Microsoft planned to kick off the E3 video game conference late Tuesday night with a handful of announcements that emphasized the company’s focus on building on its early lead in the next-generation console war.

The maker of the Xbox 360 game console did not announce a price cut, as Sony did with the PlayStation 3 on Monday. Instead, Microsoft highlighted its growing reach into online gaming, downloadable movies and casual, mass-market gaming.

For casual gamers, Microsoft said it will bring the DVD movie game Scene It to the Xbox 360 with new trivia questions, high-definition content and online scoring. The game also features a new controller called a big-button pad, which allows players to buzz in with answers. Each game will include four big-button pads.

“For the Xbox 360 and the industry to grow, you’re going to need a lot more social experiences that are not intimidating and easy to jump into,” Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, said Tuesday morning. “That’s what we’re doing with the big-button pad. You realize it’s something that’s not intimidating.”

In the same vein, Microsoft was expected Tuesday night to premiere the music game Rock Band. The title, which allows up to four friends to assemble different parts of a band, is modeled after Guitar Hero, a hugely popular title in which people play a toy guitar in time with a song.

Kim said Microsoft has assembled the building blocks for solid growth. The company has raced ahead in sales by virtue of its one-year lead over the Nintendo Wii and the PS3. Since November, it has accounted for $2.4 billion in sales of hardware, software and accessories, on par with its two rivals combined.

The U.S. installed base for the Xbox 360 now stands at 5.6 million units, followed by the Wii with 2.8 million and the PS3 with 1.4 million.

Microsoft has also had to deal with a serious hardware failure problem with the Xbox 360. It responded by announcing a plan last week to spend $1 billion to extend the warranties on the Xbox 360 to three years and fix faulty machines.

The company’s overall momentum extends online to its Xbox Live service, which now boasts 7 million members, ahead of the 6 million Microsoft forecast for this time last year. The company now expects to hit 10 million members by this time next year.

Microsoft also added Disney Studios to its list of partners offering movies and television shows through the Xbox Live Video Marketplace. Users can download videos from Disney, Touchstone, Miramax and Hollywood Studios.

For hardcore gamers, Microsoft emphasized the coming releases of Halo 3, Madden NFL 2008, Resident Evil 5 and the latest installment of Grand Theft Auto, which is launching for the first time simultaneously on the Xbox and PlayStation platforms.

E-mail Ryan Kim at rkim@sfchronicle.com.

The technical brilliance and tenacity of Kumar Sangakkara came to the rescue of Sri Lanka in the Asgiriya Stadium today, after Matthew Hoggard’s devastating new ball spell had threatened to lay waste to the innings. In an incisive 10-over spell in the morning, a marathon in the gruelling conditions, Hoggard took 4 for 21, reducing the Sri Lanka innings to the tatters of 42 for five at one stage after Mahela Jaywardene had won an important toss for his side and chosen to bat first.

Sangakkara, Sri Lanka’s former wicketkeeper, was assisted in a sixth-wicket stand of 106 by the current incumbent Prasanna Jayawardene (51), before he finally succumbed to a typically athletic backward point catch by Paul Collingwood for 92 as, with rabbits only for company, he sought to gallop his way to three figures.

In four-and-a-quarter hours, he had scarcely put a foot wrong, driving succulently in particular, and hitting 13 fours. The remainder of the Sri Lankan batting was a disaster though, as the ball swung for Hoggard, not extravagantly but just enough to find the edge, and later, ominously, began to spit and turn for Monty Panesar, who took 3 for 46.

To bowl out Sri Lanka in such circumstances for just 188 was a fine effort, and a tribute to disciplined team bowling, a well thought out strategy, clever field placings and top catching. But Hoggard’s early success and that of Panesar also proved an indicator of what might lie in wait when the Sri Lankan bowlers got their chance on a dry, cracked pitch.

It took three deliveries of the reply to find out. Chaminda Vaas, playing his 100th Test, shaped the ball into Alastair Cook who was caught on the crease, foot planted and plumb lbw. Worse might have followed in Lasith Malinga’s second slingy over when Michael Vaughan must have been perilously close to lbw, umpire Asad Rauf deciding the double noise was bat first then pad rather than the reverse. Technology was inconclusive, so it must be deemed a fine decision.

The much anticipated appearance of Muttiah Muralitharan came with the twelfth over, and immediately batting looked a challenge as his second-ball doosra beat Vaughan comprehensively and brought a confident stumping appeal. The replay showed the England captain to be in his ground, but barely so.

An lbw shout in the same over promised torment tomorrow. But, together with Ian Bell (36 not out), Vaughan (13 not out ) survived until bad light inevitably intervened with 12 overs unbowled. By that time England had reached 49 for one to complete a fine first day of the series.

