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CES 2008 : Microsoft Keynote - Farewell to Bill

by: Chuck -
More On: CES 2008
The problem about presentations is that we in the press sometimes set the expectations bar too high.  This was certainly the case with the Microsoft opening Keynote at CES 2008.  With this being Bill Gates last keynote as the top dog a lot of outlets thought that Microsoft would send him out with a bang, with lots of big announcements and cool new stuff.  It turns out we read a little too much between the lines as Microsoft just showed off some new technology and outlined their vision for the "Second Digital Domain".

For gamers there really wasn't much to dig their claws into.  Microsoft just announced a new content deal with MGM and ABC and they announced that British Telecom will be selling IPTV Xbox 360's.  Outside of that there was nothing.  No Xbox 360 SKU's, no new game announcements, just a few minutes in an hour long presentation.  I can't say that I'm happy about it but the rest of the presentation featured some cool technology and it's not hard to think about the entertainment possibilities of the Surface technology. 

Of course if you want to speculate you could mention that Warner Brothers announcement on Friday killed parts of the presentation.  There was no mention of HD DVD during the entire presentation and you have to wonder if some things were cut at the last minute.  Speculate away in the comments.

As an added bonus it's always good when the world's richest man dresses up like Wolverine.