Been watching E3 2008 live? If not here's the latest from the Microsoft Press Conference.

According to them $1billion has been spent on xbox live since november 2005 by the millions of members that have now amounted to 12mil people, there is now a new member every 5 seconds joining Xbox Live. What does this mean? Well it means that one more racist, screaming child is joining to ruin your LIVE experience every 5 seconds.

Other news is that they have mentioned that 10,000 movies and tv shows will be available, including their partnership with Netflix flourishing meaning new and exclusive content for the 360.
Whilst this news is of course excellent for 360 owners, one has to ponder whether this is (as is most likely) just Americans that will recieve this abundance of content, whereas the rest of the world will be left behind as per usual.

One thing that is for sure is that NBC Universal will be for US audiences only, but MGM and Constantine Films will be supplying marketplace content for Europeans as well as our brothers across the pond.

After these announcements were issued there was a statement from John Chappert the Live Software and Services Dev, who mentioned that Xbox is apparently "Improving the experience through the MAGIC of software!" After reiterating the 12million members number, he then exclaimed they would be asking "what's next?".

Perhaps the most exciting segment begins, with the new system update being revealed to be a fully 3D experience with many new and exciting options available.





Avatars were among the most mentioned innovations, with you being able to create your own personality online via Xbox Live. Screens Below;



This will also involve the Community feature showing friends avatars.



The TV game show 1 vs 100 is also scheduled to make an appearance on 360 mentioning that all members of Xbox Live will be able to take part in the game, which will feature live hosts and real prizes. This all being part of the "Primetime" feature.

Geometry Wars 2 from Activision and bizarre that "should occupy a place in every nostalgic gamers heart" was also revealed, which seemed to incorporate a 4 player coop mode from one part of the video, it looks much more graphically enhanced than it's predecessors and most certainly will be a seriously good coop game.

Last on my monumental list of things I've seen so far is Portal: Still Alive, which is going to be exclusive to Xbox 360, no more was mentioned from what the laggy streaming video showed but I will put money on this being a smash hit for gamers and Microsoft alike.

That's all for now.

Andy H (The Duke)