Originally Published: January 12, 2010 on Examiner.com

The Consumer Electronics Show is always a great way for tech companies of all kinds to make a big splash in the beginning of the New Year. Due to the plethora of gaming conventions that happen across the year though, it isn’t necessarily the biggest draw for gamers. Microsoft and Xbox 360 though felt that some of the announcements they had couldn’t wait for a convention dedicated solely to gaming.

Robert “Robbie” Bach, President for Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division came to Las Vegas for CES 2010 with some late holiday presents for the 37 million plus Xbox 360 users out there.

The biggest news to come down at CES 2010 is the announcement that Project NATAL, last E3’s biggest bombshell, that was speculated by many in the media (myself included) at still being a couple of years before it could be released for retail, will be coming out in time for the holiday rush in 2010. Although still no details as to how many games will be compatible with Xbox 360’s newest peripheral or even how much it will cost at time of release, if it can do even half the things it did at E3 2009, Xbox 360 could be looking at its best holiday season since it’s initial release.

Another big announcement involved Xbox Live and it’s arcade with the hopeful introduction of the Xbox Game Room, an old school gamers paradise where 8-bits will reign supreme. Hoping to dial up the nostalgia-obsessed demographic, Xbox Arcade Game Room will have all the arcade classics from the 80s, as well as original games done specifically in the 8-bit style, a la Mega Man 9 and 10, that will now be trophy based to go along with classic gameplay.

Other big announcements that came down at CES 2010 included that the multiplayer beta for Halo: Reach will start in Q2 of 2010 on Xbox Live and the confirmation that Mass Effect 2 and Splinter Cell Conviction will be available first exclusively for Xbox 360 as Xbox 360 moves more towards the idea of a “mature gaming platform”.

With these announcements, it looks like 2010 will be another strong year for Xbox 360, or as Robbie Bach put it at CES 2010, “When I said 2010 was going to be a big year for Xbox 360, I was lying. 2010 is going to be the biggest year of Xbox history.”