If it wasn’t for Microsoft’s recent acquisitions, last night’s showcase would have been the Fyre Festival of video games, minus the ball pit. Sure, there’s a new Forza Motorsport coming – it looks lovely, too – and there’s a big update coming for Sea of Thieves and Microsoft Flight Simulator, but almost everything else at the show was a direct result of the company’s aggressive acquisition strategy. The conference was bookended by Bethesda – opening with Redfall and closing with Starfield, both of which were highlights of the show – proving how needed those buyouts were.
It was a good show for Microsoft – certainly the best it has had in a while – with a large focus on games coming to its subscription service, Game Pass. Almost every title on show will be available on the service on day one, and it’s clear that retaining subscribers, as well as bringing in new ones, is a major objective for Microsoft.
There was also an entire section dedicated to Japanese games, presumably in a bid to get a market historically uninterested in Xbox to finally jump on board. Compared to previous years when driving and shooting games dominated the slate, the show screamed out about Xbox’s commitment to diversifying its portfolio. Microsoft feels less like a creator of experiences now, and more like a curator.
It’s also worth noting that the event focused entirely on games that will be out within the next 12 months, assuming there are no major delays, which there almost assuredly will be. This is a huge contrast to when the company announced games like Fable and Perfect Dark with CGI trailers back in 2020. This time it wasn’t smoke and mirrors, it was games and gameplay, all of it imminent.
Still, there’s no shaking off that history. Because of that, it was also a showcase that was defined by the no-shows.
We’ve known for years that the next Elder Scrolls game is coming after Starfield, but it’s been four years since a camera panned over a title card to show us that, yes, this game exists. You’ll probably be dead by the time it comes out. We’ve heard nothing about Perfect Dark or Fable, either.
Remember how MachineGames announced that it’s working on an Indiana Jones game? Those were boulder times. But what about Avowed, that Obsidian game that’s basically a new Elder Scrolls in all but name? Nope, that’s not allowed. Have this other Obsidian game instead.
Then there’s Contraband, Everwild, Hellblade 2, State of Decay 3, and The Outer Worlds 2. It makes you wonder how far out these titles really are, assuming they’re not out within the next 12 months, and why the hell they were announced so prematurely.
It’s clear that Microsoft has finally nailed its strategy, but there’s still a lot of catching up to do in terms of promises and delivery. We’re almost two years into the lifecycle of the Xbox Series X and there’s arguably still no system-selling game. Starfield looks like it will be, but you’ll have to content yourself with the constant trickle of Game Pass titles until then.
Written by Kirk McKeand on behalf of GLHF.
