Call of Duty: Black Ops: New Trailer, Exclusive DLC

Treyarch’s studio head Mark Lamia kicked off the Microsoft briefing today with a deeper look inside Call of Duty: Black Ops. Along with a brand new E3 trailer for the game, actual gameplay footage ranging from a dramatic tunnel crawl to a Hind helicopter assault was shown off.

After the quick demonstration, Microsoft’s Senior Vice President of Interactive Entertainment, Don Mattrick, took the stage to announce a brand new agreement between Activision and Microsoft that will make all Call of Duty DLC timed exclusives until 2012.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is slated for a November 9th release date in the UK and US.

ESPN Content Joins Xbox Live

One of the most impressive announcements from today’s Microsoft briefing was the inclusion of ESPN programming to Xbox Live. Joining Facebook, Twitter, Last.FM, and Netflix, ESPN will be offering up to 3500 live events including NBA, MLB, Soccer, and college football and basketball. Using the newly announced Kinect, users will be able to take part in polls, trivia, and instantaneously switch between games. The service will be available to all Xbox Live Gold members free of charge, as long as they also subscribe to Internet service through a cable company that provides ESPN3.

Kinect Release Date, Launch Titles Revealed

Microsoft’s briefing this afternoon wasn’t exactly filled to the brim with surprises. With the Kinect details and the redesigned 360 slipping out ahead of schedule, there wasn’t much left to wonder about during the show. However, Microsoft did reveal November 14th as the official release date for Kinect. You can find the list of fifteen launch titles after the break. Read More »

Say Hello to Kinect

As revealed earlier, Microsoft has officially confirmed that its motion-sensing Project Natal will, when released later this year be called Kinect. The above image was provided by Microsoft (via 1UP) to attendees of the event.

It definitely looks familiar, and not much seems to have changed aesthetically, though if I was a betting man I’d put money on a surprise or two come later this evening. The big M kicks off E3 today with its Media Briefing at 1:00pm EST (6:00pm GMT), stick around for more news on Kinect as it happens.