Larger audiences have not reacted to yesterday’s Xbox Series X gameplay showcase very positively. Quite a few games were shown off, and many of them look legitimately interesting, but the general lack of actual gameplay footage (especially for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla) miffed quite a few people. Microsoft, however, have acknowledged their errors in messaging, and are promising, that they will be incorporating feedback for yesterday’s Inside Xbox broadcast going forward.

Taking to Twitter, head of marketing at Xbox Aaron Greenberg issued a classy response to criticism, saying that Microsoft “set some wrong expectations” and that they are listening to the consequent feedback, and will ensure that they take it all in and learn from it for future events. You can see his tweet below.

Yesterday’s show was just the beginning for Microsoft as far as their rollout of next-gen info is confirmed. They reportedly have many events planned in the coming months, while their first party studios too have big plans for the summer. Their next big event, focused on the Xbox Game Studios lineup, is scheduled for June, and will also feature new updates on Halo Infinite.

Meanwhile, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s creative director Ashraf Ismail has also promised that the game has a long marketing campaign planned, and in-depth gameplay footage will be shown off in the future. Read more on that through here.

https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/1258584474155053058

About a couple of weeks ago, a logo for the upcoming Xbox Series X was spotted in a trademark filing by Microsoft. This was the first time an official logo for the console had been spotted- and now, Microsoft have officially confirmed that it is, in fact, the real deal.

They did so recently on Twitter, while talking about today’s Inside Xbox episode. Microsoft confirms that every game shown during the showcase later today will be optimized for the Xbox Series X, and will bear a badge that declares the same- said badge also shows the console’s logo. Take a look below.

This follows from the console’s new startup logo and sound also having been seemingly revealed- check those out through here.

The Inside Xbox show today will be all about third party games, showing gameplay and some new reveals, while some more new third party IP are also going to be announced this month. As far as first party stuff is concerned, Microsoft says to expect a blowout on Xbox Game Studios content in July.

One of the games confirmed to be making an appearance during Inside Xbox today is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which will be getting its gameplay premiere.

Every game you’ll see on #InsideXbox tomorrow will be Xbox Series X Optimized. Spoilers, you’re going to see this badge a lot.

You ready? We’re ready. pic.twitter.com/pzSJmUvNUp

— Xbox (@Xbox) May 7, 2020

We’re right on the cusp of Microsoft preparing to lift the lid on the Xbox Series X. They have several events planned for the coming months to do just that, with a big showcase for first party games coming in July, but kicking it all of is tomorrow’s Inside Xbox presentation, which is going to be focused on third parties.

Taking to Twitter, Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg – head of marketing at Xbox – dropped some more details on what to expect from tomorrow’s show. Greenberg re-iterated that the show will have Xbox Series X gameplay from many of Microsoft’s biggest third party partners, and that this Inside Xbox will serve as the springboard for many more reveals to come over the summer. Additionally, Greenberg has also confirmed that some new third party IPs will also be revealed “this month”- whether that happens tomorrow or some other time in May remains to be seen.

One game that’s confirmed to be receiving its gameplay reveal tomorrow is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which will also support 4K and Smart Delivery on Xbox Series X. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for updates on more reveals and announcements.

https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/1257686182311288832

Rather, I would argue that the Xbox brand’s biggest loss this generation is that of mindshare. Last generation, the Xbox brand enjoyed the status of being the “default” gaming brand, at least in the anglosphere; this generation, while the Xbox saw a lot of discussion and discourse surrounding it early on, by 2017, the Xbox had sort of faded out of the ongoing discussion about games and the industry. There was no reason to talk about it – while PS4 and Switch got highly acclaimed, generation defining games on a monthly basis, and were setting sales records regularly, there was nothing to discuss on the Xbox front. Exclusives either underperformed or got delayed, or in some cases canceled, and the sales performance of the system was declining at an alarming, albeit predictable, rate. The PS4 and the Switch were exciting systems, and kept themselves in the public eye by constantly introducing new things to discuss or look forward to; the Xbox One, not so much.

