Microsoft conference - big on mass market

For anybody that watched today's Microsoft press briefing, there was an undeniable feeling that while the first part of the event was taken up with core games, the company's real sell this year is its attempt to cash in on the Wii market.

That's not necessarily a bad thing - the core market has already been largely sold on the games side of the next-gen console experience, and it's clear that there will be high profile titles aplenty landing on shelves towards the end of this year.

But it's an interesting glimpse of how seriously the company is taking the non-serious gamer - and how much it's keen to promote its new sub-platform Kinect. Around 45 minutes was set aside for ESPN, Facebook, and a host of motion-based party, sports and music games - most of which have counterparts in the standard definition world already.

So will an HD makeover, free sports coverage and even more social network connectivity spur greater sales of the Xbox 360 and prompt it to a generation-winning position? We'll know more by this time next year...