There is big news coming from X06, Microsoft's annual event that's taking place in Barcelona this year. Xbox 360 will become host to more exclusive titles in the coming months.
Peter Jackson and Microsoft will partner to bring two new exclusive titles to the Xbox 360. The first will be the next chapter in the Halo series, which is supriseing because many thought Halo 3 would be it. Jackson will help write, design, and produce a game that we'll just call Halo 4 for now. Jackson will also work with his team in New Zealand to create a title that aims to capture the attention of new audiences and bring them into the world of video games.
Jackson will also become a partner of Wingnut Interactive, a new studio that intends to wield the power of Microsoft's technology and the imagination of the people at Wingnut to tell stories through video games.
In addition to the news about Jackson, Microsoft announced Halo Wars, a real-time strategy game from Ensemble Studios, the creators of Age of Empires. The game, being built exclusive for the Xbox 360, will put players in control of UNSC troops as they defend humankind from the Covenant.
Project Gotham Racing 4 from Bizzare Creations and a new Banjo-Kazooie game from Rare were both announced. The latter will reunite characters from previous games including Banjo, Kazooie, and Gruntilda.
Rockstar announced that Grand Theft Auto IV would no longer be a PlayStation exclusive at E3 this year. Today, Rockstar announced that two additional episodes, each containing hours of additional content, will be available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. GTA IV is set to release on October 16th, but there is no final release for the additional content.
DOOM from id Software is now available for download on Xbox Live. For 800 points, you can play the original single player game, four-player split screen games, and four-player Xbox Live games.
Finally, Ubisoft confirmed that Assassins Creed, a medieval adventure game that attracted lots of attention at E3, will be released on Xbox 360 the same day that the game launches on other platforms. Ubisoft also announced that the next game in the Splinter Cell series will be an Xbox 360 exclusive.
The Halo RTS doesn't really hit the same market as the other Halo games. I hope it doesn't end up being a cheap knock off. I am very happy to see that Grand Theft Auto IV won't be a PS3 exclusive.