Microsoft E3 Conference: "Welcome to the Social"

Here it is: your Microsoft E3 Conference Recap.

The big stories, with brief comments:

Microsoft unveils “Natal” a controller-less way to play games and manipulate the Xbox. My QUICK thoughts: a highly underrated answer to the Wii with real potential. But let’s not kid ourselves, it’s definately an answer to the Wii.

A Metal Gear game, a new Halo, Left 4 Dead 2, etc. unveiled. Big news for hardcore gamers, not so much for anyone else. But Microsoft did a really good job making it clear Xbox was still a game machine.

Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, Live Party unveiled. The transition is complete. It may not seem like much, but if you step back and take a look at what the 360 can do now, you realize that it’s now a primarily social machine. They’ve done a fantastic job of making the Xbox something that revolves around people. Gaming hardware is no longer an island.