Microsoft started off their E3 briefing with some big news and kept things running at that fast-paced momentum throughout the show. They gave us a lot of information and showed off a ton of games, so let’s jump in to all that is coming up for Microsoft.
Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, took the stage to unveil the Xbox One Slim. The Xbox One S will be 40% smaller than the current Xbox One with up to a 2TB hard drive, and it will offer HDR gaming, a 4K output, and Blu-ray support. The system also has an integrated power supply, so no more enormous brick collecting dust behind your TV! Packaged with an all-new wireless controller featuring increased Bluetooth range and a textured grip, the Xbox One S system will be available in both black or white styles and will retail for $299.
The new Xbox Play Anywhere feature was also heavily hyped throughout the show. This means that when a game is purchased once, it’s then playable on Xbox One and Windows 10. Achievements and game saves are also carried across platforms, making it possible to switch devices mid-game. Cross Play is also supported, allowing players to join up in a game no matter which device they are playing from, which is a pretty cool move from Microsoft.
Also announced were some new Xbox Live multiplayer features. Background music will now be accessible, allowing you to play music from your library while playing games, and regional language independence will give players the ability to choose their language preferences based on their choice, not their geographical location. The online personal assistant intelligence Cortana will also be added, and lastly, a brief video was shown that advertised the Xbox Design lab, where you can go online and design your own Xbox One controller by choosing the color scheme of each individual piece as well as personalizing a message on the controller itself.
As far as new gaming features are concerned, we’ve got Clubs, Looking for Group, and Arena to look forward to. Clubs are user-created communities where fans of a certain game or a specific subset of a certain game can play together— for example, people who live in a certain area, or those who want to complete a specific objective. Looking for Group is a multiplayer tool for players to use when looking for others to play online with. Arena seems like the most exciting of these updates, as Xbox, like EA, is pushing toward competitive gaming for everyone. In Arena, players can register for tournaments and leagues hosted by top companies and compete either solo or as a team.
Also, look for upcoming titles that support Xbox Game Preview, which allows players to buy and play games while in development to give the developers feedback.
Rod Fergusson, head of The Coalition, came out to introduce Gears of War 4, which will be an Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusive, with the Xbox Play Anywhere feature, meaning players on PC and Xbox One can join the same multiplayer battles.
During the story mode gameplay footage reveal, we saw the Gears team in a rooftop battle during an alien electrical storm. After finding cover and dodging the attack, the team uses environmental destruction to create a bridge to another building. The highlight of the video was seeing J.D. Fenix pick up a gun called the “Buzzkill”, which mowed down a group of enemies with circular saw blades. The trailer ended with an old and grizzled Marcus Fenix saying, “Welcome home, James.” Both Gears of War 4 and an Xbox Elite wireless controller based on the game will be released on October 11th, 2016.
Killer Instinct will also receive an Xbox One exclusive character, General Raam from Gears of War. The character is free to play this week.
Next up was Forza Horizon 3. Set in Australia, the gameplay video showed a huge variety of environments for coastal racing, including beaches, swampy jungle terrain, the Australian outback, and city traffic. The open-world racing game is also introducing a four-player campaign co-op for the first time, in which players can join each other mid-race to complete a goal. The Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusive will be released on September 27th, 2017 and will support Xbox Play Anywhere.
Hajime Tabata, the director of Final Fantasy XV, came out to reveal the game’s first ever demo and show off the new battle system. After seeing a lengthy battle with a giant creature, Final Fantasy XV looks to have more action-adventure elements than previous Final Fantasy titles. Look for Final Fantasy XV on September 30th, 2016.
Coming first to Xbox One and PC beginning on June 28th (and later on PS4) is the first expansion pack for Tom Clancy’s The Division, titled “The Underground.” The first of three planned expansions, “The Underground” will feature urban underground missions that are randomly generated to ensure a new experience on each playthrough.
Xbox Live and EA Access members will also get the much-anticipated Battlefield 1 one week ahead of gamers on other consoles, as it is getting an early October 13th release on Xbox One before debuting elsewhere on October 21st.
From the creators of Limbo, a new game called Inside was shown. Only a short trailer was revealed, so not much information is known at this time. Inside, like Limbo, had a muted color palette and appeared to show an office building in some oppressed universe. Inside launches for Xbox One on June 29th. Also, for those that haven’t been playing it, Limbo is available free for a limited time right now.
So, time for real talk: the next game that debuted during the conference looks like ultra creepy fun and I need to see more as soon as possible. We Happy Few, launching on the previously mentioned game preview, looks to be a first person survival game in which the main character is trying to escape some kind of cult. In the demo, which seemed to be in an alternate past, characters adorned clown makeup and had exaggerated smiles painted across their faces. Once the main character refused to take a pill referred to as “Joy”, the others exclaimed in dismay, “He’s a downer,” and called for reinforcements. Unsettling and stylized, We Happy Few hits Game Preview on July 26th, 2016.
From the team at CD Projekt Red, the creators of The Witcher 3 have created Gwent, the card game from The Witcher 3, as a stand-alone game with a release scheduled for September on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Xbox One and PC gamers will also get a chance to play the Beta early, and cross-play is also supported.
Bandai/Namco then announced Tekken 7, complete with a story mode would be shipping in early 2017 after showing footage of a fight between Akuma and Heihachi. Also, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is being made available for free on Xbox Live all this week so fans will definitely want to jump on that.
Dead Rising 4 is heading back to the mall and this time, it’s Christmas! During the zombie filled demo, we saw what looked like Frank West wielding a rocket launcher, then some kind of candy cane gun. The footage also featured enormous groups of zombies exploding all over the place, a variety of vehicles and mech suits even made an appearance. They gave Dead Rising 4 a release window of Holiday 2016.
An Xbox and Windows 10 exclusive, State of Decay 2 used the tag line “No Body Survives Alone” and we got a better look at the sequel during the conference. The demo showed a desolate country road with zombies peppered throughout, as a car barrels down the road taking them out one by one. With a focus on what appears to be settlement building, State of Decay 2 looks to be co-op based and has players rely on others instead of going it alone in the wasteland as it were. State of Decay 2 will be launching in 2017.
The next exclusive showed was Halo Wars 2, the sequel to 2009’s real-time strategy game set in the Halo universe. Check out the week-long multiplayer Beta available now. Halo Wars 2 is set to be released February 21, 2017.
To close the show out, head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, came out to reveal what is possibly their biggest announcement at this year’s E3, Project Scorpio. An all-new system that will be released in 2017, Microsoft is touting Scorpio as the most powerful console ever made, as it will house 8 CPU cores, features 320 Gb/s memory bandwidth and 6 Teraflops of processing power enabling true, not upscaled, 4K and hi-fidelity VR. Games running on Scorpio could have fully uncompressed pixels running at 60 Hz. It’s a beast of machine.
Project Scorpio, The Xbox One S and Xbox One will also share backward compatibility and support cross-play too, allowing players on all systems to connect with each other regardless of the type of system they’re using.
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