E3 has finally started with EA trying to redeem its reputation by announcing games like Battlefield v completely free of microtransactions and the much-awaited Sci-fi action adventure game Anthem. Then Phil Spencer the boss of Xbox got into the stage of the Microsoft theatre, with a portfolio replete with great games and announcements. We have already covered the EA presentation, and the rumors around the Xbox presentation. Phil Spencer, the boss of Xbox started the presentation by recognizing the support from the fans and he announced another event for the audience of their own Fan Fest, followed by the schedule of the presentation. The presentation on the whole consists of 50 games, with 18 Xbox or Microsoft “exclusives” and 15 World Premieres. The only concern regarding their announcements was the expansions were also counted in the total of 50 games.
We have compiled the list of every game they showed; it would be a good read if you happen to have missed the presentation, or if you are planning to watch it, reading this would save a lot of time. This article will focus on the exclusive Xbox stuff, while the second part will feature all the world premieres. However we have not included any DLCs that were announced during the presentation.
Halo Infinite
The keynote started with a strange trailer that became clear when the flagship helmet of the Master Chief was shown; there was not much to reveal of the gameplay itself, the only detail worth noting was that the game would be based on their new “Slipspace engine.” The release date was not revealed. However, Phil Spencer said, “With Halo infinite, we will join Master Chief on his greatest adventure yet.” The game will be developed by the 343 industries and published by Microsoft Studios.
Ori and the Will of the Wasps
Ori and the will of the Wasps is the sequel of the indie game, Ori and the blind forest that was loved by the Xbox players due to its natural environment, nonlinear story and difficulty requiring you to master the gameplay in order to beat the game. The game was announced during the E3 2017, not much was revealed during the year, except one news that the developers of Metroid 2 will have a role in the level management of the game. The gameplay shown during the presentation was essentially the same with better graphics and improvements on the whole. The game is set to release sometime during 2019, being developed by Moon Studios and published by Microsoft Studios.
Crackdown 3
Another E3, another Microsoft’s presentation, another trailer for Crackdown 3 and yet another delay of the release date that is now February 2019. This time around we got to see the destruction capabilities that they were boasting about for quite a long time. Additionally, the game features a huge range of cars to drive in the world. This trailer also featured Terry Crews who is one of the playable characters.
The game is the sequel of the Crackdown 2 that was released almost a decade ago; it is developed by Reagent games and Sumo digital while the publisher being the Microsoft studios.
Nier: Automata
Nier: Automata was a PlayStation 4 exclusive yet; the audience was surprised when the trailer of the game was showed during the Microsoft’s presentation. It Is now coming to Xbox and hence PC too. While it did not support HDR on PS4 Pro, it supports both 4k UHD resolution and HDR on Xbox one X.
Forza Horizon 4
Another E3 and we got another announcement of Microsoft’s exclusive racing experience, this time set in the UK. The game allows the players to explore both cities and the countryside environments. It is an arcade racing game that will allow players to race, drift and does whatever they want on the streets of UK, unlike Forza Motorsport that features a strict racing adventure on circuits. The game is developed by Turn 10 studios, and Microsoft studios will publish it. The game is set to release on October 2nd. Additionally, the subscribers of Xbox season pass would not need to pay anything to play this game when it releases.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmQNo8xtcAg
Gears of wars
The flagship Xbox title that made people buy the Xbox consoles other than the Halo title was there out of space adventure Gear of wars. There were many speculations about the game that was under works for some time. The most important rumor was that we might get three games under the gears of wars. It turned out to be true we got three Gears of Wars games one of them is a continuation of the main story by the name of Gears 5. The game will continue the story of the characters introduced in the Gears of wars 4.
The other game is for the Android and IOS devices that will be a cute “cartonic” and surprising rip off of the main game. It is marketed by the name Gears POP.
The last game will be a tactical game only for PC, the game will always be online and will mark the features of the original game, with changes in the gameplay that will now be a turn-based. The game will be playable with friends
All of these titles will be playable in 2019. However, no confirmed release date was given to any of them.
Tunic
If you loved Zelda, but you could not play it since the only console you have is an Xbox one, then Microsoft has got you covered, a game based on Zelda was announced during E3 2015. There were no words on the game until its gameplay trailer was shown during their presentation. The game features a cute fox as a protagonist, in an isometric world full of puzzles, enemies and boss fights. The gameplay looked somewhat similar to the new Zelda game. Other than this there is still not much information of the game out quite yet. Interestingly, the game is developed by a single Canadian developer. Although the game was announced quite a few years back, there is still no word about the release date.
Studios acquired
The presentation included not only the games but also the future roadmap that Xbox will follow to deliver great exclusives to its fans. The Xbox head Phil Spencer announced that in addition to the currently owned studios Microsoft is acquiring a whole bunch of new studios. The Xbox has a big lack of good first party titles problem that has caused many of the Xbox fans to switch to the SONY’s console that has a big library of good first party titles under its portfolio. This year Microsoft tried to amend some of their mistakes, Phil Spencer said that they are building an industry leading first party studios organization. He continued, “As you saw earlier, we are making one of our greatest single year investments in teams by adding five new creative studios.” Most of the studios they acquired were already making games for them, but they were independent studios until being acquired by Microsoft. The acquisition includes Undead Labs the studio that made State of Decay games. The Playground games is a UK based team that build the Forza games for Microsoft. The Ninja Theory has worked on many games, they developed Kung Fu Chaos for Xbox 360 and many other titles including a PlayStation exclusive, it is now Microsoft’s first-party developer. Compulsion games are the last studio they acquired, that is developing the happy few games set to release for every platform, the Microsoft’s acquisition may not change their decision. Lastly, the entirely new studio who will work under Santa Monica Studios by the name of The Initiative, its an entirely new studio that will develop games for Microsoft.
New Xbox
The most ambitious announcement made by Microsoft on the floor of E3 was that they have started working on the new Xbox console, the team that made the most powerful and compact console ever is working on this project. In an interview with Eurogamer, he said I like saying it the most powerful console. In a question about streaming services of games, he said the future would be about this, but now I see myself playing my favorite games on my television with the suitable hardware. He continued saying that there will be many devices to play games on, but television will remain one of them.