Surprisingly, Eclipse Glow Games’ Tides of Annihilation will also make its first appearance since last February with a new extended gameplay trailer. Jennifer English, who voices protagonist Gwendolyn, will also host the showcase.

Viewers can look forward to new game reveals, further fueling the likelihood of Silent Hill 2 remake being revealed for Xbox Series X/S. With the former reportedly launching on November 21st for the console, this may very well serve as a surprise announcement.

Also, as is usually the case, you can expect announcements of new Game Pass titles. Xbox Play Anywhere titles will receive notable focus, which means every title can be purchased on Xbox or PC and enjoyed on either (or the recently released Xbox Ally handhelds).

“Trusted sources” reveal to Windows Central’s Jez Corden that the showcase features titles from the company’s publishing partners across “all shapes and sizes.” Interestingly, many of them are focused on Xbox Play Anywhere, seemingly aligning with the company’s alleged plans of PC integration into the next-gen Xbox.

Corden reports that developers are “increasingly excited about the opportunities there” with “stronger-than-expected” Xbox Ally sales also seemingly factored in.

If that wasn’t enough, Xbox plans to have “some presence” at The Game Awards. There are no concrete details, so place your bets on anything from new gameplay for Fable, Forza Horizon 6 or Gears of War: E-Day to the announcement of its free Xbox Cloud Gaming service.

The Game Awards are set for December 11th and usually feature several big announcements and World Premieres. With last year’s event crossing 154 million live viewers, all eyes are on the biggest players (Microsoft included) to steal the show.

The Xbox Store listing for the open-world space-faring RPG lists Xbox Play Anywhere support (as spotted by Exputer). Buying the digital version on PC or Xbox Series X/S entitles you to a free copy on the other platform. Saves are also shared between the two platforms, though it’s likely only for the Windows Store version and not Steam.

Neither Bethesda nor Microsoft has officially confirmed Xbox Play Anywhere support. Starfield doesn’t even appear in the list of titles on the official site for the same (perhaps because it only recently received the tag). There could be an announcement for support in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Starfield launches on September 6th for Xbox Series X/S and PC, with Premium Edition owners playing on September 1st.

We recently wrote a report on how Halo Infinite could possibly not include support for Microsoft’s Xbox Play Anywhere feature. Play Anywhere allows you to purchase a digital copy of any game that supports it on either Xbox One or PC, and then play that game across both platforms with that single purchase, in some cases even allowing your progress to carry over across both platforms.

Microsoft have now sent out an official comment on whether or not the feature will be included in Halo Infinite, and it… really doesn’t tell us anything. “Halo Infinite is in development for both the Xbox and Windows 10 PC,” a Microsoft spokesperson told GameSpot. “The studio is taking the time needed to make the best Halo game possible and are we will share more information about the game once we’re ready.”

So yeah, we know exactly as much now as we did before Microsoft said anything on the matter. It should, however, be noted that Halo Infinite is quite far away from release, and there are many aspects about it that may not even have been decided yet by 343 Industries, so they simply cannot comment on those things yet. Play Anywhere support might be one of those things.

Recently, we heard that the developers are probably not all too interested in including battle royale in Halo Infinite, while another report told us that the game might possibly feature GaaS (Games-as-a-service) elements. Halo Infinite is currently without a release date, and we don’t even know if it will launch on the Xbox One or a next gen Xbox- either way, stick with GamingBolt and we’ll keep you updated as more info comes our way.

343 Industries’ next big project is Halo Infinite, running on the new Slipspace engine and looking very appealing in its E3 2018 appearance. While there’s a whole lot we don’t know about the game currently – aside from the focus on Master Chief – it may be missing one crucial aspect of Microsoft’s exclusives: Xbox Play Anywhere.

Over on the official Xbox.com page, Halo Infinite is listed for Windows 10 and Xbox One release. It will support 4K Ultra HD, HDR as Xbox One X Enhancements, but Xbox Play Anywhere is conspicuously absent. Upcoming releases like Gears 5 and Forza Horizon 4 have Xbox Play Anywhere support listed, so this omission for Microsoft’s flagship franchise is a little odd. Given that Halo Infinite is a long way off, it’s possible that Microsoft will update the specifics on the same.

Xbox Play Anywhere was announced in 2016 as an initiative for Xbox One players to continue progress in the Windows 10 version of the same game. Those who digitally purchase a game for either Xbox One or Windows 10 will receive the other version, completely free.

Microsoft’s Xbox Play Anywhere is the most ambitious Cross Buy initiative yet, but so far, its reach has been a bit limited- since Microsoft games have largely been the only ones that have supported the service. That has begun to change in recent times, with Capcom’s Resident Evil 7 being the first major third party title to support the service.

And now, Warner Bros.’ just announced Shadow of War, the sequel to their 2014 hit Shadow of Mordor, is also going to be joining the fray. Microsoft has confirmed that the game will be an Xbox Play Anywhere title for Xbox One and Windows 10 at its launch this August. This means that if you purchase the game once for your Xbox One (digitally), you can also play it on your PC (via the Windows Store).

