5 Things Microsoft Should Have Showcased at Gamescom (Instead of Disappointment)

Microsoft had an excellent pre-show for its announcement of the Xbox One X: Project Scorpio Edition and players being able to pre-order the Xbox One X. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the pre-show – that was the actual conference. Calling it a “conference” isn’t even accurate. It was like Spike’s VGX Awards 2013 except more professional and somehow even more lacking. Joel McHale, are you listening? Anyway, let’s take a look at five things Microsoft should have focused on with its Gamescom press conference but ultimately didn’t.

Crackdown 3

So Crackdown 3 was delayed prior to Gamescom and will be releasing in Spring 2018 instead of November 2017. Even if this didn’t happen, Microsoft did hype the fact that Crackdown 3 would have a better demo at Gamescom. While Phil Spencer didn’t outright promise this would be shown at Microsoft’s press event, it certainly would’ve been worthwhile. Heck, it could have helped to promote the game’s campaign or multiplayer, providing some impetus for people to still care about the game.

Sadly, this didn’t happen. Crackdown 3 probably got a mention in the middle of all this talk about Mixer and Xbox One X but there was no new gameplay. Again, this isn’t to say that new gameplay footage won’t emerge from the show floor but why isn’t Microsoft promoting it front and centre? I’m probably just going on and on but given the lack of top-notch Xbox One exclusives for the next several months, this is hardly encouraging.

More Super Lucky’s Tale

It’s bad enough that Microsoft didn’t feature new footage or details for State of Decay 2, Ori and The Will of the Wisps or Crackdown 3. Given the paucity of games out this year though, why didn’t Microsoft actually promote supposedly big name titles like Super Lucky’s Tale which is out in November? For context, Super Lucky’s Tale is a platformer that actually stood out at E3 2017 when it was first revealed. This was before Microsoft actually confirmed it as an exclusive. And yet, despite the fact that the Xbox One X is out on November 7^th, no one thought it was a good idea to have more gameplay of the one exclusive releasing alongside it?

Super Lucky’s Tale, like many other Xbox One title, could be on the show room floor. That doesn’t excuse the fact that as one of the few big exclusives releasing this year and should have received new footage. I’m sure it was nice to hear how excited the conference hosts and guests were about the game. Why not actually give us, the viewing audience at home, a reason to be excited as well with some new footage?

State of Decay 2

Holy hell, the amount of information we should be getting about State of Decay 2 that is being held back. In fact, while State of Decay 2’s developer did appear during the event, it was against the backdrop of the E3 2017 footage, the same fluff we’ve heard before and no new information. When an interesting point was brought up – like how humanity ended up in this zombie mess – the ol’ “you’ll have to play the game” reason was thrown out. How compelling.

Why even have a press conference if nothing important is going to be showcased? I’m sure there are many people who care about Jurassic World Evolution and Surviving Mars but I wasn’t one of them. Again, that’s just me but when I want to see more about State of Decay 2, especially after enjoying the first game, and this whole song and dance is done without any significant information, it’s just infuriating.

Xbox One vs. Xbox One X Comparisons

For all the promotion that the Xbox One X received – like the 100 or so titles that will be enhanced for the platform or the Project Scorpio Edition or even when you can start preordering – there was a severe lack of showcase for the improvements it provided. It’s one thing to say that Halo 5: Guardians and Gears of War 4 will look better on the Xbox One X. Heck, what about Quantum Break or ReCore, two titles we hadn’t seen in a while that would be receiving 4K updates on the Xbox One X?

Why weren’t there any comparisons to the Xbox One versions to show us what we could expect? You’d think that by having these trade-in offers and hyping up the console that Microsoft would actually show you how the games look better. Apparently there was time to showcase the same damn trailers from E3 2017 but NOT to show you the visual differences between games on Xbox One and Xbox One X. Even if it was down-sampled to a 1080p screen, Microsoft should have compared the two. But alas.

Release Dates for Big Titles

This is a pretty personal nitpick since Microsoft could announce release dates whenever it feels like. And despite how I felt about the lack of presence for several big names, Microsoft did date several titles like ReCore: Definitive Edition, Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare DLC and “remastered” versions of Disneyland Adventures, Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure and Zoo Tycoon. Which is all well and good.

But think back to Gamescom 2015 when Microsoft showcased Quantum Break, Crackdown 3 and Scalebound. Not only did we have gameplay and at least one release date but they were all major exclusives. Ironically enough, Crackdown 3 didn’t get any new gameplay at Microsoft’s Gamescom 2017 presentation which I’ve ranted about above. It’s just amazing that there are so many worthwhile games that Microsoft could be heavily featuring, much less providing some kind of release date for, but it’s not.

It’s funny how in my preview for the event, I pointed out the absurdity of Microsoft’s release line-up for this year, especially compared to Sony. The same Sony, by the way, who doesn’t even have a conference at Gamescom but still has more worthwhile titles to show. There were some titles that we could have seen from Microsoft but we didn’t. The good news is that Black Desert, which is releasing in early 2018 for the Xbox One, will see some new footage tomorrow courtesy of Mixer Gamescom Live. It still wasn’t in the main press conference but you take what you can get at this point.

It’s mind-boggling at this point, honestly, and strange how a company that touted so much in previous years just looks so downright weak in 2017. But hey, the Xbox One X: Project Scorpio Edition is already sold out on Amazon. I suppose that’s good news.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to GamingBolt as an organization.