At this week’s E3 exhibition in Los Angeles, Microsoft is showing off a device they’re claiming will both revolutionize video gaming and render obsolete its hitherto requisite accessory—the controller. Dubbed “Project Natal,” the peripheral is an array of microphones, an RGB camera, and a depth sensor, that work in concert to pull off sophisticated face, voice, and gesture recognition that allows full-body movement to translate into intricate on-screen commands. Microsoft is proclaiming the device not just a quantum leap in gaming, but also the next step in making its Xbox the pinnacle of home entertainment, allowing Natal to hook up [...]

Microsoft have launched the next generation of their media player Zune. Available in the Fall, the Zune HD offers owners hybrid digital radio, high-definition (HD) video output capabilities and the usual media management. The big update seems to be how they’re connecting the Zune service with Microsoft’s Xbox environment. The press release reads:
Zune will be a premium partner in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, bringing an exciting catalog of TV and film to the platform. Zune will occupy the first slot within the Xbox user interface in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, exposing the Zune brand experience to millions of [...]

The Xbox 360 is utilizing a marketing strategy that is reminiscent of the Tupperware and Mary Kay Cosmetics parties of old and despite the radical change in product, the target audience hasn’t changed. To that end, Microsoft recently invited 1,000 women from around the country to host events in their homes as a way of showcasing many of the Xbox’s new web-based games and services to their family and friends. USA Today reports:

The Xbox event hosts used their own Xbox 360 consoles to demonstrate the new services, which also require broadband Internet service and subscriptions to Netflix and Xbox Live, [...]