Every year (well, except for 2003) Microsoft, their partners, and dozens of journalists invade a European country for two days of fun and games. Well, maybe the fun part is a bit of a stretch -- especially when you're forced to sit on a plane for over 10 hours -- but there's no denying that there are plenty of games to be found everywhere you look. We had a chance to go to the X06 press briefing in Barcelona's National Theatre of Catalonia, where we had the opportunity to check out demos of some of 2006 and 2007's biggest games, as well as a number of major announcements that are sure to rock the gaming world. After we were ushered into the cavernous (yet cozy) theater, Miguel and I sat and watched as gamertag after gamertag flashed on the screen, accompanied by a variety of musical works. As soon as the clock struck 7 p.m., the house lights dimmed, and the briefing began with a visit from an old friend.

On the screen, a blue pencil sketched out the Rare logo, so I assumed that we'd be watching yet another demo of Viva Pi�ata. However, rather than getting a glimpse of the oddly furry creatures, we were instead greeted by our old buddy Banjo, star of Rare's hugely popular Banjo-Kazooie titles. As our ursine pal attempted to get through an increasingly more secure door, the blue pencil kept popping into the frame to make things tougher on him (think the old Daffy Duck cartoons). Finally, Banjo and his friend knocked down the entire wall around the door, heading out into the sunshine and a grassy meadow. The Banjo-Kazooie series will be making a triumphant return to the Xbox 360!

After the images on the screen faded to black, Microsoft's Chris Lewis came out to address the crowd, wowing us with numbers and statistics. He began by telling us about the history of the European events, from the first one in Cannes to tonight's event, telling us that while Microsoft had come a long way since that first event in 2001, there was still a long road left to travel. The Xbox 360, he explained, was the fastest console to sell 5 million units, and would sell over 10 million worldwide by the end of the holiday season. In fact, the Xbox 360 accounted for over 60% of all console revenues since its launch.

He also told us a bit about the Xbox 360's global reach, explaining that the system would be launching in South Africa next weekend, with launches in countries like the Czech Republic and Poland not far behind. Part of the reason for the console's success, he explained, was the fact that Microsoft's Xbox Live service made gaming better for gamers. He took this opportunity to knock Sony's online plans, mentioning that Xbox Live was "often copied." Xbox Live is constantly growing in many ways, as over 60% of all 360 owners are on the service, and the amount of content is staggering. There were over 1500 pieces of content on Live at the time, and the 18 million total downloads quoted at E3 had ballooned to over 57 million downloads at the time of this writing.

Of course, much of this success was due to the overwhelming popularity of Xbox Live Arcade, which brought new and old favorites into people's homes for just a few dollars. Old friend Peter Moore traipsed onto the stage to give a presentation on Arcade, kicking it off with an announcement that the classic shooter DOOM would be available for download this very night. He showed a montage of some of the other titles in the stable, from Lumines Live and Settlers of Catan to Mortal Kombat 3 and Gyruss. The Eurocentric crowd also went nuts at the mention of Sensible Soccer, a game that might not be recognized by even the most hardcore footy fans in America.