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[ArtHands]

Xbox saves the summer with a solid showcase that channels the E3 of old | VGC

From Fable and Forza to exciting third party debuts, Xbox brought the gaming goods to a fallow year…

www.videogameschronicle.com

With E3 notably MIA yet again this year, it’s fair to say that so far, what should have been the gaming event of the year has instead felt like another post-pandemic transition. With Sony’s recent state of play largely underwhelming, the path was clear for Xbox to dominate 2023’s summer game announcements. And that’s exactly what Phil Spencer and co did.

Aside from the reveal of sleek, noir-1TB Xbox Series S, the conference was refreshingly light on hardware, cloud streaming, or anything but the games. In that regard, it was a welcome comfort, with Microsoft’s showcase delivering a slew of consistently solid-looking releases, offering more visual variety and punchier pacing than Sony’s middling pre-E3 State of Play.

 

[TikiLagoonSam]

 

[Bernoulli]

The only good thing was starfield direct tbh

 

[StueyDuck]

My only guess is gen Z writers that didn't know what E3 was and is making assumptions.

Much like the general gen Z ignorance

 

[X-Wing]

I think saving the summer is a bit much, and from everything shown, in the end, there are only two major titles releasing this year. There weren't many surprises either (in the sense - games we didn't know about) But it was absolutely a really good showcase and a sign of Xbox getting back to form. Now they just need to deliver what they promised on the show.

 

[killatopak]

Did you see any booth babes?

 

[UnNamed]

Yes. My summer was ready to be shit, but Microsoft saved it, now it's my best summer ever.

 

[Heisenberg007]

• No gameplay footage from the 2020 games we saw.
• Still no updates on Perfect Dark, Contraband, Everwild, or State of Decay 3.
• No big AAA surprise announcement.
• No proper release date for Fable, Hellblade, South of the Midnight, Clockwork Revolution, or Avowed.
• Avowed disappointed fans eagerly waiting.
• Most importantly, we just had a Showcase that is supposed to show what the roadmap is. Do we know what's the next game releasing after Forza? Which one is it and when is it releasing? No.

How can it be a good showcase that "saved the Summer" when it did not even show the roadmap properly? It had the same issues that Sony's showcase had: little gameplay and little clarity on the roadmap.

Edit: Hurt fanboys leaving laughing and empathy emojis should instead try addressing my last bullet point Even they know deep down that they have no idea what's next lol.

 

[Gudji]

Show was okay at best. Starfield showing was good tho.

 

[Danjin44]

For me Japanese games saved it!

 

[ToadMan]

CGI, CGI, CGI

This last few weeks has felt like companies going out of their way to hide bad news rather than show us actual content we can expect to play.

People shit on the PS show for the CGI, and this xbox show was similarly CGI heavy.

I mean at least with movies when we get a trailer we see clips from the actual movie. These CGI trailers for games could be anything

 

[CGNoire]

Not even close.

 

[Heisenberg007]

CGI, CGI, CGI

This last few weeks has felt like companies going out of their way to hide bad news rather than show us actual content we can expect to play.

People shit on the PS show for the CGI, and this xbox show was similarly CGI heavy.

I mean at least with movies when we get a trailer we see clips from the actual movie. These CGI trailers for games could be anything

At this point, I don't even want to see "in-engine footage". Shit can change so fast.

Look at Avowed. The last clip they had looked like "in-engine". Now the game looks completely different; the tone, art style, everything is different.

Show me gameplay or STFU, and that goes to all companies.

I can live with the type of trailer that Helldivers 2 had when you're just announcing the game: fluff and shit but snippets of proper gameplay in between. That's the highest level of compromise I'm willing to make. But nothing more than that.

 

[SJRB]

Xbox saves the Summer

lol one decent show from Xbox is enough to propel content-starved people into complete hyperbole. Let's not get carried away here, okay?

 

[Elios83]

Zero new first party announcements.
A few "cinematic" trailers from games that were already announced years ago.
The bar was really low.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Zero new first party announcements.
A few "cinematic" trailers from games that were already announced years ago.
The bar was really low.

To be fair, they had a couple of new first-party announcements: Belfry, Clockwork, South of Midnight. But no release dates and very average trailer. No new AAA you can say.

But yes, the bar was really low.

They did not even show all the Phase 1 games they announced and skipped Contraband, State of Decay 3, Perfect Dark, Everwild, etc. And people are like "hell yeah, so good!"

 

[Ronin_7]

Glad Summer will be then lmao

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Lol, Xbox had the best show - which by almost any metric was a good show - but you guys can't let them have the win.

 

[Dick Jones]

Some of the game trailers shown would be acceptable if it was the announcement of the game like Fable. Fine to show if the plan is a new Fable exists but what's the point when you actively hide the gameplay on an updated trailer for Fable.

