At last year’s E3, the biggest game announcements to come from Microsoft were Halo 4 - and by extension, a new Halo trilogy - Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and Minecraft for the 360. But beyond that, the company focused more on casual titles and Kinect games - much to the disappointment of hardcore gamers. This year, it’s speculated that besides more of Halo 4, a new Forza game, and Fable: The Journey, Microsoft’s showing will be very similar to last year’s, with a lack of hardware and core games, and more of a focus on the 360 dashboard.
A discussion on Game Trailers’ Bonus Round supported this belief, with many of the experts agreeing that Microsoft wants to focus more on making the 360 into a multimedia platform, incorporate as much as they can into it to build it up as an all-purpose entertainment platform. Industry analyst Michael Pachter even said flat out that the company would be focusing on the dashboard more at E3 this year, something that will translate into the Xbox 360 successor eventually.
This does seem like a likely move for Microsoft to make, given some of their recent decisions - including the new $99 360 bundle. The question remains, though, if this is a particularly wise decision on their part. With the Wii U expected to release at the end of this year, and Sony’s next console rumored to be coming out before Microsoft’s Durango - two companies that are also showcasing software for their new respective handheld devices - it may be better for the company to focus on getting their next-generation console ready as fast as possible, or they could lose some ground to their competition.
Sources: 1up, GameTrailers