It’s a good move, and as I said, it’s nice to see more third parties get on board with this. Shadow of War will be launching on August 22 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Valve’s Steam Machine initiative was the PC gaming giant’s bid to try and take over the living room- the attempt to push console like gaming PCs that would be ready for living room gaming. The entire initiative hinged on trying to bring PC gaming to the console toting masses, by presenting it in a console like box, and hinged on the success of the Steam Controller and SteamOS.

However, the gambit failed- Steam Machines are an indisputable flop; there are multiple reasons why this happened. SteamOS is Linux based, and while the state of Linux gaming continues to improve, most major AAA game releases remain on Windows. SteamOS also lacked, at least out of the box, compatibility with Origin, Battle.net, and other gaming clients, meaning that the biggest PC games on the market – League of Legends, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, and Battlefield – were all incompatible with it. Then, too, SteamOS lacked any centralized brand identity and push, with Valve doing nothing apart from specifying a set of standards for their hardware partners, who were left to flounder on the market against the marketing might of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.

However, even though the idea may have failed, it was still sound- PC gaming remains the best avenue for gaming, all else being equal, and making it more palatable or accessible to the masses is a noble push. Which is why Microsoft’s Play Anywhere concept, in conjunction with the Xbox One Scorpio, as well as Microsoft’s new development tools, that essentially have games developed in the Scorpio development environment, before they are scaled up or down for Xbox One or PCs, is so interesting- it’s almost as if Microsoft themselves are trying to bring PC gaming into the living room, under the guise of a friendly console that most people are familiar with.

Consider the fact that Microsoft are making attempts to unify the Windows Store and the Xbox Stores; consider the fact that games (limited to their games at this point) bought on one run on the other, and even have Cross Play and Cross Save capabilities. Consider the fact that Microsoft’s development binaries apparently treat Scorpio as a standard PC configuration that is targeted, that developers then scale up or down from, as necessary. Consider the fact that Microsoft have announced keyboard and mouse support for Xbox One and Scorpio. A picture begins to form- for Microsoft, Scorpio is their equivalent of the Steam Machine, a Trojan Horse to bring Windows based gaming into the living room, without asking the customer to muck around with alternate OSs, or editable registry entries, and the like. All of a sudden, UWP makes far more sense, with all of its limitations- it’s not meant for traditional PC applications, it’s meant to bring traditional PC applications to non PC environments, living room set top boxes among them.

Will this pan out for Microsoft? That remains to be seen. Xbox is no longer the targeted standard for development for most of the gaming industry as it was last generation, UWP and the Windows Store have failed to take off so far, Microsoft’s next generation APIs like DirectX 12 have not yet seen widespread adoption, and the Xbox One itself hasn’t seen customer uptake this generation like Xbox 360 saw the previous one. The success of all of these is intertwined and interlinked- if one of these fails to pan out, the entire structure crumbles.

So while Microsoft may have a vision of the Scorpio becoming a living room gaming PC, the fact of the matter is, this will not pan out without developer support of their backend, and customer adoption on the front end- right now, Microsoft are lagging in both of those regards. But if somehow they can get everything ready and in place ahead of the Scorpio launch? Why, the Scorpio may just end up being the Steam Machine vision that Valve had, actually properly realized this time around.

Perhaps unknown to many, ReCore runs on the Unity Engine, an engine that is largely used by indie developers to create small scale experiences. This is not to say the engine can’t handle high end games, but given something like ReCore will end up using it is rather surprising. It must be noted that ReCore looks like a AA game so as expected the results are rather mix, especially on the Xbox One.

The Xbox One version looks like it’s running at a native 1080p resolution with a 30 frames per second cap. However, the console version lacks a decent AA solution; the screen is literally filled with jaggies which drastically reduces the image quality. In all honestly, ReCore on the Xbox One does not really look like a current-generation game and we may have bit forgiving towards it, if the performance made up for it. Unfortunately, the game struggles to run at a locked 30fps all the time, especially when the action gets intense. One can clearly observe that the game drops a lot of frames when there is too much happening on the screen. Fortunately, there are no torn frames (so no visible screen tearing), so there is that.

Adding insult to injury is the atrocious load times on the Xbox One.  What makes it worse is that these aren’t just numerous load screens in every corner of the game, but terribly long as well. Getting through a fight in the game put me under extreme pressure; if I died, I’d have to go through an unbearably long load screen — and it happened, again and again. These load screens happened so much so I pulled out a timer to get an approximate time I was sitting there wasting away looking at a load screen (these averages may vary from each user’s experience):

• Game loading to the start of the main menu – 1 minute 5 seconds
• Game loads from current save point – 1 minute 23 seconds
• Opening a sealed door to a new location – 1 minute 41 seconds
• Dying and coming back to life – 1 minute 45 seconds to 56 seconds
• Loading time to get to the Crawler – 1 minute 21 seconds

Those are just a few of the times I recorded out of the numerous load screens throughout the game. I haven’t experienced such awful load times since Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). And it really drained the enthusiasm of playing this game substantially.