Clockwork looks great and was a great reveal but if it's two years after its reveal and they show this type of non-gameplay trailer, I'd be harder on it. Hopefully they pick up on this for future shows.

 

[tusharngf]

I cant wait for playstation's GAAS line up .. count me in !

 

[Banjo64]

My only guess is gen Z writers that didn't know what E3 was and is making assumptions.

Much like the general gen Z ignorance

Let’s be honest 95% of e3 was shite games, cringy devs, orchestras, cringy stage demos of shit like Wii Music and Kinnect.

The other 5% was hardware reveals and the ‘one more thing’ announcements.

And it didn’t respect your time.

1-2 hour conference from Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft. 3-6 hours for the actual 3-5 trailers for games that were good.

Some serious revisionist history about e3. It wasn’t some balls to the wall none stop quality showcase.

 

[Corndog]

• No gameplay footage from the 2020 games we saw.
• Still no updates on Perfect Dark, Contraband, Everwild, or State of Decay 3.
• No big AAA surprise announcement.
• No proper release date for Fable, Hellblade, South of the Midnight, Clockwork Revolution, or Avowed.
• Avowed disappointed fans eagerly waiting.
• Most importantly, we just had a Showcase that is supposed to show what the roadmap is. Do we know what's the next game releasing after Forza? Which one is it and when is it releasing? No.

How can it be a good showcase that "saved the Summer" when it did not even show the roadmap properly? It had the same issues that Sony's showcase had: little gameplay and little clarity on the roadmap.

They actually showed first party games. For some reason you forgot that.

 

[StueyDuck]

Let’s be honest 95% of e3 was shite games, cringy devs, orchestras, cringy stage demos of shit like Wii Music and Kinnect.

The other 5% was hardware reveals and the ‘one more thing’ announcements.

And it didn’t respect your time.

1-2 hour conference from Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft. 3-6 hours for the actual 3-5 trailers for games that were good.

Some serious revisionist history about e3. It wasn’t some balls to the wall none stop quality showcase.

That was what made it so special, the cringe was bad but amazing.

I would take one more UbiCringe Conference with bird people dancing and guys falling over anyday over what we have now

but again that was "new" E3, E3 was also just suits and slideshows originally. So I don't know what the author of this article is on about. We just saw an Xbox Direct basically, it was great. Don't even know why we have to relate it to an E3 showing.

 

[Sacred]

CGI, CGI, CGI

This last few weeks has felt like companies going out of their way to hide bad news rather than show us actual content we can expect to play.

People shit on the PS show for the CGI, and this xbox show was similarly CGI heavy.

I mean at least with movies when we get a trailer we see clips from the actual movie. These CGI trailers for games could be anything

There was no CGI from first party titles.. why lie?

 

[Corndog]

lol one decent show from Xbox is enough to propel content-starved people into complete hyperbole. Let's not get carried away here, okay?

How about knock off the downplaying as well. It wasn’t perfect but it certainly was better than their recent shows.

 

[LastBattle]

In this thread we try to downplay that which was clearly a great showcase to make ourselves feel
Better about our plastic box.

 

[Sacred]

• No gameplay footage from the 2020 games we saw.
• Still no updates on Perfect Dark, Contraband, Everwild, or State of Decay 3.
• No big AAA surprise announcement.
• No proper release date for Fable, Hellblade, South of the Midnight, Clockwork Revolution, or Avowed.
• Avowed disappointed fans eagerly waiting.
• Most importantly, we just had a Showcase that is supposed to show what the roadmap is. Do we know what's the next game releasing after Forza? Which one is it and when is it releasing? No.

How can it be a good showcase that "saved the Summer" when it did not even show the roadmap properly? It had the same issues that Sony's showcase had: little gameplay and little clarity on the roadmap.

100% incorrect, but not surprised.

 

[In Cold Blood]

I mean, they ain't lying.
The Sony showcase was embarrassingly poor, and the Summer Showcase was even worse.
Luckily for us all, Microsoft brought the goods.

 

[In Cold Blood]

CGI, CGI, CGI

This last few weeks has felt like companies going out of their way to hide bad news rather than show us actual content we can expect to play.

People shit on the PS show for the CGI, and this xbox show was similarly CGI heavy.

I mean at least with movies when we get a trailer we see clips from the actual movie. These CGI trailers for games could be anything

Huh? Not one MS first party game was CGI. But I guess the fact you thought they were is a pat on the back to the devs.

 

[Heisenberg007]

100% incorrect, but not surprised.

Highlight the incorrect part.

