At the end of the Xbox E3 press conference this evening Microsoft's Phil Spencer closed the show with some very interesting announcements. Telling the assembled audience that "gaming is now at its most vibrant", he pointed out that the company had showcased 50 games, including 15 world premiers, in what he called the most diverse line-up of games they've shown "by every measure."
Beyond that Spencer also confirmed that the experts at Microsoft Research are working on enhanced gaming AI, with the aim being to make rich and more immersive worlds. The Xbox chief also added that Cloud engineers are working on a game streaming network to unlock console-quality streaming on any device, including mobile phones.
Then came the news that really confirms Microsoft's commitment to the console space, and that's confirmation that the hardware team is "deep into architecting the next Xbox consoles." No further details were given, but it at least shows that the company is going to carry on making consoles.
Finally Spencer circled back around and once again highlighted out the aggressive expansion detailed earlier in the conference, whereby the company is aiming to build an "industry-leading" first-party operation with five new studios including Ninja Theory and Playground Games added to the books.