For Xbox, there are many things to do in your big press conference other than E3. Right now, after a series of notable delays, the mega-publisher’s 2022 has no major exclusivity. In addition to the necessary gameplay announcements coming to Game Pass and the announcements about more devices on which you can play these games, Xbox may share some news about, you know, real video games.
Where to look
The event starts at 1pm ET on Sunday 12th June. You can play it on the YouTube and Xbox Twitch channels. If you prefer to see it with such heavy compressions that it looks like you’re looking at it through a kaleidoscope, it will also play on Twitter. Bethesda will also be playing together on its YouTube and Twitch channels. Xbox’s Aaron Greenberg said it will last 95 minutes.
Xbox will follow the presentation with an “extended” at 1:00 pm ET on Tuesday, June 14th. This broadcast will not include any new announcements, but will provide more details about the games shown during the main event.
What to expect
Ahead of Thursday’s Summer Game Fest kick-off ceremony, publishers and developers, at a marketing event for even more marketing, openly said whether their games would appear during the show; few surprises there. Meanwhile, many revelations had been rumored during the grand presentation of Sony’s gaming status; there are also few surprises. The Xbox event, however, is a little more of an enigma.
It’s a pretty safe bet that something will show up, anything that involves Halo Infinite. Halo is the Xbox Mario. And right now, the latest iteration is the multiplayer shooter which is also Microsoft’s great live service game during the day, with lots of regular updates and lots of previously announced additions planned for future updates. Halo Infinite does not yet have multiplayer features, including support for a co-op campaign, in addition to the creative Forge level creation mode, which have been found in previous games and were promised to be released sometime this year. Last year, Microsoft marked “The Endless”, an obvious reference to events happening at the end of the Infinite campaign, which is a possible expansion. The Certain Affinity studio is also working on the game with incalculable ability; some fans believe he is developing a Battle Royale mode.
Fans are also convinced that there is a kind of Banjo-Kazooie revival. Through the hits, some people saw Xbox boss Phil Spencer playing the Xbox 360 version of Banjo-Kazooie earlier this month. (Some say it’s a sign; others say he’s just playing a game he likes.) Yes, that’s the result of three degrees of ear, but one developer claimed that something related to Super Smash fighters Bros. Ultimate is on its way. Spencer previously told Kotaku that any revival of the series is a call to be made by the original developer Rare, now an Xbox studio.
If nothing else, Everwild is very, very pretty. (Screenshot: rare)
Speaking of Rare, the venerable studio has another game underway that has only been shown in screenshots and short film trailers: Everwild. Last June, after Everwild was not present at Xbox E3, VGC first reported that the game had restarted internally and was now aimed at a release in 2024. Perhaps the show is not Is this year’s E3 when we finally know your agreement?
The Xbox Whiteboard has a lot of other titles announced in the process. Many teased during the presentation of the Xbox E3 last year, but no information has been revealed in between. A selection:
- The Outer Worlds, Obsidian’s first-person sci-fi RPG that looks like Fallout in space, has a sequel.
- Obsidian is also developing a fantastic role-playing game called Avowed.
- The Scorn horror game, inspired by the works of HR Giger, has been delayed several times. It is currently slated for a major October 2022 release on Xbox and PC.
- The creators of Just Cause are developing Contraband, a cooperative game set in the 1970s.
- Atomic Heart is another game like modern Fallouts, set in an alternate timeline version of the Soviet Union where the robotics industry has proliferated. Sounds crazy.
- Somerville is a Limbo, where you run away from the aliens while you are accompanied by a dog.
- Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, GSC Game World delayed its apocalyptic shooter STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl from April 28 to December 8, 2022.
They also resurrect two Xbox series for a long time. The Initiative, a new studio, is working on a reboot of Perfect Dark. Playground Games, which just released the magnificent Forza Horizon 5 in November, has another entry on the horizon of the Fable series of fantastic role-playing games. Someone guesses whether or not any of these games will be shown. (Why it’s worth it, I wouldn’t be surprised if Playground shares some details about a Forza Horizon 5 expansion. Its predecessor, the 2018 Forza Horizon 4, saw the Fortune Island DLC just a few months after the main game’s release. )
But the big one, the only Microsoft studio that shares the billing of the title with Xbox, is Bethesda. Last month, Bethesda delayed its next two major games: the vampire shooter Redfall, developed by Prey Arkane studio, and the open-world role-playing game Starfield Sandwich. (Kotaku recently reported that Bethesda is no stranger to crisis and overwork, as the development of Fallout 76 is a particularly arduous process.) Initially scheduled for release on November 11, 2022, Starfield is expected to come out in the first half of 2023. Work has been going on for years, however, and so far Bethesda has only shown … eight full seconds of gameplay material.
In fact, you know what? Let’s be honest. We are not watching the Starfield game. Bethesda will probably only announce another Skyrim port.