Peter Moore sought to establish Microsoft's one-year head start on the competition in a press conference that featured a surprise appearance by Bill Gates and the announcement of Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox 360 in October 2007.
Tuesday morning's gathering at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood featured lots of data about the Xbox 360's current strength; the company expects to have five million units sold by the end of June, and expects the current three million subscriber base of Xbox Live to double by next summer. Moore introduced a video of 27 previously announced games and said 160 titles would be available by the holiday season.
Gears of War kicked off the conference with a five-minute playable sequence of hero Marcus Fenix escaping from prison using shotguns, machine guns and grenades to annihilate the aliens trying to keep him in - but nothing beat the goopy, bloody explosion when Marcus took out one of his alien overlords with a power saw.
