Grounding Inc's Crimson Dragon already had a lot in common with the Panzer Dragoon series. Given that it was under development by the same core team that worked on Panzer Dragoon, including creator Yukio Futatsugi, the similarities weren't exactly surprising.

After trying out the latest iteration of the game and speaking with Futatsugi at E3, it seems that any distinction between Crimson Dragon and Panzer Dragoon is nominal at most, especially now that Kinect is no longer a central feature. In the most vital of ways, this is a Panzer Dragoon game. As a longtime fan of the series, I can tell you that's a very good thing.

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If Crimson Dragon is successful, developer Grounding Inc. hopes it will become a franchise, creator Yukio Futatsugi told Joystiq during E3. When asked if he would ever return to role-playing games, Futatsugi told us he'd like to see Crimson Dragon spun out into a full-fledged RPG.

Futatsugi is best known for creating the Panzer Dragoon series, notably the much loved but hard to find RPG, Panzer Dragoon Saga, so the prospect of a Crimson Dragon RPG should be an exciting one for fans.

Right now the team is focused solely on finishing the current game, he said, but the story and atmosphere of Crimson Dragon have been crafted in such a way that it could easily be turned into an RPG. Grounding already has many team members who worked on the likes of Panzer Dragoon Saga and Panzer Dragoon Orta, including Crimson Dragon's programming lead, design lead, art lead and sound team. When the decision was made to bring Crimson Dragon to Xbox One, the team also acquired the art designer from Futatsugi's original Xbox cult classic, Phantom Dust.

Of course, few people have played Panzer Dragoon Saga, and many may not understand what all the fuss is about. The game was released at the end of the Sega Saturn's lifecycle, and only 30,000 copies were produced for North America. I asked Futatsugi if he'd like to see Panzer Dragoon Saga re-released as a downloadable game, especially given Sega's recent retro push with games like Jet Set Radio and Nights.

He would like to see Saga re-released, he said, and the subject comes up from time to time at the Grounding offices. Usually, these discussions end with the team realizing that the game would be very difficult to remake. Still, Futatsugi said he would love to play it again.

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The $500 price tag for the Xbox One elicited audible gasps during Microsoft's E3 press conference. Speaking to Bloomberg, Xbox head Don Mattrick defended the hefty price, saying that Microsoft is "over-delivering on value" with the Xbox One.

"It's a lower number than some of the analysts had forecasted," Mattrick said. "We're over-delivering value against other choices, I think, consumers can get. Any modern product these days, you look at it [and] $499 isn't a ridiculous price point. We're delivering thousands of dollars of value to people, so I think that they're going to love it when they use it."

What will convince consumers to opt for Xbox One, he said, is the breadth of services the console will have available. Specifically, he mentioned Twitch streaming, Skype and SmartGlass.

During the same interview, Mattrick also referred to the next Halo game as Halo 5. At Microsoft's E3 press briefing, a reveal trailer referred to the game simply as "Halo."

Comedian Lewis Black took to his "Back in Black" segment on Comedy Central's The Daily Show to discuss what he sees as growing privacy concerns related to Microsoft's Xbox One. Black specifically pokes fun at the expected improvements to the Kinect's detection capabilities.

Privacy concerns related to the Kinect were addressed by Microsoft earlier this month, which said that users "will determine how responsive and personalized your Xbox One is to you and your family during setup." Black's satirical take on the Kinect, as with his comments related to other products such as Google Glass, still make for an entertaining video to check out, not one to take at face value. Be warned, the video also contains mature language.

I can name the exact moment that I fell in love with Harmonix's latest game, Fantasia: Music Evolved, at this year's E3. Periodically throughout the game, you're presented with an on-screen globe, and you can wave your hand over it to create a tune. The science of how it works isn't exactly clear (you're adjusting the pitch and rhythm of a tone somehow), but the tool is simple, it works, and the game will periodically play back your creation to you, and then allow you to redraw it over if you don't like it. Once the tune is set, you can swipe both your arms outward to zoom out to the game's "overworld" level, which in this case was a beautifully rendered, very animated robot factory, with various pipes and pistons jumping up and down in time with a rhythm.

