The buzz in LA today is the announcements Microsoft made today at E3 2008 for the Xbox 360 platform.

xbox new dashboard

What’s Microsoft doing at E3 2008… What they do best: capitalizing on what the competition pioneers.

Microsoft came out HUGE today at the E3 2008 conference today, disrupting the market with several major system enhancements for Xbox 360:

  1. New Dashboard: more Wii like interface with a robust avatar creator (think Mii) allowing Xbox 360 users to develop an online visual character that can interact with others in up to 8-way chats, parties, photo sharing, and tons more
  2. Netflix: Exclusive contract with Netflix to integrate downloadable “watch now” movies directly from your account. Plus you can share the movie over Xbox Live with your friends in other locations
  3. Gameshows: Xbox Live will feature hosted gameshows where players can win real prizes
  4. Release Dates: major titles for Xbox including Resident Evil 5, Gears of War 2, Fable 2 announced
  5. New Music: Lips (Reads music from iPod to create Karaoke tracks), Rock Band 2 (with 84 new tracks), Guitar Hero World Tour (with more instruments like drums)
  6. Square Enix: Yoichi Wada, announces their new title Infinite Undiscovery will be an Xbox Exclusive, and that 3 titles Star Ocean: The Last Hope, The Last Reminant and Final Fantasy XIII will all release on Xbox 360 (some which were previously PlayStation exclusives)

The end game here is that Microsoft appears to be taking some major swipes at Sony & Nintendo at E3 2008. PlayStation could be in a bad place, except for their Blu Ray player which still beats the Xbox 360. Wii, we’ll their novelty Wiimote hasn’t been able to make up for their lack of software and a decent online community.

It will be interesting to see Sony and Nintendo respond tomorrow.

It’s all enough to make me forget gas prices, the real estate market, the war in Iraq, McCain, and all the rest of the freaky reality that plagues me daily. Watching young HEAD (age 15) on the sofa next to me riveted to G4, I’ve got hope again that we are poised for some robust commerce. Can it make impact?

Well, there’s new IP here… and something USA can actually export.