With
video games estimated to hit an estimated 48 billion dollars in sales
worldwide—bigger than the movie box office, the music industry, and DVD
sales—it's no wonder Microsoft is looking to retool it's biggest gaming
moneymaker, the Xbox 360. A big part of their media briefing at E3 was
dedicated to the announcement of their new Xbox Live interface. While there was a lot to be excited about, there was a lot that didn't quite tickle our gaming thumb's sweet spot. With that said, our lowlights (or if you prefer, check out the highlights):
DO NOT WANT
AVATARS
Great—another program that gives us the ability to create a second life. We can barely take care of our first life and game companies are trying to convince us the key to our physical inadequacies is just a few A-button pushes away.
DO NOT WANT
XBOX LIVE PRIMETIME Instead
of screaming at the TV game show idiots giving wrong answers to easy
questions, you can become that idiot! Microsoft announced an array of corny TV game shows coming to their Live service, allowing you to play along with friends or the rest of the world. Come on down—you're the next
contestant on the
Price Is Absolutely Wrong!
DO NOT WANT
YOU'RE IN THE MOVIES Okay,
we get it. Everyone's going through this
turn-your-video-game-console-into-a-karaoke-machine phase, but excuse
us for not wanting to look like idiots. The Xbox is going to be
featuring a new "game" called
You're In The Movies,
which, using the Live Vision camera, puts you into made-up embarrassing
movie scenes like being attacked by bees and dancing in a disco hall.
We're giving the cold shoulder to this
Saturday Night Fever.
DO NOT WANT
LIPS The only thing more annoying than the name of the game,
Lips, is what it is: karaoke. With
Guitar Hero: World Tour and
Rock Band 2 around the corner and
Singstar already
here, there is absolutely no reason for another "game" to allow you to
sing your heart out. The only difference between this iteration and
anything out now is the wireless microphone that is packaged with the
game. Apparently, it has lights on it...very pretty lights. Interested
now?
ON THE FENCE
NEW XBOX LIVE DASHBOARD Just
when you thought you were getting comfortable with Xbox Live's blade
navigation, Microsoft took the wraps off their new dashboard debuting
this fall. While we're not totally against changing the often
cumbersome interface currently on Live, the jury is still out on what
the customizable options will exactly be. Are gamer tags gone? Are Live
themes done for? We don't exactly know the details at this point, so
we're going to go with not wanting this, at least for now.