The hype of World’s largest gaming conference is growing as it is coming closer with the event being only less than a week away. This year’s E3 is more concentrated around the games rather than the Hardware, that is what all those leaks are suggesting. This year’s E3 got its share of leaks, top of the line developers and publishers, but the focus of this article is at the Yesterday’s Champ of gaming conference Microsoft.
During the reign of Xbox 360, Microsoft enjoyed a fair share of studios and exclusives that SONY could not supply their consumers, and since the launch of 7th generation of consoles (PS4 and Xbox One), it lacks behind. Due to the disastrous launch of Xbox One and the stringent marketing strategies Microsoft kept losing the studios and hence they are catching up to SONY nowadays.
With the efforts of their new CEO of gaming Phil Spencer things are now in their control if not out of the hands, they introduced the most powerful and compact console the Xbox One X 7 months ago. They had quite a time to make use of the improved hardware before E3, and they should surprise us as they have not announced anything about their presentation yet.
For our readers, we have compiled a list of games that would most likely be a part of the Microsoft’s presentation. Let’s dive into them and see if Microsoft has a strong chance of dominating this year’s E3.
Crackdown 3
The game that was announced four years ago during E3 with a release date of 2015 is still in works due to the mistake that Microsoft made by announcing the game very early in creation. The game is developed by the Sumo digital and published by Microsoft Studios.
The game has been a part of Microsoft’s E3 portfolio since 2014, and same is the case with this year’s E3 the game is expected to be released during Summer, but due to unreliable fate of this game, we are not sure. Microsoft has not announced anything about their presentation, but Crackdown 3 will most likely be a part of it.
The game has quite a few E3 appearances, and hence we have a number of trailers, Microsoft has boasted the destruction capabilities of the game, we are not sure whether its just a cool thing or it will have an impact on the gameplay. The game itself is a third-person action adventure game with an emphasis on co-op gameplay and multiplayer campaign.
Terry Crews play the main protagonist, there is also a female protagonist and other characters to choose, as the gameplay during last year’s E3 showed. Microsoft must come up with something worthwhile during E3 for the fans that are waiting for this game for a quite long time now, and we hope that the game releases soon.
Forza Horizon 4
Since the arrival of Forza Horizon that is an open world spin-off from the circuit-based Forza motorsport, we see a new Forza game every year that is developed by Playground Games and published by Microsoft Studios. The game has not been announced yet, but the rumors suggest that there will be a word about Forza in this year’s E3.
The president of Xbox in Spain and Portugal has vaguely confirmed in an interview to a Spanish gaming website Gamereacotor that Forza Horizon 4 will be the part of Xbox’s E3 presentation.
Microsoft denied the statement saying that it’s his stance not a word from the company itself. However, they did not deny any rumors about Forza Horizon 4, so it is sensible to assume that we will have something about Forza this E3.
Forza Horizon 4 is an open world racing adventure game that is rumored to take place in London or Brazil other than that there is not much revealed yet. There were some speculations that game might not be in works since playground games are working on a new fable title for Xbox, but the concerns of the fans were rectified when they acquired another studio to work on the Fable title. All in all, we expect there will be something from Microsoft on Forza horizon and a release date of September/October.
Gears of War
This year’s E3 might turn out to be the E3 that Microsoft needs to bring back the charm that they require to regain customers and developers. The rumor that Microsoft is revealing not only one but three games under the gears of war territory, if it turns out to be true, then Microsoft can be able to steal the show. The first Gears of war title could be the continuation of the main story by the name of Gears of War 5 that will be a tactical third-person shooter game the main focus of which will be the single-player campaign and co-op campaign. The title is far from release as the Gears of War 4 was released only two years ago, but we can see the first teaser trailer for the game.
The other one can be a spin-off from the main series just like they did with Forza and Halo the success of both may be tempting for Microsoft to make one under the Gears of war lineup too. The game will feature the same gameplay like the others Gears of war titles, but the story will be different maybe explaining the other side of the story just like they did with Halo or a prequel to explain the start of the story. We only need to wait for a few days for the reveal since the story building concept of games has always gained attention.
The third one could be a separate game that is built on the concept of the Gears of War, but the gameplay will be based on the Battle Royale genre. We see what Microsoft did there. Due to the success of the games under Battle Royale genre, many publishers are making modes in their game to add their battle Royale mode like The Call of Duty Black Ops 4. It is sensible to assume something from Gears of War too; standalone title would be great as it will not deteriorate the fun of the single-player campaign.
Halo 6
Let’s be real and say that much of the Xbox 360 success was due to the Halo games. The games were so good that the fans were buying the console only to play these games, many other titles also contributed towards the success, but Halo 3 was that one game which formed the first pillar. As far as Xbox one is concerned, we have only seen one Halo game so far that was only for this console. The Halo 5 was released in 2015 a lot of time has passed since then, and we have heard nothing about the game. To gain the lost fame and to boast the capabilities of their new Xbox one X, Microsoft should give out something about Halo 6 (insert a suitable subtitle here) during their presentation.
Halo is a first-person shooter action game that is developed by 343 industries and published by Microsoft Studios. The series has been a commercial success for the Microsoft, and we hope that through the next iteration of the series they will regain the trust of their consumers.
Other than these, many games that are not exclusive for the Xbox One, but they can potentially appear in the presentation, it includes Fallout 76, Assassins Creed Odyssey and Battlefield V the marketing rights of the Battlefield V has won by Xbox so, we can expect slightly greater screen time. Nevertheless, all of them are great multiplatform games that have already made their market and fans are eager to hear the word of these titles.
In conclusion, SONY is going with their established titles this time around, while Microsoft has a lot of speculations that might end up in favor of them. If they want to steal the show than they must make the presentation big for their fans naming it the “biggest show ever” would not suffice.