To Microsoft’s credit, they have worked on reversing this problem, like with so many of their other problems this generation, as well. One reason that PS4 and Switch managed to constantly stay relevant and fresh was that Nintendo and Sony have mastered the art of dominating the press cycle. Sony has multiple major conferences a year (E3, TGS, Paris Games Week, and PlayStation Experience), while Nintendo has E3, plus a Nintendo Direct every couple of months, and they also always have some announcements at TGA every year. This means that there’s always something new to discuss with those two brands. Microsoft, in 2017, only had E3, and… that was it, really. So the only time we got anything new to discuss for Xbox was at E3 every year, and even then, Microsoft would get drowned out by Nintendo and PlayStation, who frankly are generally better at E3 shows than Microsoft is.

Since then, however, Microsoft has started the Inside Xbox series, which averages an episode a month, with multiple smaller scale announcements (such as additions to Game Pass or the backward compatibility program on Xbox, or updates for games that are already out). While an Inside Xbox does not have the profile of a Nintendo Direct, it at the very least allows Microsoft to put out news on a regular basis for its users, and lets the Xbox brand have a reason to stay in the news cycle.

But the more important change Microsoft made was X0 – like with Inside Xbox, Microsoft chose to revive their in-house conferences as well, with X018 last year being the stage for a major announcement. While X018 in and of itself didn’t actually have much of note otherwise, it was still something that allowed Microsoft and Xbox mindshare – especially coming as it did in the absence of PlayStation Experience, which Sony chose to not hold last year, giving Microsoft the chance to dominate the end of the year news cycle entirely.

That battle for mindshare is something Xbox has generally continued to do well in all this year so far. A large part of that has to do with Sony’s silence this year – they haven’t actually released many major games this year, nor made any major new announcements, nor attended any major trade shows – they even skipped out on E3 this year. Outside of a surprise acknowledgement of the existence of the PS5, and what that console may entail, Sony have mostly been silent. This has allowed Microsoft to have the stage all to itself, something that they have taken due advantage of with regular Inside Xbox streams, and showings at E3 and Gamescom so far. And that brings us to X019.

Microsoft has confirmed X019 will be happening this year too, and, given that Sony is presumably not actually doing PlayStation Experience this year – though for all we know, they may actually decide to do it, and use it as the venue to announce the PlayStation 5 – this allows Microsoft to keep themselves in conversation again. This is important because a large part of whether or not a customer will choose to buy into your brand (beyond the already converted faithful, at any rate) has to do with how viable they feel the brand is. If, for instance, someone feels that a new console is less likely to get some of the best games of the generation, or is less likely to actually sell well, and therefore more likely to miss out on great games, then they will be less compelled to buy said console. Keeping your console in the news cycle with a stream of new game announcements, or press releases about its performance, is an easy way to sidestep both those problems, and something Sony and Nintendo did admirably with the PS4 and Switch, and that Microsoft is now doing with Inside Xbox and X0.

It doesn’t even matter that they’re not doing that great a job with these shows – most people find Inside Xbox boring, and found X018 to be a waste of time, after all – because it is something to talk about. Of course, in an ideal world, Microsoft would be doing as good a job with their shows as Nintendo does with the Nintendo Direct series, so that there’s a lot to talk about, and it’s positive, but given that we are on then tail end of a generation where Xbox has been on the backfoot all along, I get why they don’t have as much to talk about. After all, do you remember how dismal Nintendo Direct presentations were in 2015 and 2016, as Nintendo wound their support for Wii U down, but couldn’t yet talk about their plans for the Switch?

Just being in the news cycle is good enough, and X019, when it happens later this year, will let Microsoft continue to do that, and let them continue to put a foot forward in the battle for mindshare, real estate that is otherwise handily governed by PlayStation and Nintendo. Hopefully, Microsoft will also have an actual good show with meaningful content this time around – so that not only do we have a reason to talk about them, but the reason also ends up being good.

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.

