Microsoft’s E3 coverage started officially with launch of their Xbox.com E3 2006 mini-site. Currently available on the site are a “year in review” retrospective, and a few interviews, including one with Peter Moore. Moore’s interview, particularly, gives some insight into what messaging gamers might expect in the upcoming E3 Expo. He start’s by touting the recent success of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion: “To follow up as quickly ... with a roleplaying game like The Elder Scrolls® IV: Oblivion™...only four and a half months after launch, is a huge achievement.” Of course, Oblivion was originally scheduled to be a launch title, so “only” slipping the release date twice is still somewhat of an achievement.

Moore also touts the upcoming game titles, 150 - 200 in the next 12 - 18 months, quite respectable. Since Nintendo is talking about reaching out to different audiences, Moore also pumps up Rare’s Viva Piñata, where gamers must “...attract all 60 unique piñatas.” Apparently, you have to catch them all. The Xbox Live Arcade gets some support as another method to attrach casual gamers. The two games that get mentioned are Joust and Geometry Wars. It does seem a little odd that the big Live Arcade titles are the same ones that are present at launch, and four plus months later there isn’t another game that captures the same success.

On the plus side, there should be a bunch of exclusive E3 content available on the Xbox Live Marketplace during the expo, so gamers can look forward to that. Moore also looks to the future of MMORPGs, hoping for a Snow Crash like environment, of course, brought to the world by Microsoft.

Updates on the site will accelerate as E3 approaches, and gamers with an RSS reader can add the feed for the site to keep pace.

Read More | Xbox E3 2006 Coverage
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