This was the moment Fantasia showed me just how magical it was. As I tried to navigate around the stage and solve a problem by manipulating the world with the Xbox One's new Kinect sensor (a group of robots needed to get into a small doorway, so I had to swipe over some magic to shrink them down to fit), I suddenly realized that I recognized the tune that the pipes and valves were dancing to in the background. It was the one I'd just made, subtly mixed into the rhythms of the stage itself.

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Harmonix's Fantasia: Music Evolved will include "Night on Bald Mountain," one of the most iconic segments from Disney's 1940 classic Fantasia.

"It's one of the first songs we're announcing from the heritage of the Disney Fantasia film, bringing some of that music into the track list that runs the gamut from the original classical music from 1940 to contemporary pop today," said John Drake, head of communications at Harmonix. "Music is a living, breathing thing and we want to respect the entire canon of music, that's what Fantasia is all about."

It's not entirely clear how "Night on Bald Mountain" will be used in the game, whether it'll be a standalone track or used as a part of hub world. Harmonix is going for a different type of music game experience with Fantasia and Drake tells us the reactions have been all across the spectrum, saying some folks during the E3 presentation actually cried.

When I saw Crytek's Ryse: Son of Rome demonstrated during Microsoft's E3 press briefing, I was worried. The once Kinect and now controller-driven game, apart from being visually impressive thanks to an Xbox One upgrade, looked pretty generic. When I sat down to play it at an event later that night, I learned something that improved my outlook dramatically: Ryse has no block button.

It's still too early to tell whether or not Ryse's hack-and-shield-bash combat will hold up over the course of an entire game, but this one simple fact is enough to give me hope.

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Dead Rising 3's optional use of the Xbox One's mandatory Kinect gifts its zombies with a level of situational awareness you may not want them to have, truth be told. "They can hear," a Capcom representative told us during a demonstration at E3. "If you want to call a zombie or distract [a zombie], you just yell at your Kinect and they'll respond to you."

Sounds useful in a stealth situation, but what if you're not as good at staying quiet as you'd like, or your roommate comes home at a tense moment, taking the frustration of his lousy day out on your front door? Are the zombies listening that closely?

"That's part of the joke," executive producer Josh Bridge said. We asked whether the zombies would respond to specific words or just sounds in general, and while exact details regarding the mechanic won't be revealed until further into production, "for the most part, zombies don't understand English." Bridge added that the microphone sensitivity will be tuned to a "threshold that makes sense," so that attracting zombies will, by and large, feel like an intentional decision. Of course, the functionality can be disabled entirely.

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Microsoft kicked off yesterday's firestorm of E3 announcements with a press briefing focused on its plans for the Xbox One, launching in November at $499.

Minutes before Microsoft's conference began, Rare's Danny Isaac revealed Kinect Sports Rivals, an Xbox One launch title that uses the console's improved Kinect sensor for a new collection of minigames. Microsoft began its briefing with a look at Konami's Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. Despite initial speculation as to whether it was a platform exclusive, it was later confirmed that The Phantom Pain is still planned for release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4.

Microsoft then dedicated a few minutes to the Xbox 360 before moving on to the Xbox One. A new Xbox 360 hardware model was announced, along with news that Xbox Live Gold members would receive two free games per month up until the release of the Xbox One. Gold members can now grab Fable III free of charge, and Halo 3 and Assassin's Creed II will be available for free starting July 1.

The company additionally revealed that a free-to-play Xbox 360 version of World of Tanks is in the works. The console's Summer of Arcade lineup was later detailed, and is set to launch in August.

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Outside of its E3 press briefing, Microsoft had two McLaren MP4-12C cars emblazoned with Forza Motorsport 5 logos. We've been made to understand that these are very impressive cars. We went to Jordan Mallory, Joystiq's resident car lover, for some expert commentary.

When shown the photograph above, a single tear rolled down Mr. Mallory's cheek, at which point he looked away from the screen, staring wistfully into the distance. He has not spoken since.

Update: These are MP4 12Cs, not P1s.

