CES: Finale

Well, CES didn't end for me with the Bill Gates keynote. I still had two days of press meetings ahead of me. It was not a comforting thought as I crawled back into bed Wednesday night but if I was lucky at least I wouldn't infect too many of them.

 

All the meetings took place in the Microsoft press tent (on the left) set up in the parking lot across from the convention center. The outside was nicely decorated but the inside was more utilitarian. (BTW, that big gray box in the center--the one that looks like a shipping container--was where we set up shop.) Our PR firm had scheduled two days of back-to-back 30 minute meetings with press representing everyone from PC Gamer to Good Housekeeping. I shared the box with Brian Kemp (left), our PR rep, and Chris Donahue, head of developer relations on the Games for Windows team. As you can see I was thrilled to be there (or was it the Day-Quil?).

 

Day 1 started with the video crew from Gamespot setting up their cameras in our room to shoot their interview with Peter Moore. They did this to save set up time as we were next. I took advantage of the situation by firing up Flight Sim on the plasma display behind Peter and you can see it if you watch the interview. Pretty sneaky if I do say so myself. We were next, with Chris talking about Games for Windows and me droning on about Flight Sim. I really wish it hadn't been the first interview of the day since I was still waking up up but, hey, what ya gonna do? BTW, if you watch the video closely you'll notice a few shots that weren't recorded in the lovely gray padded room. These came from some stock footage we provided and was recorded at a house in Redmond before the Christmas break. Normally we would have used Microsoft Studios but they were booked so a friend of a friend of someone on the Windows team volunteered their house. They even provided a friendly dog, but his takes ended up onthe cutting room floor.

 

Day 2 was much of the same. I did meet the editor of Engadget, Peter Rojas, a web site I hadn't heard of before but now read regularly. He described it to me as "sort of a 'Daily Show' take on consumer electronics". That did it for me as I'm a big DS fan. BTW, did you know Rob Corddry and I went to the same university? True. I also met Will Smith (no, not that Will Smith--the one from Maximum PC) and Logan Decker from PC Gamer, both very cool cats that I hooked up with later at a party at the Ghost Bar throw by the folks at Maximum PC. While there I got to meet the publisher, Bernie Lanigan, and complain about his sister magazine's goof up on our release date. But no harm, no foul as they posted a correction. All in all sipping a Cosmopolitan on the 55th floor patio of the Palms was an okay way finish to a whirlwind week in Vegas.

 

Now, back to work!