Xbox Turns Up the
Volume on the Future of Video Games
Stunning Exclusives, More Than 200 Games, New Online Game
Service, And $2 Billion Commitment Fuel Future of Xbox
Platform
LOS ANGELES — May 20, 2002 —
Microsoft Corp. today kicked off the Electronic
Entertainment Expo (E3) with a bang as it previewed some
of the 200 games that will be available worldwide this
holiday season for the Xbox™ video game system.
Showing its vision for the future of the industry, the
company also detailed its plans for Xbox Live, the first
online console gaming service fully dedicated to
fast-action, always-connected broadband gaming
experiences. Microsoft also announced a $2 billion
commitment for Xbox Live, next-generation content and
ongoing innovation of the platform.
“Xbox is driving the future of interactive
entertainment,” said Robbie Bach, senior vice
president and chief Xbox officer at Microsoft. “With
so many great Xbox games from our partners, the right
global vision for online games, and an irresistible price
for Xbox around the world, the real fun starts now.”
Coming Soon: Tons of Great Xbox Games
Ed Fries, vice president of Xbox game content at
Microsoft, provided an overview of the potent Xbox games
lineup. The great holiday exclusives include:
• “Star Wars®: Knights of the Old
Republic™” (LucasArts Entertainment
Company) presents a deep, engaging
story-/character-driven role-playing game (RPG) set long
before the Galactic Empire. The era, unexplored in any
previous “Star Wars” game, is dominated by an
enduring conflict between the Jedi and the Sith.
Developed in conjunction with BioWare Corp., the game
will feature customizable male or female heroes and
evolving playable characters, as well as dynamic
lightsaber combat.
• “Brute Force”
(Microsoft Game Studios) is an action-packed sci-fi
squad-based shooter that lets gamers experience the
intensity of a shooter game with the cunning strategies
of team-based tactical combat.
• “Panzer Dragoon™ ORTA”
(SEGA® of America, Inc.) empowers gamers to take command
of a powerful dragon and experience intense aerial combat
in the most visually breathtaking game on Xbox.
• “NFL Fever 2003”
(Microsoft Game Studios) continues the award-winning
football game series for Xbox. Easy to pick up and start
playing, “NFL Fever 2003” delivers all the
action and excitement of the National Football League,
allowing gamers to create, play and control their
ultimate NFL team.
• “Unreal Championship”
(Infogrames) is built from the ground up by Digital
Extremes, part of the team responsible for “Unreal”
and “Unreal Tournament, Unreal Championship.”
The latest addition to the “Unreal” universe
will provide console gamers with an adrenaline-packed,
first-person action experience designed specifically for
Xbox and the Xbox controller.
“The pipeline of Xbox games is jammed with new
titles in every category,” Fries said. “With
300 Xbox games in development and 200 games slated for
the holiday season, gamers will have a mountain of
quality titles to choose from this year. No other console
has ever accomplished these types of numbers in its first
year.”
After showcasing many of the 200 games that will be on
the market by the end of the year, Fries previewed two
future Xbox games that demonstrate how Xbox game
designers are reaching for the stars:
• “Ninja Gaiden®”
(Tecmo®, Inc.) was announced as an Xbox exclusive game.
Created by legendary game designer Tomonobu Itagaki and
his team at Team Ninja in Japan, Ryu Hayabusa returns as
the famous, deadly Ninja assassin in the new “Ninja
Gaiden,” coming in the spring of 2003. This
neo-classic adventure will feature extraordinary new
worlds, deadly new weapons, Hollywood-style movies, and
interactive 3-D environments, creating the most
action-packed adventure of all time.
• “Project Ego”
(Microsoft Game Studios) is Peter Molyneux’s
ground-breaking, role-playing adventure game in which
players’ actions determine their skills, appearance
and morality. Gamers can create their life story from
childhood to death. They can grow from an inexperienced
child into the most powerful being in the world. Players
can choose the path of righteousness or dedicate their
lives to evil.
Microsoft Unveils
Xbox Live — The Next Frontier in Video Games
J Allard, general manager of the Xbox platform, detailed
Microsoft’s plans to lead the way in online gaming
with Xbox Live. Leveraging the Xbox system’s
built-in hard drive and Ethernet port to facilitate
online play right out of the box, Xbox Live is a game
universe where gamers can find their friends easily;
where they can talk to other players through the Xbox
Communicator headset; where gamers can download new
statistics, levels and characters to their Xbox hard
drive; and where game players have fun together. The
standard Xbox Live game features that work across all
Xbox Live multiplayer games include the following:
• Gamertag. Gamertag is a player’s unique
online ID for all games across the global gaming service.
• Friends list. This feature allows gamers to
find friends online and invite them to a game no matter
which Xbox Live game they’re playing.
• Xbox Communicator. Voice communication is
integrated with all Xbox Live multiplayer games, enabling
voice interaction with teammates and opponent. Key
elements of this feature exclusive to Xbox include
voice-masking, global muting and parental control.
• Matchmaking. QuickMatch is the ability to
enter a multiplay experience with a single button click,
and OptiMatch, an Xbox Live exclusive, helps players
select games and opponents based on similar skill levels.
• High-speed content downloads to the Xbox hard
disk. Only Xbox offers console gamers the ability to
download and permanently store both free and for-a-fee
content, including new levels, characters, missions and
statistics.
“Online capabilities will change video games in more
profound ways than 3-D technology has so far,”
Allard said. “We built Xbox Live to allow game
creators to focus purely on making the next great games.
As the artists create, Xbox Live will do the heavy
lifting where cross-game services, technology, customer
service and billing are concerned.”
Xbox Live launches in North America, Europe, and Japan
this fall and begins its steady rollout this summer with
a consumer beta program in North America. Allard said
Xbox Live will support five Xbox Live exclusive games
this year, including “Unreal Championship”
(Infogrames) as well as “MechAssault™,”
“Whacked!™,” “NFL Fever 2003”
and “Midtown Madness® 3” (Microsoft Games
Studio). By the end of 2003, at least 50 Xbox
Live-enabled games are scheduled to be available
worldwide.
At launch, U.S. consumers can purchase a starter kit for
$49.95*. For the estimated retail price of a single game,
the consumer receives a year’s subscription to Xbox
Live, an Xbox Communicator that plugs into the Xbox
controller and facilitates all voice communication with
other players, and “ReVolt,” a fun, online
racing game from Acclaim Entertainment. Pricing and
specific offers in regions outside of North America will
be announced locally at a later date.
As the grand finale to the Xbox Live unveiling, Allard
announced a lineup of games in the works for the future
of the service, including “Star Wars Galaxies™”
(LucasArts Entertainment), “Counterstrike”
(Valve Software for Microsoft Games Studios), and future
versions of Xbox original blockbusters such as “Halo™,”
“RalliSport Challenge,” “Amped™”
and “Project Gotham Racing™.”
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