Microsoft at E3: Fuck the Police, not the Hardcore Gamer
At E3 2011, Ice-T performs "Cop Killer" in front of a Gears of War 3 logo.
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After seeing Microsoft’s gaming lineup at this year’s E3, you’d be forgiven for calling its Xbox efforts family-friendly. In particular, its most recently announced Kinect-enabled games that week included incredibly kiddie fare like Sesame Street and Disneyland.
On Tuesday night, that sure seemed to piss rapper/actor Ice-T off.
Taking the stage at an LA nightclub, the Law & Order: SVU star reunited his notorious punk band Body Count at a party celebrating the upcoming Xbox shooter Gears of War 3, even unveiling a song with the game’s name in the chorus. Minutes later, clad in an orange jumpsuit and spraying f-bombs like machine-gun fire, T demanded that a crowd of game designers and businessmen in suits shout along to the song “Cop Killer,” going so far as to ask fans to “sing it from your nuts.”
That’s one way to get your game rated M for mature.
Xbox’s E3 presence repeatedly bounded between the polar extremes of Gears of War’s skull-crushing combat and Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster’s adorable critters. Consider that stance a necessity for the company. Unlike its rivals, Microsoft had no new hardware to show off, so its PR message instead revolved about being the game system for “everyone,” from the hardcore to the family.
Certainly, Microsoft tried to proclaim that Kinect, the system’s motion-sensing add-on, could satisfy both extremes. Emphasis on “tried.” Read the rest of this entry »