CES 08: Gates Rocks Guitar Hero; Microsoft Brings ABC, MGM to Xbox Live

In his last keynote speech at CES, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his supporting cast had a lot to speak about on Sunday night at the International Consumer Electronics Show--and some of it was related to games.

Playing up high definition displays and connected entertainment, Gates spoke of wide-ranging changes to the industry, before bringing on Microsoft president of entertainment devices Robbie Bach to make a few Xbox 360-related announcements.

"ABC and Disney will be bringing their TV shows to Xbox Live this month. Top rated shows like Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and others," said Bach, who also noted that MGM will be added to the growing list of movie studios supporting the service.

"Windows is far and away the largest gaming platform in the world, and continues to grow," remarked Bach, before similarly lauding the Xbox 360's success. "We have passed the ten million member mark for Xbox Live. That's six months faster than we expected to get to that number."

Other than a mention of British Telecom partnering with Microsoft to use Xbox 360s as IPTV set-top boxes, the conference was largely dominated by a look at future technology and portable devices.

Gates introduced the Microsoft Surface, a sort of giant iPhone table that allows users to interact with a digital display by way of simple gestures. The Chairman demonstrated the device by customizing a snowboard design, changing the color scheme and adding a "Bill!" signature to the graphic.

Another futuristic gadget presented was a smart camera phone that can identify landmarks and people, offering suggestions, calling up notes, or playing ads depending on the building or person it sees.

In a speech titled "The Digital Decade," Gates first poked fun at himself in a video reminiscent of an exit spoof by another Bill--former President Bill Clinton. Gates was shown failing at various retirement-related activities, with celebrity appearances by Steven Spielberg, Jon Stewart, Hillary Clinton, and Microsoft Bob--as well as a scene of Gates playing Guitar Hero II while attempting to impress U2's Bono.

Later on in the show, before a Guitar Hero III duel between Gates and Bach, the latter brought on Guitar Hero champion Kelly Lyon to play Welcome to the Jungle in his place. This was followed by Gates countering with his own ringer, Slash himself, who played his own licks with a real guitar to end the conference.