Roundtable Discussion: What To Expect From Microsoft’s E3 Conference

The team got together to discuss what we thought would come out of Microsoft’s E3 conference. Be sure to tune in at 2:30am on Tuesday morning.

Oh, Microsoft. You didn’t mean to, but that Xbox One reveal put you in a deep hole. You have to do a lot of work to fix that. You know that right? That being said, they did say they were focusing on showing the hardware at the reveal. Games are the focus at E3, well lets see them Microsoft. a lot of rumors are going around about whats going to be there. From Rare returning to Killer Instinct, which I don’t really agree with. To Dragon age finally making a return as an Exclusive to the Xbox One. Which, I hope it’s not an exclusive. But hey, Dragon Age! Otherwise I’m assuming we’re going to see the standard stuff every year.

Of course, CoD: Ghosts, and Battlefield 4. What I’m excited to see though, are what those 15 new IP’s are. I have an idea, that no doubt some of them will be a gimmick to push the new kinect.  With so many new IP’s though, chances are they’re going to have something for everyone. Not to mention, E3 should be the place Microsoft finally reveals concrete information of the used game system, the online checks and many other details people are clawing for

I’m really excited to see what games that Microsoft have to show at this years E3. Many people were disappointed at the initial conference and Microsoft have promised that E3 will be about the magnitude of exclusive games that they have coming to the system. I expect that they’ll at least tease the usual suspects such as Halo and Gears but I feel that they were reveal quite a few new IPs. They really milked their franchises over the past few years so I think they will introduce at least one new FPS IP.

I’m also extremely excited to see what RARE has to show. I have a feeling that it’ll be a Banjo Kazooie or  a new Perfect Dark. I think that the system will launch quite early in the holiday season and will retail for around $350USD. I feel like Microsoft have been saving the best information until last to really erase what they’ve done prior and get people hyped up before release time. It’s a good thing that they’ve gotten all the dirty details out of the way and can really turn things around and erase the past with a good E3 showing.

Right, if MS are going down ‘that’ route, I’d like to see them REALLY just be straightforward and honest at E3. I want an explanation of everything they plan to do (always online, used fees, what is going on?), and some more focus on what MS can do on a global scale, not just America. The world does not revolve around America. I don’t care about NFL or Netflix (which isn’t available here by the way) or any of that rubbish. I just want answers.

Of course, this being E3 I’d love to see some exclusives come out. Less focus on the Call of Duty dog thing, and more focus on Quantum Break: a completely new IP from Remedy who remain one of my favourite developers, boasting some impressive ideas and new ways to blend live action with gameplay. Remedy has not disappointed me so far, so I remain optimistic.…any other original IP that doesn’t require Kinect.

Otherwise, Microsoft might be secretly pulling a genius move, lowering our expectations so low that ANYTHING after that disaster of a reveal will be seen as good. Fingers crossed Microsoft, let’s see what happens.

Once again I’m stating the obvious but a price and official release date for Xbox One need to get out in the open. Microsoft this time around need to focus so much more time and energy on the gaming side of their newest console, rather the media HUB it was shown to be at the recent reveal event. Polls were conducted over the world from the Xbox One reveal and even Xbox loyalists weren’t convinced with the unveiling. This is the stage where emphasis needs to be focused to bring back those loyal to them, perhaps announcing a new entry to the Halo franchise? Or even the unveiling of new exclusives for Xbox One will do. Anything to get their gamers back as it feels like Microsoft has a bit of catching up to do. Rumours have been doing the rounds recently about Xbox Live converting their official currency to respective regional currency rather than Microsoft Points. Perhaps this will be pushed toward the middle of their stage time.

The Xbox One is the console on everyones tongues right now, players are super excited about it since the announcement a few weeks back at the reveal. Onlookers were shown many features regarding the systems home entertainment functions which lead to an uproar of tweets stating there wasn’t enough game hype ! Larry Hryb (apart of the team who created the OG xbox) confirmed via twitter on the 31st of May that the E3 press conference for the Xbox One will be that of gaming nature not necessarily entertainment; which does make me think that we are in for some crazy details concerning the console and what games we will be devouring come release.

Microsoft announced a whopping 15 exclusive titles for the Xbox One in the first year, only half of which will be NEW franchises, but that to me screams for more games like that of Gears Of War or Halo. I have a juicy prediction for this one; Blizzard, the creator of the biggest MMORPG has been tied into Activision for sometime now under the name ActivisionBlizzard, Inc. Sooo now there’s two giant game development companies, collaborating, since 2007! I’m calling it, a game similar to World of Warcraft or Rift but on a much more basic scale that complements gameplay via a controller rather than a keyboard, hopefully it’s cross platform too.