Did they show Perfect Dark, State of Decay 3, Contraband etc.?
Did they share release dates for upcoming games?
Do you know what's the next game releasing after Forza and when?

Please do share.

 

[GymWolf]

• No gameplay footage from the 2020 games we saw.
• Still no updates on Perfect Dark, Contraband, Everwild, or State of Decay 3.
• No big AAA surprise announcement.
• No proper release date for Fable, Hellblade, South of the Midnight, Clockwork Revolution, or Avowed.
• Avowed disappointed fans eagerly waiting.
• Most importantly, we just had a Showcase that is supposed to show what the roadmap is. Do we know what's the next game releasing after Forza? Which one is it and when is it releasing? No.

How can it be a good showcase that "saved the Summer" when it did not even show the roadmap properly? It had the same issues that Sony's showcase had: little gameplay and little clarity on the roadmap.

And they still managed to do better than sony with indies, gaas and an underwhelming spidey 2 (not by much of course)

At least they fucking showed some big first parties instead of hiding them.

 

[BrutalTruth_]

Lol, Xbox had the best show - which by almost any metric was a good show - but you guys can't let them have the win.

It's the usual suspects too.

 

[Heisenberg007]

They actually showed first party games. For some reason you forgot that.

You may be confusing me with someone else. My comment did not say "they didn't show first-party games."

 

[Heisenberg007]

And they still managed to do better than sony with indies, gaas and an underwhelming spidey 2 (not by much of course)

At least they fucking showed some big first parties instead of hiding them.

I actually prefer the multiplatform and third-party games that were showed in Sony's showcase.

Both showcases sucked in terms of 1st party (little gameplay and no proper release dates). Sony's was better in terms of third-party content. Really big franchises and gameplay were shown for many: Assassin's Creed, Alan Wake 2, Final Fnatasy, Metal Gear, Dragon's Dogma 2, Phantom Blade 0, Towers of Aghasba, Tower of Fantasy etc.

But this one is subjective. And it's totally fine if somebody prefers the third-parties from the XBox show.

 

[In Cold Blood]

To be fair, they had a couple of new first-party announcements: Belfry, Clockwork, South of Midnight. But no release dates and very average trailer. No new AAA you can say.

But yes, the bar was really low.

They did not even show all the Phase 1 games they announced and skipped Contraband, State of Decay 3, Perfect Dark, Everwild, etc. And people are like "hell yeah, so good!"

InXile have stated that Clockwork is AAA. It looked amazing, and is from one of the best RPG devs out there.

At least Xbox players know what games alot of the studios are working on. We know the road map. All PS owners know is maybe there is a GOT2, maybe a TLOU3 and maybe Factions got cancelled. As.for complaining about not getting any follow up from games announced years ago with CGI, how's Wolverine going?

I for one am happy to know what games are coming down the pipeline.

 

[Heisenberg007]

InXile have stated that Clockwork is AAA. It looked amazing, and is from one of the best RPG devs out there.

At least Xbox players know what games alot of the studios are working on. We know the road map. All PS owners know is maybe there is a GOT2, maybe a TLOU3 and maybe Factions got cancelled. As.for complaining about not getting any follow up from games announced years ago with CGI, how's Wolverine going?

I for one am happy to know what games are coming down the pipeline.

Clockwork doesn't really look AAA, but it sure is interesting. One of the better, more interesting games they showed. I'm looking forward to it.

Hard disagree on the road map. PlayStation gamers also know what they are getting next: Rise of Ronin, Death Stranding 2, Stellar Blade, Fairgames, Concord, Helldivers 2, Marathon, etc. PS actually has more games lined up in the near future than Xbox. The problem, however, is the same: no one knows when those games will be released.

Xbox has the same problem. No one knows what the next game after Forza is and when is it releasing.

 

[GymWolf]

I actually prefer the multiplatform and third-party games that were showed in Sony's showcase.

Both showcases sucked in terms of 1st party (little gameplay and no proper release dates). Sony's was better in terms of third-party content. Really big franchises and gameplay were shown for many: Assassin's Creed, Alan Wake 2, Final Fnatasy, Metal Gear, Dragon's Dogma 2, Phantom Blade 0, Towers of Aghasba, Tower of Fantasy etc.

But this one is subjective. And it's totally fine if somebody prefers the third-parties from the XBox show.

No i liked more the third parties from the sony show but:

They showed stuff that didn't needed another showing (ff16 or sf6)
The most impressive third party was a korean vaporware than is never gonna come out and looked fake to the bone
Dogma 2 barely showed anything
Same for aw2
Mgs3 had a logo

Not much really.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

Starfield stole the show. It looks fantastic.

Avowed looks pretty good.

I would argue this is the best showcase so far.

