E3 exclusive

Slowly my hangover is fading from last night's mega-party in LA, where (separately) Sony and Microsoft officially launched their next-generation consoles.

The PlayStation 3 gig was a fairly sober affair, although it did have the attraction of being sited in a giant movie studio, part of Sony's sprawling back lot in Hollywood's Culver City. The presentation itself was quite dry and stilted, focusing on the tech specs of the Cell chip which powers the PS3 (and getting in a dig at Xbox 360 by seeming to prove it was twice as grunty as its new rival). Only when the showreel of launch games and tech demos cranked up (to ear-splitting volume) were we shaken from our stupor.

Thousands of jaws hit the floor when the supposedly in-game footage of Killzone 2 (update: see footage here) and MotorStorm blazed across the screen. Quite a few witnesses were suspicious because they remember the tech demos from the PS2 bearing little relation to the reality of games on the finished console.

Update: watch the Sony presentation via this link.

Then we hopped on a bus to zip across town to the impressive Shrine Auditorium in time for the Xbox 360 gala. Hosts Robbie Bach (chief Xbox honcho), J Allard (Xbox guru) and Peter Moore (marketing geezer) launched into a show which was ultra-polished but overblown with hyperbole.

Samples: "We are here to celebrate the launch of the world's most powerful game platform, Xbox 360." (Bach)

"In the HD era, we are going to reach 1 billion people with our medium." (Allard)

"We are going to deliver the Zen of gaming." (Moore)

But the bit that got the most laughs was a video sketch where Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer pretended to be queuing for Star Wars III cinema tickets while discussing the 360. At least they don't take themselves seriously (unlike Steve Jobs, who's banned all of one publisher's books from Apple stores because it printed an unauthorised biography of him - see review of iCon here)

Though the games didn't look quite as flash as the PS3's (possible exceptions: Project Gotham Racing 3 and Gears of War), Microsoft will have at least a four-month headstart because Xbox 360 goes on sale in November, while the Sony will not appear before Spring 2006, at the earliest.

Update: see more here and read the full transcript here.

As the hype blew itself out, we retired into the cool LA air for a night's boozing and, later, back inside for a thrilling show by The Killers. But by the time the Chemical Brothers took the stage about 11.30pm, the crowds had drifted away and the block-rocking beats echoed to an almost empty auditorium.