X03 Coverage starts now

Staged at a secluded, green-lit private beach club in Nice, on the French Riviera, Microsoft's X03 event this year follows previous Xbox events held at Pierre Cardin's "Bubble House" in Cannes and La Isla Magica in Seville.

In addition to game developers and publishers, the annual two-day event draws more than a thousand European games industry press and trade members.

This year, Microsoft Game Studios focused on new brand positioning, expanding its Xbox Live online gaming service in Europe, and presenting the more than 100 games making their way to Xbox in Europe--and in most cases, other territories.

The Presentation
Speakers at the first evening's presentation included Eduardo Rosini, Microsoft's regional VP of the home and retail division; ex-Sega America boss Peter Moore, now the home and retail division's corporate VP of worldwide retail sales and marketing; and Michel Cassius, senior director, Xbox platform and marketing.

Microsoft also paraded out Tecmo's Tomonobu Itagaki, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, and Ubi Soft's Yves Guillemot.

Epic Partnership
Microsoft jolted gamers with news of a partnership with Epic Games, makers of Unreal games, through which Epic Games and its recently-formed Scion Studios will develop several exclusive titles for Xbox and Windows. These games, as yet unannounced, will be published by Microsoft Game Studios.

Xbox Live, New and Improved
Also announced was that Xbox Live will launch in six European countries on October 30 of this year. Target countries are Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, and Switzerland. Xbox Live-enabled European countries will then number fourteen, which, according to Microsoft, brings more European gamers the chance to play console games online than the PS2. Microsoft says it is working with broadband partners in each country to provide deals in the coming months, and that it plans to make additional announcements regarding the six new launches in the weeks to come.

Additionally, beginning March 14, 2004, a new pricing structure will take hold and give existing Live players the option of monthly subscriptions for 6.99 euros (about $7.80), once the initial subscription expires. At that point, previous year-subscription holders may also renew an annual subscription for 59.99 euros (about $66.97), which can be done conveniently through the Xbox Live Dashboard.

To lure more gamers into the fold, a limited time special Xbox Live trial starting in December will offer vouchers packaged with select Live-enabled games beginning in October. These vouchers offer two free months of Xbox Live gaming with no obligation. The games in the trial offer, valid through March 31, 2004, include the following:

Amped 2 (Microsoft Game Studios)
Crimson Skies (Microsoft Game Studios)
Dancing Stage Unleashed (Konami)
Links 2004 (Microsoft Games Studio)
Magic: The Gathering (Atari)
Project Gotham Racing 2 (Microsoft Game Studios)
TOCA Race Driver (Codemasters)
Sega GT Online (Sega)
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (Activision)
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 (Ubi Soft)
Top Spin (Microsoft Game Studios)
Xbox Music Mixer (Microsoft Game Studios)
XIII (Ubi Soft)

To further accommodate those taking the trial offer, Microsoft announced that the Xbox Live Communicator headset, usually available with the Xbox Live Starter Kit, will be available separately starting October 17 for 29.99 Euros (about $33.48).

Upcoming Live Features
Microsoft pointed out several of the forthcoming features it plans to incorporate in the Xbox Live service, including:

Live Alerts: Receive invites to play on PDAs, cell phones, or PC with instant messengers.

Live Web: Live stats and friends lists will be posted through a new Xbox Live site.

Live Aware Games: More single-player games will keep players logged on to Xbox Live so they can receive invites and keep track of friends playing online.

Live Now: A virtual lobby where players meet and use voice chat before choosing teams and deciding which games to play. Expanded real-time information about who is online, rankings, messages, and events will be available

XSN Sports: Designed to be a virtual sports league, this service lets players set up leagues on XSNsports.com and track season stats, even on a PC. XSN Sports games available this autumn include Amped 2 and NFL Fever 2004.

More Live Games
Microsoft assured the audience that there will be more than fifty Xbox Live-enabled games by year's end and 100 by June 2004. Xbox Live games either on display or announced at X03 included the following:

Crimson Skies (Microsoft Games Studio)
Dancing Stage Unleashed (Konami)
Dead or Alive Online (Tecmo)
Halo 2 (Bungie)
Ninja Gaiden (Tecmo)
Project Gotham Racing 2
Race Driver 2: The Ultimate Racing Simulator (Codemasters)
Rainbow Six 3 (Ubi Soft)
RalliSport Challenge 2 (Digital Illusions)
Steel Battalion – Line of Contact (Capcom)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Ubi Soft)
XIII (Ubi Soft)

Big Names, Big Games
Microsoft noted several previously announced Xbox titles, many of which were on display in Europe for the first time. These included:

Breakdown (Namco)
Breakdown is a first-person action-adventure combining hand-to-hand and weapons-based combat. Protagonist Derrick Cole, having lost his memory, fights a military faction and super-human warriors inside mysterious laboratory.

Dead or Alive Online (Tecmo)
Team Ninja is working on a bundle of Dead or Alive 1 and 2. Called Dead or Alive Online, it will get the full Xbox Live online treatment.

Deus Ex: Invisible War (Eidos)
Set fifteen years after the events depicted in the original Deus Ex, Invisible War will be console-exclusive to Xbox.

Full Spectrum Warrior (THQ)
Originally a squad-level Light Infantry training simulator created for the US Army, Full Spectrum Warrior is playable for the first time at X03.

Ninja Gaiden (Tecmo)
The series is resurrected in this graphically impressive Xbox-exclusive, which will support Xbox Live

Starcraft: Ghost (Blizzard Entertainment)
Ghost depicts the StarCraft universe through a tactical-action stealth-based third-person action game, focusing on a lone operative employed by the Dominion.

Steel Battalion – Line of Contact (Capcom)
Exclusively for Xbox and playable on Xbox Live, Line of Contact again features the unique Steel Battalion controller in first- or third-person mech warfare.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 (Ubi Soft)
Another Xbox console-exclusive, this game give players the command an elite multinational squad in the single-player mode, while multiplayer features Xbox Live support.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Ubi Soft)
A follow-up to the highly rated Splinter Cell, Pandora's Tomorrow offers both a single-player campaign and multiplayer online missions.

The First-Party Lineup
Microsoft Game Studios noted several of its own internally and externally developed Xbox games, all of which are playable and slated to release for the holidays and beyond. Developers other than Microsoft Game Studios are in parenthesis.

Amped 2
BC (Big Blue Box)
Counter-Strike
Crimson Skies
Fable (Lionhead Studios)
Halo 2 (Bungie)
Project Gotham Racing 2
Sudeki
Top Spin
Xbox Music Mixer

Brand-new slogan
The call to arms for X03 was a new slogan: "It's good to play together." This simple idea will be the focus of a new global advertising and marketing campaign, and long-term brand strategy.

X03 concludes tomorrow. GameSpot will we will have hands-on impressions and more news from the show shortly.