  I’d really love to get into this, but I’ve already got arthritis in my knees, and I don’t think I can handle that impact, at least at the start of any regimen.  I hope that is something that can be noted in any setup.

SmartGlass
Now for the tidbit that EVERYONE’s been talking about: SmartGlass.  Head of XBox Live Mark Whitten came out and started talking immediately of smartphones and tablets, saying that devices “aren’t so smart because they don’t work together.”  This is the meat and the center of MS’ philosophy going forward, I think, with the “one OS, many devices” approach.
SmartGlass itself is simply an application that will run on Windows, iOS, and Android.  This is a Major Win for MS, and a damn good strategy: don’t alienate people who already have {insert device or devices here}.  What SmartGlass will do is allow you, the user, to use multiple devices in tandem.  Here are some examples:

• Start watching a movie, say, on a plane, or during your train commute, on your tablet or smartphone.  When you get home, you can “transfer” it to your XBox and television.  Suddenly on your tablet or smartphone you get some companion information: cast, characters, or other movie information.
• You’re a Game of Thrones fan.  (I admit to not having watched it at all.  I have a child under 10.)  While watching it through your XBox, your tablet can show a map of where the characters are.  When the scene changes, the map moves along with it.
  This particular example does have me slightly worried, although this may be a topic better suited to Dr. Jim.  As with “3D,” producers may start producing special “multi-screen” content, causing us, the viewer, to split our already limited Western attention more, and put more input into our already input-overloaded senses.  “Oh, but I can multitask so well” you say.  Bull, I say.  No One truly multitasks.  We simply CANNOT do two things at once well – what we’re really doing is splitting our attention between more than 1 thing, therefore doing neither one completely.  But I digress…
• You’re playing Madden NFL.  On your XBox, you see the field of play, and your playcalling options.  On your tablet, you can select a play and, using the touchscreen, actually adjust the route (longer, shorter, a slight variation here) so you’re no longer stuck with just the pre-programmed routes.  You can also call up individual player information, to see their strengths.
• You’re playing Halo 4.  As you move through the field of play, you grab your tablet and call up a schematic of the ship, or a map of the area you’re in.  Then you see a notice that your friend wants to play jointly with you.  You can accept on the tablet, and the game will save your state and add your friend.
• Your smartphone and your table can now be your XBox controller.  This probably isn’t good for games, but it is good for browsing.  Yes, IE 10 is coming to XBox if you haven’t heard.  This has been something the users have been asking for, and MS didn’t want to give a half-assed version of a browser that was slow and unwieldy.  But your touchscreen device can become your mouse and your keyboard.  And that’s a better idea than a separate, dedicated keyboard you have to buy extra.
• Which brings us to the last point:  SmartGlass runs on Windows, iOS, and Android as I said, so you don’t have to buy any new devices!  Just use what you’ve got.  Being cheap, I LOVE that part.

So there we are for the more technology-focused review.  Now for the games:
Wow, there’s a lot of FPSes, and a High gore factor!  I personally don’t care for FPSes, and as I said I have an under-10 year old.  There’s No Way in Hades I’d bring in Ascend: New Gods into the house – that one had the highest gore factor.  Resident Evil 6 is, well, Resident Evil.  It seems to me no less nor more bloody than previous versions: there’s zombie and character blood, but it isn’t spurting out in fountains everywhere.  Unlike the aforementioned Ascend.  Halo 4 and Gears of War I thought were very realistic, while Resident Evil and Call of Duty: Black Ops were not quite so.  Tomb Raider: Origins and Call of Duty were behind-the-character shooters, instead of FPS.
A South Park game.  To give it credit, they did an amazing job making it look like the show (which wasn’t my cup of tea, either).  There’s cartoon gore, and also Cartmann seems to have a fart attack.  My son has just discovered fart jokes.  I think I can wait a few years on that one, too.
The only game I could see for my under-10 was Wreckateer, which I think he’d have a lot of fun with.  With Kinect, you control a ballista and shot.  There are different types of shot (regular, multiples, and even one with wings that you can control to glide where you want), and you try to destroy medieval castles, all with the encouragement of a stereotypical Scotsman retainer.
There was a performance for Dance Central 3, of course, by Usher.  I’d rather have had a demonstration of the game, to be honest.  There was one on the big screen, near the end of the performance, but it was blocked by some smoke effects.  And a Michael Jackson-esque crotch grab?  Really??

You can watch the entire presentation at e3insider.com.