E3 2008, Day 1: Everything You Need To Know

Author: by Staff

Fed up with the 20-post summaries of single E3 press conferences? Never fear, since Gamasutra is your guide to the first day of E3, with a full round-up of the major announcements, press events, and kerfuffle in one handy, bite-sized post. Monday at E3 provided the first of three hardware provider press events, with Microsoft showcasing its Xbox 360 strategy for the rest of the year and beyond - while other notables such as Electronic Arts and Square Enix also discussed their slate for 2008. - First for the day, Microsoft's E3 press event had a host of new announcements, from avatars through karaoke game Lips to its biggest surprise - Final Fantasy XIII coming to the Xbox 360 in the West day and date with the PS3 version. - Gamasutra's Chris Remo followed up with an analysis of the Microsoft event, adding color and noting overall: "Seemingly satisfied it has already demonstrated a broad, inclusive library for its Xbox 360, Microsoft mainly focused on value added propositions such as online offerings, video services, and exclusive downloadable content for high-profile titles." - Square Enix conducted a press conference immediately following the Microsoft one. Justification for FFXIII coming to Xbox? Simply enough: "We considered the situation of the hardware, and that we would like to provide FFXIII to as many fans as possible in the world." - The final major event of the day was the Electronic Arts press conference, which revealed the SimAnimals franchise, had Napster founder Shawn Fanning onstage talking about his Rupture gaming social network site, and demonstrated a lot of upcoming EA titles. - The big reveal for EA, however, was the deal with id Software for RAGE, which Gamasutra has followed up with a chat to id's John Carmack about just how it happened. Stay tuned for a similar Gamasutra-authored summary for subsequent days of the E3 Media & Business Summit from the Los Angeles Convention Center.