Crimson Dragon, originally designed as a showpiece for Kinect, is now controlled primarily with a controller. The once Xbox 360 and now Xbox One exclusive abandoned full Kinect control after feedback was received from "passionate fans" – possibly from an accidentally released demo – Microsoft Studios lead producer Yutaka Noma tells Joystiq. The game will still feature Kinect support alongside the traditional control, though it will be used for "intuitive" gestures.

The game is being developed by Yukio Futatsugi and Grounding Inc, and it shares a great deal visually and mechanically with Panzer Dragoon, Futatsugi's most well-known series. Now that it's primarily controlled with a standard controller, it shares considerably more. We'll have a preview later this week.

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Update: We're going live in just a minute, internet allowing. Click here for the liveblog.

Today's glitzy gauntlet of E3 media briefings kicks off with Microsoft at the Galen Center in Los Angeles. The event starts at 12PM EDT (9AM PDT, 5PM GMT) and should wrap up within 24 hours, which is roughly how long Microsoft employees can exist outside of Redmond before turning to stone.

Once the event starts, we'll switch this post over to liveblog mode and share descriptions and commentary on the event, which Microsoft says will be focused on games, games and games.

You'll be able to stream to Twitch directly from your Xbox One, Microsoft just revealed. Demonstrating the Kinect integration for the service, a Killer Instinct match was instantly streamed with a quick voice command.

"The integration of Twitch into Xbox One will enable Xbox Live Gold members to broadcast games directly to their Twitch channels, as well as view content from other streamers on the Twitch platform," the service revealed in a press release (embedded after the break).

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Microsoft has announced that Crimson Dragon, a planned XBLA Kinect title from Yukio Futatsugi, the creator of Panzer Dragoon, will release as an exclusive on Xbox One.

The company showed a quick video of the game during today's press conference, and it looks very similar to the original build, with dragon-riding, Kinect-controlled shooter gameplay. Stay tuned for more, including a release date, when we hear it.

During a Spike interview about Kinect Sports: Rivals, Rare let slip news of a November release window for the Xbox One console. While this is an obvious window for a new console, Microsoft only officially said "later this year" in its reveal event last month. Retailers have said "holiday 2013."

Microsoft will reveal more details about the Xbox One console at its E3 2013 press conference, which will start momentarily. Follow along as Microsoft reveals news on purpose in our liveblog.

Update: The live pre-show is over, but stick around for our liveblog of the Microsoft conference and another live, post-show video wrapup with Ludwig Kietzmann and Ben Gilbert.

Original story: Joystiq Editor-in-Chief Ludwig Kietzmann and Engadget Senior Associate Editor Ben Gilbert are live outside of Microsoft's E3 press conference, and they're ready to hear all about the Xbox One and its lineup of next-gen games.

In the week leading up to the conference, Microsoft announced more details about the Xbox One: To play games, it will require an internet connection at least once a day; it supports a one-time-use system for pre-owned games; and the Kinect won't monitor any background noise, Microsoft said. This conference is supposed to focus on games, games and more games, and we'll have a liveblog documenting every moment of the show.

Watch the live, pre-show video below (it auto-plays):

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The second great leak of E3 2013 and it's a megat... minorto... okay, so we all figured it was probably going to happen. Just Dance 2014, which will apparently now see the franchise numbered by year, has been revealed on the Xbox Marketplace.

"This new opus will be even more social as you will be able to connect and dance with players from all over the world and share a unique dancing experience with them," reads the marketplace description. The only song we can pretty clearly guess is included in the game is the theme to the movie Ghostbusters (pictured).

We're sure to hear more about this multi-million sellling franchise during tomorrow's, er, today's Ubisoft E3 press conference.

E3 kicks off tomorrow, June 10, with four press conferences. Four! We'll be at all of them and we hope you join us for all the gasps, heartbreak, triumph and screaming. Here are the start times and feel free to bookmark these links:

• Microsoft at 12PM Eastern (9AM Pacific, 5PM UK)
• EA 4PM Eastern (1PM Pacific, 9PM UK)
• Ubisoft 6PM Eastern (3PM Pacific, 11PM UK)
• Sony 9PM Eastern (6PM Pacific, 2AM (June 11) UK)

It's going to be a full day, so drink your Ovaltine. Don't be surprised if the decoder message is that you'll never rent a game again.