In complete contrast, the PC version of ReCore fixes almost everything we mentioned for the console version. Gone are the atrocious loading times that will leave you hanging for several minutes doing nothing.  For a AA the graphical options are surprising. You can adjust the quality of AA (a big win over the Xbox One version), set the target frame rate from 30fps to Maximum (another huge win for the PC version ), along with support for higher shadow quality, different types of motion blur (which we recommended switching to off because it’s rather jarring), bloom and ambient occlusion.

In order to run the game at 1080p/60fps, the developers recommend a GTX 1080 along with i7 4770 and 16GB memory. We ran the game on the same hardware and witnessed a solid 60fps gameplay experience. Toning it down to the recommended requirements which is an R9 290x and AMD FX 8350, we witnessed frame rates in the 40-60fps range with stuttering during cutscenes.

All in all, there is a massive difference between the Xbox One and Windows 10 versions of the game. The image quality and the boost in fps make the Windows 10 the superior version. In many ways, ReCore also showcases the weakness of the Unity engine in handling games like ReCore on consoles. The difference between the PC and the console version seems to indicate that there is something within the Unity engine that does not seem to be gel itself with the console SDK. Obviously, this is an assumption on our part but the differences are rather eye opening.

Overall, ReCore is a great game with some cool gameplay mechanics but one that should be experienced on the PC should you have the hardware. The Xbox One version is rather disappointing. It compromises a lot of features and the game’s low resolution textures (even on the PC build) makes matters even worse on the Xbox One.

Along with Comcept’s ReCore, Microsoft has begun its Xbox Play Anywhere initiative.

Revealed at E3 2016, this feature allows you to buy a game digitally on either the Xbox One or Windows 10 and receive a free copy on the other platform. Your progress, including saves, DLC and Achievements, will carry over between the two platforms thus allowing you to shift between them at your leisure.

Other games that will support Xbox Play Anywhere include Forza Horizon 3 (out on September 27th), Sea of Thieves, Gears of War 4, Halo Wars 2, Scalebound, State of Decay 2 and Crackdown 3. It’s also been confirmed that titles like Cuphead, We Happy Few and ARK: Survival Evolved will also support the initiative. Expect more such Xbox One-favoured titles to support Xbox Play Anywhere in the coming months.

What are your thoughts on Xbox Play Anywhere? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned for more information on how it pans out.

With the Xbox One Scorpio and with Microsoft’s Xbox Play Anywhere initiative, they are treading new ground- they are creating a continuous digital platform and ecosystem the likes of which has never been attempted for video games before.

One of the things Microsoft are committed to, going forward, is apparently continuity and compatibility- gone are the days when your Xbox games would not play on your Xbox 360, or your Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One, outside of a small list of games in both instances. From now on, Microsoft want to ensure that when you buy a new device in their ecosystem, your software migrates to the new device without issues. That is why they are committing, in no uncertain terms, to having all Xbox One games and accessories work on Xbox One Scorpio without any issue.

‘Yes, we have committed that all of the games that you have, all of your Xbox One games, will work on Project Scorpio,’ Microsoft’s Xbox head of marketing Aaron Greenberg said in an interview with GameReactor. ‘We really think of this as one big family, and so the idea is wherever you want to enter into the family – today, there are millions of people still on an Xbox 360 who haven’t bought an Xbox One – those people buy an Xbox One S today, in the future, whenever they are ready to upgrade to Scorpio and get the next step of true 4K gaming, they bring their games catalog with them.’

Greenberg pointed out to other industries, such as music and movies, and how digital content was carried across hardware, and emphasized that Microsoft are aiming to do something similar here.

‘Consumers think about digital entertainment in other industries, those go with you from device to device, so we had the same sort of vision to do that for gaming. And really it goes back to us focusing on putting the gamer at the center of whatever we do.’

This kind of commitment to continuity is also the reason for Microsoft’s Xbox Play Anywhere program, which may just be the most ambitious Cross Buy initiative ever attempted.

‘When we looked at where gamers play, we found most gamers play on both, console and PC. And so as we thought about how can we bring our games to a broader audience? Allow more gamers to experience things like Gears of War 4 or Forza Horizon 3, big titles like that, we knew bringing them to the PC would allow a broader audience to experience them. But traditionally you’ve had to buy those games a second time. But that’s the beauty of being able to build this on one platform with Xbox Live, leveraging Windows across both console and PC, so we can link your purchases to your account, so when you do buy our games digitally from us, our first party titles, you’ll be able to play them across your devices, and only have to pay once, and not multiple times,’ Greenberg explained.

On the whole, I definitely appreciate Microsoft’s various initiatives here- I do believe that these are all very prescient and forward thinking moves that will be industry standard in a short time, and I have to give Microsoft kudos for having the foresight to take this step first. How this all pans out remains to be seen- but everything we hear now sounds very encouraging.