Microsoft Rolls Out Red Carpets for Beatles, Other Stars at E3

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tony Hawk and Steven Spielberg all made appearances at this year's E3 press conference

True to rumor, there was no shortage of star power at Microsoft’s wiz-bang press conference this year – a return to form for the conference that has been so played down in recent years. Microsoft managed to round up Tony Hawk, Steven Spielberg and no lesser celebrities than the surviving Beatles themselves for its Monday morning press conference.

After debuting the cinematic trailer for the Beatles Rock Band and announcing a handful of the songs to be included, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr both bounced out from back stage on queue. Neither seemed to know quite what to say. “The game is good, the graphics are very good, and we were great,” Ringo joked. They stuck around for only a minute, wise cracking and paling around, before disappearing backstage again.

Tony Hawk also showed up to show off the final version of the skateboard controller for Tony Hawk: RIDE. Steven Spielberg made a surprise visit to talk about Project Natal, the long-rumored video camera that will allow existing Xbox owners to play video games by gesturing.