Many have been expecting this to happen for a while, and there were even rumors about Microsoft introducing such a service, but now, it’s official. Today during Inside Xbox, Microsoft announced Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, a new service that mixes together Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass together for $15 a month (which is far cheaper than it would be if you had to get them both separately).

The service will be introduced later this year, Microsoft confirmed, but we didn’t get much more by way of details. We did get told that if you already have a prepaid subscription for either service, an upgrade path to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will be made available as well. Xbox Insiders may also get the chance to test drive the service before it’s made available to everyone.

With this, it’s clear that Microsoft is truly pushing Game Pass as its future (the hint is in the name of this service: it’s Game Pass Ultimate, not Xbox Live Ultimate). Given how awesome the lineup for it is becoming, I think it’s good for them to emphasize it as their killer app.

https://twitter.com/majornelson/status/1118259034233028608?s=21

Microsoft has confirmed that a new episode of Inside Xbox will be airing next week, on April 16, 5pm ET/2pm PT. This episode will include information about what we can expect from Microsoft’s E3 showing this year, as well as the Xbox FanFest.

That aside, Sea of Thieves’ anniversary events and content will be discussed, Bethesda’s RAGE 2 will be shown off, Warhammer Chaosbane will be there as well, and Rod Fergsusson from The Coalition is going to appear as well, which means we can expect some news on Gears of War as well—maybe Gears 5. That said, I would not mind a first look at the mysterious Gears Tactics either.

Finally, Microsoft said we can expect announcements for Backward Compatibility and Game Pass, which is always a given. I wonder if they will have anything as big as the announcement of Halo: The Master Chief Collection coming to PC this time around, however.

It’s actually surprising Microsoft and Mojang waited this long to make it happen, but it’s happening now at last regardless—on today’s Inside Xbox stream (which by the way will go down as one of the best episodes of the series yet), Microsoft confirmed that Minecraft will be joining the Game Pass lineup come April.

If you are, somehow, someone who has never actually played Minecraft—such as me, how have I gone my entire life without playing something as fundamental as Minecraft?—then this finally puts you out of excuses. The game is now available to you, alongside a multitude of other games on the Xbox Game Pass lineup, for absolutely free. It’s unclear if the Windows 10 version of the game will also be free for Game Pass subscribers as a result (that usually ends up happening, but maybe it will be different for Minecraft, given that it is big enough to accord special treatment).

Minecraft is available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Windows 10, iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, VR, Mixed Reality, and I’m sure I’m forgetting some platforms.

Microsoft has announced the newest episode of Inside Xbox, their web-series where they let players have a look at upcoming Xbox content and services. The new episode will air on March 12, the company confirmed via Twitter.

Among the things that Microsoft will discuss during this show will be “fresh looks” at Halo: The Master Chief Collection (maybe a look at that rumored PC port?), DayZ, and One Piece: World Seeker, alongside the requisite Game Pass news. Doesn’t sound too exciting? I agree, it really doesn’t. However, Microsoft also promises they will have “much more [they] can’t reveal just yet”, so maybe there’s scope for some surprises there.

The episode will be an hour long, which is shorter than the last one, but still seems to be way too long to justify its pacing. Given that Nintendo is currently showing how web-shows to make announcements should be done via their Nintendo Direct series, Microsoft really needs to figure out where it wants Inside Xbox to go soon.

Inside Xbox will return on March 12, as the crew takes fresh new looks at Halo: The Master Chief Collection, DayZ, One Piece World Seeker, and much more! Full details here: https://t.co/Fjd748S2px

— Xbox Wire (@XboxWire) March 6, 2019

Microsoft has gotten serious about its first party over the last few months, with multiple studio acquisitions to try and bolster up their lineup of exclusives. Now, they are giving their new group of first party studios a brand new identity—Microsoft Game Studios has been rebranded into Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft announced during the latest episode of the web-series Inside Xbox, which aired earlier today.

Given the push to make Xbox a platform that is hardware agnostic and available on multiple devices—right now it is on PC and Xbox One, but Microsoft is preparing to bring Xbox services to mobile and Switch soon, while xCloud will bring Xbox games everywhere via streaming—this is a good change, which rallies around the Xbox brand identity, and makes Xbox itself about the games, and not the hardware.

