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Microsoft's Don Mattrick on stage at E3.

Posting from Los Angeles: Microsoft video-game chief Don Mattrick just came on stage here at the E3 convention. In his brief opening remarks, he promised "a brand new experience deisgned to unleash creativity and growth in our industry."

10:45 a.m.-11 a.m. The event is starting with a nod to hard-core gamers, with live demos of "Fallout 3" and "Resident Evil 5" for Xbox 360. ... Now Peter Molyneux of Lionhead Studios is showing "Fable II," including a new capability to invite other gamers into your world from their own single-player games. ... Cliff Bleszinski of Epic Games shows "Gears of War 2."

11:05 a.m.: Mattrick comes on stage and runs through game sales stats, saying he feels confident in predicting that the Xbox 360 "will sell more consoles worlwide this generation than PlayStation 3." I know from talking with Sony Computer Entertainment America executive Peter Dille last week that Sony has the opposite view. So it seems the rivalry -- or at least the rhetoric -- is getting more intense between the companies.

11:12 a.m. The reports of customizable Xbox Live avatars were true. They'll be added this fall as part of an overhaul of the Xbox Live service, the company says. Microsoft executive John Schappert is showing the avatars now. He introduces Xbox Live Primetime, a "massive multiplayer game channel" in which Xbox Live members will be able to compete in TV-style game shows, with their avatars representing them on screen.

11:23 a.m.: Another rumor confirmed: Microsoft has struck an exclusive online video partnership with Netflix, to give Xbox Live members access to more than 10,000 movies and TV episodes from the Netflix library online at no extra charge above their subscription fee, according to Schappert. There were no further details on stage, but I'll be following up.

Update: The news release says the service "will be available to Xbox LIVE Gold members who are also Netflix subscribers and will let those users enjoy streaming movies from Netflix on Xbox LIVE at no additional cost."

11:30 a.m.: Microsoft's Shane Kim shows a sequel to the SceneIt trivia game that will use the new Xbox Live avatar system.

11:45 a.m.: Kim announces "Lips," a karaoke game that will let people use music from their portable music players, including iPods and Zunes, as backing tracks. That's another leak confirmed.

Update, 12:05 p.m.: The event was capped with a series of announcements by Yoichi Wada, president of key Japanese video-game company Square Enix. Among them: "Final Fantasy XIII," the next installment in a huge franchise for Sony's PlayStation consoles, will also be available on Xbox 360 when the game is launched.

The event is over. I'll have more in follow-up stories and posts.

P.S.: No motion-sensitive controller, and no tattoos.