Before play, England finally unravelled the mysteries of who might be the third seamer and No6 batsman, leaving Steve Harmison on the sidelines - unable to trust his fitness and believing him the wrong bowler for these conditions anyway - and giving a first cap to Ravi Bopara, hopefully because it is believed he is more likely to score runs than Owais Shah rather than any extraneous reasons. Bopara received his cap from Vaughan by the pitch shortly after the toss.

The Sri Lankan collapse in the first hour-and-a-half was a tribute to Hoggard’s skill but perhaps a reflection on the state of mind of the opposition, with rumours of impending retirements and general fractiousness.

In fact Ryan Sidebottom made the first incision, removing Sanath Jayasuriya to a stunning catch at cover by Kevin Pietersen. Hoggard, though, got into a groove in the final warm-up match in Colombo and carried it on today, having Michael Vandort caught gently at mid on, and then giving Matt Prior three catches in the space of two overs, producing a brace of away-swingers to see the back of the right-handers Mahela Jayawardene and Chamara Silva, and then pushing one across the bows of the lanky lefthander Jehan Mubarak.

(11-25) 04:00 PST South Lake Tahoe — Perched mid-mountain on the Nevada side of Heavenly Mountain Resort is an elegant stand of old Red Fir trees that symbolizes a new era of cooperation between the ever-growing ski industry and environmentalists.

Made up of about 100 or so old-growth giants, the trees are remnants of a Sierra wilderness long gone. They survived the clear cutting of their neighbors for Comstock-era mining around Virginia City when much of the Tahoe Basin was denuded in the 1860s and 1870s, the trees used to support silver and gold mining.

More than a century later, the trees withstood another threat from the business world when Heavenly unveiled a 10-year master plan that would have required cutting a space through the stand for a ski lift line.

But rather than setting off yet another drawn-out fight between a Sierra ski area and the environmentalists who watch over the area, the folks who run Heavenly backed off. The trees will stay.

Heavenly and opponents of the plan to cut the old-growth trees were at a stalemate in April, when the resort’s 10-year master plan - including the plan to dissect the stand of trees - was before the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Opposition to cutting those trees, in fact, threatened the plan, and so Blaise Carrig, chief operating officer of Heavenly, said he would not build the lift.

But it was a decision, too, that reflected the resort management’s appreciation that being environmental stewards makes for good business, because success is tied to the appearance and health of the Tahoe Basin, in particular reversing the worsening of the water quality of Lake Tahoe.

Indeed, the two issues of greatest concern for stakeholders in the master plan were the fate of the 100 or so old-growth trees, and soil erosion into tributaries of Lake Tahoe and stabilization of soils on the mountain. In the end, planners and activists were satisfied by Heavenly’s intentions.

“We have been pleased with our work with Heavenly and satisfied with their willingness to invest in environmental improvements and to work with environmental advocates,” said Rochelle Nason, executive director of the nonprofit League to Save Lake Tahoe.

“You cannot kill the golden goose,” Carrig said. “The golden goose for this region is the lake. Heavenly is a great place to experience Tahoe in the winter, but without Tahoe being maintained in terms of water clarity, we won’t grow.”

That isn’t the only environmental concern facing the ski industry. Last year, ski resort operators sounded the alarm about climate change, saying that if it continues apace they will soon be out of snow and out of business. In fact, snowfall was less than ideal. Heavenly’s business was off 12 percent.

The resort’s leadership feels the plan fits in with environmental concerns.

Heavenly, owned by publicly traded Vail Resorts, canceled the tree cutting and retained a soil-erosion scientist and ecologist to serve as a consultant and monitor of programs to improve soil conditions, and the two decisions made for environmental peace.

“I think we demonstrated our going in the right direction in the process by implementing this monitoring plan and engaging environmentalists as partners in the design of a lot of these programs to get that better result environmentally,” Carrig said. “At the same time, we wanted improvements that would improve the ski experience.”

In a cooperative spirit, Heavenly management began discussing the master plan - approved by the planning agency April 25 after Carrig spared the trees - with the League to Save Lake Tahoe and other environmental groups in 2003.

“I asked for their input. I wanted their fingerprints on it from the beginning,” Carrig said.

He knows the lake is the centerpiece of the basin, and in recent years water quality has been the chief concern of the activists he invited in to consider the master plan.

In 2006, Lake Tahoe was clear to an average depth of 67.7 feet, based on how far from the surface UC Davis researchers could see a white dinner plate-size measuring tool known as a Secchi disk. That is 4.6 feet less than 2005. When measurements began in 1968, the lake was clear to an average depth of 102.4 feet. Fine particles from erosion and urban runoff into the lake’s tributaries, as well as pollution, are to blame.

