For many of us on the Xbox.com team, this was our first Leipzig show and we weren’t sure what to expect. It’s not as big and loud as the E3 show in LA which we’d all been to, but with E3 no more Leizpig could be the new flagship showcase for western gaming. With the big announcement coming that Xbox 360 was to be the home of next-generation football, we were raring to go and paid our first visit to the Microsoft booth the day before the show.
Tuesday
With our bags unpacked and our breakfast eaten we hopped aboard the Xbox coach to the Games Convention.
The Leipzig Messe show hall is enormous – as impressive and bright as E3’s former home in Los Angeles. Being the only people there on Tuesday morning was very strange as we imagined the venue full of gamers in the coming days.
Our first stop of the day was to the awesome Xbox tent that Microsoft had set up with palm trees, sand at your feet and a cool breeze that would prove vital in the days to come as the show filled up. Just check out Graeme’s beaming smile as he realised this would be his home for the rest of the week with the Xbox Community Network VIGs.
Walking over to the Xbox stand itself, we were blown away by the sheer scale of it. It was one of the largest stands at the show by far and features separate areas for Xbox 360, Games for Windows, Xbox Community and even had its own amphitheatre.
Sitting in the amphitheatre, we had a sneak preview of some of the game trailers that would be popping up for the press conference the following day. FIFA 07 and PES 6 looked incredible on the enormous wide screen presentation.
