The Xbox E3 show this year was, in my opinion, pretty strong, and loaded with exciting new games and announcements, including the confirmation of the Xbox One Scorpio. However, in terms of gut punch surprises strictly related to software and games, Microsoft’s show, once again, seemed to be lacking, especially when compared to Sony’s E3 showing.
Speaking to MCV, Dave McCarthy, Xbox operations boss, pointed out the same thing that I have been saying about Sony’s E3 press shows for while now– most of the new games announced, while legitimately surprising, seemed to lack any form of concrete release dates. By contrast, Microsoft tried to focus on games that people would be able to buy soon.
“I like to show games that people are going to buy soon,” he said. “I didn’t see a lot of dates discussed on games [at PlayStation’s conference].
“We have four triple-A exclusives coming to Xbox One and Windows 10 in 2016: ReCore, Forza Horizon 3, Gears of War 4, and Dead Rising 4. In 2017, there’s another five to call out. We have Halo Wars 2, Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2, Crackdown, and Scalebound. I haven’t even mentioned our great third-party partners and ID@Xbox. We are going to see Inside at the end of June, we’re going to see an open beta for We Happy Few, which we showed on stage. It’s awesome. It’s going to be across Xbox One and Windows 10 and is going to be an Xbox Play Anywhere title. Then we have Cuphead, also a Play Anywhere title. And Below coming as well. I get excited about showing games that I am going to be able to get this year and next year.”
Of course while the justification is solid, he should probably refrain from throwing too many stones at Sony- if the focus was only on games that people can buy soon, then why did Microsoft end up showing off the Scorpio, which is a year and a half away from release?