For Microsoft, this E3 is important- Sony is the strongest it has ever been, and Nintendo is resurgent. This means that what was initially a single front war is now a two front one for them. So of course, they need to have something meaningful planned for E3, right?
Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, was asked about Microsoft’s E3 plans during an interview with Xbox On, and he shared some thoughts on what to look forward to.
‘I think the game lineup this year across the board is fantastic,’ he said to Youtube channel Xbox On. And I think Scorpio will be the best console to go play these games on. But when I think about just the games we’ve heard about from first and third parties, it’s going to be such an incredible year… I know we say that every year, but I’ve had some opportunity to look at some of the third party games, which are coming together so well. I’m obviously playing our first party games. And I think the creativity and diversity this year is fantastic. Something like Destiny 2 is coming, I was over at Bungie two weeks ago, and I got to play a little bit, and it got me back into the first game.
‘But I think the games that are coming out, the new Star Wars game, Red Dead, some other stuff that’s not announced yet, the new Mordor game… I just think this year, where last year was a lot of shooter games, which I think is great, and I know Destiny is a shooter too, but there’s lots of other kinds of content too, which I think is great. It’s gonna be a great year and a great E3.’
Now, while I agree with a lot of what he is saying, and it’s great that these wonderful games will be the best on Xbox, this answer does worry me, because it seems to almost be drawing attention away from exclusives and first party games. I hope that simply showing some (admittedly great) third party games, playing best on Scorpio, is not Microsoft’s plan for E3 and for Scorpio- that would put them in a world of trouble.