 

[chromatic9]

Well Starfield was already coming to Xbox as a large third party game. MS paid 10 billion so it wouldn't go to Playstation even though it's often claimed MS is thinking about Apple/Google/Amazon and they're about bringing games to all platforms. If that was the case then Starfield a Zenimax game would still appear on Playstation.

It would be like cheering about Assassins Creed coming to Playstation and not Xbox because Sony bought Ubisoft, how lame would that be? We saw when MS bought Zenimax the Xbox the people closely aligned tweeted this is what happens when you criticize that MS has no games.

For MS it was again Forza and what else and it doesn't excuse the giant shit Sony took this year.

 

[mrmustard]

• No gameplay footage from the 2020 games we saw.
• Still no updates on Perfect Dark, Contraband, Everwild, or State of Decay 3.
• No big AAA surprise announcement.
• No proper release date for Fable, Hellblade, South of the Midnight, Clockwork Revolution, or Avowed.
• Avowed disappointed fans eagerly waiting.
• Most importantly, we just had a Showcase that is supposed to show what the roadmap is. Do we know what's the next game releasing after Forza? Which one is it and when is it releasing? No.

How can it be a good showcase that "saved the Summer" when it did not even show the roadmap properly? It had the same issues that Sony's showcase had: little gameplay and little clarity on the roadmap.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Even if you (or anyone) could address the last bullet point I mentioned in my comment, I'd concede.

It's only a matter of months before reality sets in and everybody is left wondering what's the next big thing for Xbox -- the very topic that a Showcase is supposed to address. Both PS and Xbox Showcases failed in that regard.

 

[Liamario]

Starfield was the only thing of value on display and I personally felt very cold about it. Other than starfield it was very similar to the sony showcase to be honest.

 

[Wildebeest]

Old Microsoft E3 shows were very hit-and-miss and depended on how much you liked their regular Forza, Halo or Gears presentations.

 

[FoxMcChief]

It’s hard to not have the best showing when you have Starfield and every other show was terrible.

 

[LastBattle]

Well Starfield was already coming to Xbox as a large third party game. MS paid 10 billion so it wouldn't go to Playstation even though it's often claimed MS is thinking about Apple/Google/Amazon and they're about bringing games to all platforms. If that was the case then Starfield a Zenimax game would still appear on Playstation.

It would be like cheering about Assassins Creed coming to Playstation and not Xbox because Sony bought Ubisoft, how lame would that be? We saw when MS bought Zenimax the Xbox the people closely aligned tweeted this is what happens when you criticize that MS has no games.

For MS it was again Forza and what else and it doesn't excuse the giant shit Sony took this year.

 

[feynoob]

It was not that deep.
It's was just okish boring CGI in-game trailers.

You could say starfield saved the show.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I've been watching E3 for years like many on here I am sure...

E3 was rarely amazing...

 

[Ozriel]

How can it be a good showcase that "saved the Summer" when it did not even show the roadmap properly? It had the same issues that Sony's showcase had: little gameplay and little clarity on the roadmap.

People left the Xbox showcase knowing exactly some first party AAA games they’re getting in 2024, as well as stuff coming to Gamepass.

So no, not really the same issue as the Sony showcase.

Still no updates on Perfect Dark, Contraband, Everwild, or State of Decay 3.

In hindsight, that’s actually not a bad thing. There’s a lot of new stuff that can be shown in subsequent conferences.

I thought they were going to empty the gas tank to show everything, even stuff that wasn’t ready, just to change the narrative. But they’ve been able to keep a lot of AAA back and still have a showcase that’s being received much better than any other one in this window.

You’ll have to come to terms with that, I’m afraid

 

[ProtoByte]

And they still managed to do better than sony with indies, gaas and an underwhelming spidey 2 (not by much of course)

At least they fucking showed some big first parties instead of hiding them.

The thing is none of those first parties look impressive. It's not just about "showing" as many games as possible for the sake of list warring. The games have to look good too.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Well Starfield was already coming to Xbox as a large third party game. MS paid 10 billion so it wouldn't go to Playstation even though it's often claimed MS is thinking about Apple/Google/Amazon and they're about bringing games to all platforms. If that was the case then Starfield a Zenimax game would still appear on Playstation.

7.5, not 10 billion.

It was quite widely reported that Sony were trying to buy Starfield exclusivity before the Zenimax sale, so both platforms wanted it to be exclusive. Sadly, only one can have it.

If, as you say, Microsoft are shoring up their place in the industry, versus Apple/Facebook/etc. Then it makes sense to ensure that your games are benefitting your own platforms as much as possible so I'm not sure that is a contradiction. In fact, it makes a lot of sense to make your games available through your platforms exclusively. I'm not sure they've said their mission statement is to bring all games to all platforms.