Now hopefully, Xbox Game Studios will start putting out some great content soon. It will probably be a couple of years, but I want to see what they do under Microsoft’s tutelage.

https://youtu.be/EdjmK7AOZwo

There were, however, no new game announcements made whatsoever (except for a handful of new indie games shown off as part of Game Pass or ID@Xbox sizzle reels). Nothing new from Microsoft’s first party portfolio, nothing from any third party. Even the new looks we got to have at previously announced games were shorn of excitement. Well, Just Cause 4 looks great, but nothing that we saw was new, it was stuff we’d known already. Jump Force, without getting into larger questions of that game’s apparent quality, again, had nothing new announced. Kingdom Hearts 3 was the lone exception here, showing us a new Winnie the Pooh trailer, and looking great in the process.

Even the updates for Microsoft’s games? They were all announced for stuff that’s already out. So—a new update for Sea of Thieves, a new update for State of Decay 2, a new update for Forza Horizon 4. All good. But what about maybe giving us more of a look at Ori and the Will of the Wisps? Why not show us more of Gears 5? We knew Halo Infinite was not going to be at the show, but why not any of the others?

We did get to see Crackdon 3 again, including the multiplayer mode at long last. The destruction looks great, and more than anything else, it looks like the game came together to at least be a coherent, playable package (whether or not it turns out to have been worth the five year wait remains to be seen). We also got a release date for it, which was cool. No more delays from here on.

A lot of the show was focused on Game Pass, which is what Microsoft sees as an integral part of its future strategy (though Xbox head Phil Spencer was very careful to note that it’s not a replacement for the traditional console gaming model). There were sixteen new games announced for the service, including Ori, it’s upcoming sequel, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which, again, is great. I’ve no complaints with any of this.

Microsoft even announced a bunch of great Black Friday deals, including price drops across the whole Xbox One range (bringing the Xbox One X down to the lowest price it has been yet), price reductions on controllers, Game Pass, and even games. A bunch of new titles, mostly from Square Enix, were also announced for backward compatibility.

All of this was fine. The thing is, in terms of the scope of what was shown off, and their significance to Xbox in terms of where it stands in the market, this was a short term show. There’s nothing wrong with that at all, whatsoever. Microsoft has monthly updates to keep players updated on its short term outlook for its games, hardware, and services, and really, this was just a big, blown up version of that.

Which is where my problem is. The show was billed as a major event, with major announcements, but we really didn’t get much of those. We got some cool stuff, and Xbox fans and owners will probably be happy at the updates we did get to see a look at, but there was no one show stopping moment that reallky justified this being its own event, beyond an Inside Xbox episode. What I am trying to say is, Microsoft mismanaged expectations.

This isn’t unusual, incidentally. Sony had the same problem with PlayStation Experience the first time they tried it in 2014, although eventually, they managed to make it a premier event that fans look forward to every year. Nintendo had the same problem with its initial batch of Nintendo Directs, although now Nintendo Direct is the company’s primary way of communicating announcements and updates to fans. Microsoft is in no way alone in having hyped up the first in its series of events to seem far more important than it really was. But just as it detracted from what was otherwise a solid round of announcements at the first PSX, and at the first few Nintendo Directs, so it detracted from an all round solid show, because there was this nagging feeling that we were promised more, and we didn’t get it.

There was one exception to this. The closer to the show was Microsoft announcing more studio acquisitions, and they’re pretty major ones. Microsoft’s great big weakness in terms of first party output has been meaningful single player adventures so that gap can be filled now. That was a good announcement, but it didn’t feel like it needed an entire two hour conference. Microsoft could have just announced it in a video release, or a regular Inside Xbox, or maybe via press release. The end result would have been the same. Right now, the excitement is almost tempered by the feeling of minor disappointment from the rest of the show.

In the end, there was nothing wrong with X018 in and of itself. It was… fine. But Microsoft promised more than fine, and a short term look at their future felt a bit deflating after all that.

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.