Here's What You Missed From Microsoft's E3 Show
Microsoft held the first of the big two E3 conferences today and, if you were too busy to catch it live, here's what you missed!
- After opening the show with a short, heartfelt message to those affected by the tragedy that occurred in Orlando, Florida, we're treated to a gorgeous close-up look at the brand new Xbox One S console; described as 40% smaller with up to 2TB HDD storage, IR Blaster, integrated power supply, and packing HDR gaming, 4K video and blu-ray support. Priced at $299, it's coming this August!
- Phil Spencer is the first to take the stage, touting Microsoft's promise of more choice in gaming and more exclusive content. Kicking things off, Rod Fergusson of The Coalition reveals Microsoft's new programme: Xbox Play Anywhere. The service will offer the ability to pick up and play any compatible title on both Xbox One and PC with progress and achievements saved on Xbox Live at no additional cost.
- Every co-op mode in Gears of War 4 will support cross-play between platforms, including the new Horde Mode 3.0. Voice of Kate, Laura Bailey, takes the stage to demonstrate the game live in a demo where Kate's mother has been abducted by the new threat: The Swarm.
- Community Manager for Killer Instinct - Rukari Austin - takes to the stage to thank the fans for their passion and to introduce General Raam as the next guest character for the series. Killer Instinct will join Gears of War 4 as part of Xbox Play Anywhere.
- Following Killer Instinct, we're treated to a beautiful new trailer for Forza Horizon 3 set in a variety of Australian terrains; valley roads, beside great oceans, through the desert, and across the bush. The game will feature seamless co-op sync when friends want to join your racing world. It's promised to be the most social Forza game ever, it's coming to Play Anywhere this September 27.
- Reintroducing the fearless leader Joule and her robotic companions in a brand new character trailer for ReCore which unfortunately leaked earlier in the day. Still, it's a fantastic trailer for a game we almost forgot about!
- Hajime Tabata and Matthew Kishimoto head onto the stage to reveal the first demo of Final Fantasy XV for Xbox One; Trial of Titan. It consists of a fluid yet chaotic three-way battle, something we've never seen before in the series.
- The Division is up next, revealing the next piece of content coming for the agents. This month on Xbox One, we'll be heading deep beneath the ground to take on randomly generated missions in deadly urban environments.
- DICE GM spoke briefly about Battlefield One but, if you'd like to hear more, you should check out our write-up of the EA Play event. You should know that, if you're a member of Xbox Live Gold and EA Access, you'll be able to play the game early from October 13.
- Mike Ybarra, head of platform engineering, joined us to speak about the Xbox Live service itself and new features are abound: Background Music, Language Options no matter where you are in the world, Cortana compatibility. Additionally, Microsoft is working on Clubs to create communities, Looking For Group to help find similar players for help, and Arena to make registering and competing in tournaments easier.
- The Minecraft team takes to the stage to announce that cross-play will be coming to Minecraft on Windows 10, iOS, and Android in an update called 'The Friendly Update'. Additionally, a new feature called Minecraft Realms will be coming; dedicated servers for you and your friends on any available platform, including Gear VR as demonstrated by John Carmack. This is the developer's first step towards uniting all players on all platforms.
- Minecraft: Pocket Edition & Windows 10 will be getting texture packs in the very near future and Add-ons will be coming this Autumn. You'll be able to alter mobs and villagers, as well as tweak A.I features. More news will be coming at MineCon.
- A quick new trailer to announce new customisation options for Xbox Elite controllers with 8 million possible ways to make it your own, available at Xbox.com.
- From the creator of Limbo - which is now free for all Xbox One players - comes a new title called Inside, available on June 29. This "masterpiece", as described by Chris Charla, is just one of the 1000+ games coming from ID@Xbox including Cuphead, Yooka-Laylee, Slime Rancher, and more...
- Speaking of indie games, Day Z and Slime Rancher will be coming to Microsoft's answer to early access Xbox Game Preview alongside the very, very unsettling title We Happy Few from Compulsion Games which will arrive on July 26.
- CD Projekt Red offered up their latest project: Gwent: The Witcher Card Game which features cross-play between PC and consoles, a single-player campaign, improved gameplay, and four unique factions to play as. It'll be getting a closed beta this September, so be sure to go sign up!
- Bandai Namco are next, showing off some live gameplay of Tekken 7: Heihachi facing off against Street Fighter's Akuma! The game will be coming to Xbox One and all Xbox Live Gold members will be getting a free copy of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 via Backwards Compatibility.
- Lightning Round! Frank is back in Dead Rising 4's festive announcement trailer!
- Hideki Kamiya showed off the biggest boss battle PlatinumGames has ever created in Scalebound!
- There's a brand new cinematic trailer for Rare's Sea of Thieves, along with some hilarious gameplay shown off by three teams of community members!
- State of Decay 2 was revealed in this new cinematic trailer!
- And a cinematic trailer revealed Halo Wars 2 to the world, a week-long closed beta is going live tonight if you're interested.
- Finally, Phil Spencer returned to the stage to end the show on a high note focusing on the future of the company which lies in the hands of Project Scorpio: the most power games console ever created, coming Holiday 2017. It packs 6 terraflops of GPU power, 8 CPU cores, and the ability to render at 60hz. As it should be, all games will work on all versions of the Xbox One from the original, the new S model, and Project Scorpio.
So, let us know what you think about the show! We're pretty excited about the focus on cross-platform play, we're all for a future without boundaries when it comes to gaming!