Phil Spencer took to the stage at Xbox's E3 press conference, calling it a "decisive moment of discovery" for the Xbox team. The show kicked off E3 from the Microsoft Theater here in Los Angeles.
"This today is the largest showcase of games on any stage, anywhere this year," Spencer said. He said 60 games would be on stage, including 14 from Xbox studios and 34 games premiering on Xbox Game Pass.
The company showed of tons of games, an Xbox Game Pass program for PC and updated us about cloud gaming and new hardware.
We're expecting announcements, potentially related to next generation hardware, cloud streaming and a slew of games from its own studios and third party partners.
Next Gen Xbox: Project Scarlett
Phil Spencer revealed the next Xbox on stage, coming from the same team that designed the Xbox One. It will come Holiday 2020.
"It's not just PC, it's not just console, it's not just mobile," one Xbox team member said in a trailer.
It's using Zen 2 and Navi from AMD, and it's 4 times more powerful than Xbox One X. The memory is GDDR6. The video promised frame rates up to 120 fps, ray tracing and variable refresh rates. And of course, there's an SSD, which will also be used as virtual RAM. First and third party game studios are working on games for the console already.
It will be backwards compatible, and the video said four generations of content will be available on the one system.
Halo: Infinite
Halo: Infinite will launch alongside the system. In a trailer, we saw a soldier rushing to keep a door closed, but ultimately climbing to escape and then falling. We then track to a man holding a hologram of a woman talking to a child and delivering a message to him. He then sees Master Chief floating outside the ship.
The man runs to override Chief's damaged systems, and then sparks him alive to a reboot. We see the man through his visor HUD.
"We're going home!" the man shouts. "Welcome back, Chief."
But the Spartan can't easily move his hands, and when diagnostics are run, Cortana isn't detected. Chief asks for a status report, and the man shows him that they lost the battle. There's nothing left.
The ship rocks and MAster chief takes jumps out of the ship.
Project xCloud
Xbox Ones will be used as personal, free Xbox servers, or you can use a console in their data center. This will be in preview in October, and you can play games wherever you go.
Xbox Game Pass
Head of partnerships Sarah Bond promised every Xbox Game Studios shown today would come to Game Pass game one. Batman: Arkham Knight, Metro Exodus, Hollow Knight and Borderlands: The Handsome collection are all available today.
She also highlighted the importance of playing on PC and announced Xbox Game Pass for PC. It will cost $9.99 per month.
"We have curated over 100 games just for PC," Bond said. Imperator Rome and Football Manager 2019 were on them, as well as the entire Halo: Master Chief Collection and Halo: Reach. Xbox Game Pass for PC launches in open beta. Other titles include Rise of the Tomb Raider and Wolfenstein: The New Colossus.
If you want PC and Xbox, Microsoft announced Game Pass Ultimate, for Console, PC and Live Gold for $14.99 per month. There's a $1 special going on during E3.
Xbox Elite Controller Series 2
There's a new Elite controller with adjustable tension thumbsticks, higher precision control, redesigned trigger grips and bumpers, shorter trigger hair locks, and a rubberized grip. There are more thumbstick and pad options, three custom profiles for different games, and it work son Xbox One and PC. It works over Bluetooth, has a recharagble battery (50 hours per charge)and what appears to be USB Type-C from the trailer.
Gears 5
An odd tariler for the game showed our heroine, Kait, remembering lots of characters from the past niame, including hero Marcus Fenix, before transforming into a villainous creature and screaming.
Gears 5 will release September 10, the team announced. The Ultimate edition will get you in four days early.
Ferguson announced Escape mode. In Escape, you and your squad get into a squad base, plant a bomb and then try to escape on time. Then we saw a trailer with real fire and smoke on stage for special effect, showing some brutal attacks, the bomb being planted and combat with the hive (there was no real gameplay. It was all CGI). Besides amazing lancer attacks, we saw a sick electric knife and some more standard guns.
You can also create custom hives for your friends to take on. Then, we saw the pre-order bonu. The damn Terminator is coming to Gears 5 as a playable character.
Rod Ferguson announced a Horde Mode coming to Gamescom on August 19.
Xbox Game Studios and Other Games
The company announced that Double Fine Productions is joining Xbox Game Studios, a huge coup for Xbox. The company is behind Pscyhonauts and Broken Age, among others. Tim Schafer of Double Fine took to the stage. He offered to make "Halo stuff, Forza stuff or Excel stuff," but then showed off Psychonauts 2. The trailer featured crazy platforming , in which Raz climbed through a world full of teeth. No release date was announced, but ti's coming to Xbox and PC.
The briefing started with a trailer for Obsidian Entertainment and Private Division's The Outer Worlds, showcasing the game's first-person shooter gameplay, moral system and a corporate colony facing an uprising. The game is coming to PC and Xbox One on October 25.