“We’re killing ourselves up here,” said Michael Donahoe of Zephyr Cove, Nev., the volunteer Sierra Club conservation co-chairman in the Tahoe area, who monitored the Heavenly master plan progress.

At the end of the approval process, the Sierra Club and the League to Save Lake Tahoe endorsed the master plan. The Sierra Nevada Alliance, which annually releases its environmental scorecard for area resorts, was “pleased with the outcome,” said Autumn Bernstein, the land use campaign director for the alliance. “But anytime there is this amount of development in a fragile alpine ecosystem, there will be impacts associated with it,” she said.

It’s the Tahoe Planning Agency and the U.S. Forest Service that Heavenly must satisfy, but environmental groups have considerable weight in the region.

The proposal for the controversial new ski lift would have required the removal of 444 trees, including the 100-plus old-growth Red Fir trees. Instead, Heavenly is replacing the North Bowl Express and Olympic Express lifts - old fixed-grip chair lifts - with high-speed, detachable-lift technology. The project requires removing 56 trees, none of them old-growth.

One of the goals of the master plan is to distribute people better and draw them to the lower level of the Nevada side, less popular because of the antiquated lifts.

Environmentalists also accepted Heavenly’s word that the resort not only wants to prevent erosion but repair damage done in less-environmentally conscious years, when ski trails were bulldozed into mountains.

“The current (Heavenly) management has demonstrated a lot of concern about stabilizing the erosion on the mountain and reversing damage that we see coming from an old ski area in a fragile area,” said Nason of the League to Save Lake Tahoe.

Environmentalists were won over when Heavenly agreed to employ an adaptive management process that “says if something is not working we need to change what we are doing,” Carrig said. “We need to be making progress and getting certain results along the way.”

Put another way, Heavenly will “have to achieve targets for soil erosion (containment) before they can move into a new phase” of the master plan, Nason said.

Heavenly has retained a soil scientist and ecologist, Michael Hogan, who gives direction for dealing with soils during projects. “Heavenly’s activities have met the implementation requirements that we have set for them,” said Hogan, the president of Integrated Environmental Restoration Services of Tahoe City, and past president of the California Society for Ecological Restoration.

There’s no more skidding of trees that are removed, for example. They’re now taken out by helicopter. Crews are studying trails created 20 years ago to consider what kinds of applications can be put on them to create healthier soil and less erosion. Soil restoration combined with pine needle mulch treatment is said to substantially reduce sediment in runoff water. New trails are not being graded. Visitors will ski them as they lay.

“We are actually going to rectify the practices of the past, which is a big step forward,” Carrig said.

Heavenly’s plan is to add three mountain lodges, six detachable lifts and trails on 812 acres, most of them on the Nevada side outside the Tahoe Basin, over 10 years. There will also be a 1,000-seat restaurant on the mountain, to be called Powderbowl Lodge, with lake views.

Also new is the Heavenly Sky Flyer at Adventure Peak. The elevated zip line will take guests on a 50-mph ride from the top of Tamarack Express back to the top of the Gondola, a vertical drop of 525 feet. At 3,100 feet, the Sky Flyer will be the longest zip line in the continental United States.

Since acquiring Heavenly in 2002, Vail Resorts has spent more than $30 million on infrastructure and upgrades but can’t predict what more will be spent until projects come about.

Vail Resorts’ plan is to continue to transform the long undercapitalized resort into a destination attracting high-end customers who stay mid-week and for extended visits.

Six years ago, of 840,000 visitors, 40 percent were destination customers from outside California and 60 percent were Californians. Last year, with 1 million visitors, 55 to 60 percent were destination visitors and 40 to 45 percent were from California, Carrig said.

The change came in part because of the Marriott development next to the gondola and other improvements at South Lake Tahoe, where the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency requires that for every guest room that is added, one and one-half rooms must be demolished. The effect is a string of improvements and removal of aging motels.

A division of Vail Resorts, RockResort, which operates upscale lodging facilities, will be the operator of the hotel at Chateau at Heavenly Village, a hotel/condominium, spa, retail and event show center in South Lake Tahoe.

Said Carrig, “If we had stayed on the same trajectory we were on 10 years ago, we would be toast, because we would have been all about day skiing, not a destination resort.”

In Travel: Search for Sun Valley’s soul and go behind the scenes of the new Sierra ski season.Heavenly’s 10-year master plan includes:

– Three mountain lodges

– Six detachable lifts and trails on 812 acres

– 1,000-seat restaurant on the mountain

Source: Chronicle Research

E-mail George Raine at graine@sfchronicle.com.