I know, I know — I said last year I wasn’t going to cover E3 this year and I’m not. Hell, I didn’t know and wasn’t intending on watching Microsoft’s presentation yesterday but a friend made me aware of it and suggested I check it out so we could talk about it later in actual detail and since I had nothing else major planned today I went on and watched it.
I was rather impressed.
Let’s be clear – I don’t like E3. I may like some things that are presented at E3, but I don’t like the event at all (more on that soon enough.) I am, however, still a gamer, and my “weapon of choice” as some might say has been for the past 5 years the Xbox and as such I’m naturally inclined to care enough to watch the presentation for their exclusive titles and hardware news. To say this E3 presentation didn’t disappoint on that front would be an understatement.
It was, of course, the typical E3 presentation. Expensive, “shiny” and very show-offey because, well, that’s how these things go. Ignoring that, however, there were plenty of things which stood out for me.
Microsoft seemed to cut back on the general BS pandering I see in these presentations and really focused on the idea of “finding your next game” which is the perfect attitude to have. Not an elitist “hey, these are the best games and you have to have them because we’re the best.” A focus on those who already choose to play on Xbox.
That’s really as far as I want to go here. I can simply say I was impressed on a whole – while some titles like Bleeding Edge and Gears POP had me yawning, other entries like Spiritfarer, Outer Worlds, State of Decay Heartland, and of course Halo: Infinite had me smiling, looking forward to what adventures await in those games.
Of course things like Game Pass coming to PC and Xbox becoming more of an all around “play anywhere, anytime, with anything” concept certainly appealed to me. I need to look more into how exactly this will work out before I get too excited, though, as there’s quite a bit to go wrong. Upgrades to Game Pass (which I don’t use) look quite beneficial to many a gamer and possibly even me in the future.
It’s also nice to see that Microsoft is placing the focus on gaming going forward, as opposed to the “all in one” aspect that was the Xbox One — something that seems to have messed up brand perception early on and created a problem that MS and the Xbox brand haven’t been able to shake off.
Then came the hardware end of things. An improved Elite controller? Oh yeah, let me at that! Then came at least some detail on the design of Project Scarlett. All I can say there is I like what I’m hearing, and certainly hope going forward as we learn more that the console is as special as they are making it sound — I’m a little tired of every major console being effectively identical, as has been the case the past 14 years.
As I said, more to come as I figure out what I wish to actually cover in detail. All I can say is this — we’re in for an exciting time in gaming.
Oh, and the whole “Keanu Reeves out of nowhere showing up in the Cyberpunk 2077 trailer” event was pretty awesome.
For those who want to see the whole briefing, here ya go. Seriously, I really haven’t scratched it at all.
And for those who just want a short “best of” here ya go.