Rahni Tucker and Don Matthews from Ninja Theory next took the stage. The company recently joined Microsoft via an acquisition, and the company showcased Bleeding Edge on stage. The trailer depicts a 4 vs. 4 online melee title with hints of other battle royale and fps titles, but with a wackier, more violent spin. A technical Alpha starts June 27.
Next up was Ori and the Will of the Wisps with a violent spider creature chasing our hero through forest, lava, and d other magical worlds. That game comes to Xbox One and PC on February 11, 2020.
Minecraft Dungeons is an adventure game in the blocky universe, with RPG elements and a grid-based battle system. The trailer showed a party system with several classes, though they weren't detailed heavily. That's coming Spring 2020 to PC and Xbox with 4-player local and online co-op.
Microsoft Flight Simulator
We also saw a game powered by Satellite data and Azure AI, capture in real 4K. The flight sim looked photorealistic and showed scenes in San Francisco, Egypt, Seattle, New York and more.
Jedi: Fallen Order
Respawn and EA's Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order showed off new gameplay with brutal lightsaber takedowns, wall running parkour and brutal ship battles in a trailer for the game coming to Xbox and PC November 15.
Blair Witch
We saw the world premiere of a new horror title, Blair Witch, taking place in Sept. 1996, our protagonist finds himself lost in the woods with his dog as evil demons creatures attack. We saw splices of the game taking place in doors and with a flashlight and a camera. It's coming August 30.
Cyberpunk 2077
Then CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 showed up on screen to applause.We saw V demanding money from an acquaintance. There's a CGI shootout with the cops and a chase in a self-driving car, and V's partner dies in the fight. But V doesn't get his money. Emerging from the bathroom, he's attacked, starting a fight involving cybernetic strength, blades coming cybernetic enhancements and a ton of blood. We also saw Keanu Reeves in a starring role, which brought the house down with applause.
Reeves took to the stage, detailing a branching storyline, open world and customizable characters. "You play as an outlaw, an enhanced mercenary working in the sleazy underbelly of the city," Reeves said." Then he promised to reveal the releaes date, and delivered. Following a small smattering of first-person gameplay, we found it will release April 16, 2020.
Spiritfarer
Then, another world premiere: Spiritfarer. The cartoony sidesscroller allows building, caring for animal friends working in a garden and explroing a new world on a pirate ship.
Lego
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
The game is coming in 4K with a new campaign: The Last Khans. It will release in the fall.
Forza Horizon 4 x Lego Speed Champions
Lego cars are coming to Forza. Yes, you heard that right. It's a mix between Forza Horizon 4 and Lego Speed Champions. The expansion is coming June 13. The trailer played to the Lego movie anthem "Everything is Awesome."
Battletoads
And oh, yeah, Battletoads is back. A new trailer introduced the characters in an HD cartoon style with 3-player couch-co-op with fighting, platforming and racing.
We also saw the papery: The Legend of Wright and a tariler for games including Star Renegades, PAthalogic 2 and Afterparty, as well as The Good Life and Cross Code, all launching on Xbox Game Pass.
Borderlands 3
In the trailer, Lilith is recuriting. We see some Mad Max-style races, robots mechs, and were introduced to the characters. The signature cel-shaded art style hasn't gone anywhere, and there's plenty of big guns and ultraviolence to go around. The game will have our heroes taking on a cult, and that means plenty of baddies to shoot at. That's coming September 13, 2019.
Dying Light 2
Dying Light 2 comes to Xbox One and Windows PC. You polay as Aiden, who is infected. It comes Spring 2020.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
The game is coming 2020 and will feature all nine films in one game.
12 Minutes
This game from Annapurna Interactive showed a couple at dinner, where the husband seems to know of something haunting. He's been in the situation before, and hears the police coming in because she may have killed him. We see the husband fight, and then end up alone in the apartment. The wife comes in again and several situations play out over and over. Seemingly, depending on how the game plays out, the interactive thriller has you changing scenarios in the time loop.
State of Decay 2: Heartland
State of Decay 2: Heartland will have two different paths in its game. WE saw two different characters and stories playing out in the trailer, and of course plenty of zombies. They build forts and tents, and of course there's lots of bloody corpses. It's available now.
Phantasy Star Online 2
Yeah, you read that right. Phantasy Star Online 2 is getting a western release with online cross-play in Spring 2020 It has all of the battles you expect and is entirely free to play, which gives me some pause.
Elden Ring
A collaboration between Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R. R. Martin debuted to rapturous applause. It's the next game from From Software. We saw lots of limbs intertwined, dust falling from a space hammer and a red-haired knight. A ring has been shattered, and now there's evil afoot and the sky is burning. A girl who was wielding a hammer starts to crack into pieces.
Tales of Arise
The new Tales game from Bandai Namco is coming in 2020.
Crossfire X
Crossfire X is an Xbox console exclusive, coming from the world of PC. The trailer showed very little, but there wre battles, buildings falling down and lots of tank, helicopter and shooting action. It will be on Xbox One in 2020.
