I’m at a bit of a weird place with Microsoft. On one hand, I’ve been steadily enjoying both exclusive and multi-platform games on my Xbox One, but on the other hand, most of the year remaining has little to no exclusive titles that interest me or have wooed me enough to become excited. I’m expecting there to be a lot of Halo, Forza, Fable and maybe even some Sunset Overdrive to top it off.
But what I truly want to see is new and exciting experiences for the Xbox One, and to have every game that was previously announced accounted for in some way, shape or form by the end of their conference. Where is D4, for example? The Kinect based adventure game has been largely quiet and absent from all media exposure since it was unveiled almost a year ago.
I’ll be pretty blunt, I’m not interested in a new Gears or a new Forza game at all. So what I’d really like to see from Microsoft is the inevitable Killer Instinct announcement for Season 2. I’d also love to see if the rumours that Microsoft have secured a PlatinumGames-developed exclusive title were true too, since they’re easily one of my favourite developers of the past generation just gone. I’m not sure if I want this, but I’m also expecting to see a new Ryse announced too, since it was rumoured so long ago.
After a disastrous introduction of the Xbox One and finally getting rid of the mandatory Kinect rubbish, I’m very excited to see Microsoft buckle down and win back some fans. Having a raffling contest to bring 100 fans into the actual conference is a very nice touch, as Microsoft are determined to get down to earth gamers into the mix, especially when conferences are purely press only events. Microsoft are also using a Twitch stream to constantly show what’s going on at E3 and on the floor.
What about games? I’m dying to see whether my hopes of a Halo 2 Anniversary release will come true, as something akin to the Combat Evolved re-release may, may just be enough to convince me to jump on board the Xbox One train. Of course, some Halo 5: Guardians footage will be good to see, but it’s mainly the prospect of a remastered edition of Halo 2 that has me excited.
Remedy’s Quantum Break is another potentially rewarding game, with a strange but unique mixture of implementing a TV show that runs concurrently with events in the game. Has it been done before? Not to my knowledge. (Does Defiance count?) But with Remedy’s track record of excellence I have faith it will be executed well.
Of course, I expect to see a lot of Sunset Overdrive. The insanely colourful and vibrant parkour shooter looks good, and I’m hoping to see a lot more gameplay after the short four minute video we got.
Is it too much to hope for another Gears of War? Despite my respect for developers People Can Fly, the last Gears title, Judgement, left a very bad taste in my mouth. All signs point to an in-house development, but with Microsoft being very tight lipped with the series, I wouldn’t expect any actual gameplay and a release date very far down the line. Expect a teaser at most.
And of course, what would a Microsoft conference be without a Call of Duty demo?
Expect less fish and more exo-skeletons. Let’s not forget Microsoft pretending like it’s an Xbox exclusive game even when it’s not. Seriously, that was really strange. Let’s move on.
Microsoft will be out to prove a point this year. It’s clear that they know that it has to be all about the games. They took the total wrong approach last year in thinking that they gamers wanted other forms of media on their gaming consoles but they were totally wrong. They’ve come out of the blocks and announced Halo 5, as well as Forza Horizon 2. It’s safe to say that these two games will be at their conference in a big way. It’s already been stated that Quantum Break has been pushed back to 2015 and won’t make its appearance which is shocking to me, but also means that they obviously have more in store.
I think that it’s easy to assume that Microsoft will show a game that makes the Kinect worth owning but I really don’t believe that will be the case. Microsoft have back flipped on their initial decision to include the Kinect with every Xbox One and for this reason, I believe that Microsoft may show off games that have Kinect related features, but won’t show any huge first-party Kinect based games.
My big wish for Microsoft’s conference would be to see Rare announce something exciting. I know that it’s not the Rare of the old days, however the new Rare have still shown that they’re excitingly creative. Whilst Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts was not the game people were hoping for, Viva Piñata is still one of my favourite games on the Xbox 360. It was a brand new experience that has gone unrivaled for more than five years. All in all, I just hope that Microsoft show some new experiences. Sure, they’re going to tease Gears of War and Halo but I want them to spread their wings and be more than that.
Phil Spencer is, without doubt, the man to lead Xbox into the great unknown.
What does it take to win back gamers, though? Games, of course. Phil and company have been talking up a big game in the lead-up to their show opening press conference in just under a week’s time. And we’re not just talking the obligatory Call of Duty reveal that would once pad out the rear end of a show, they’re promising exclusives and big ones.
Could the fabled Master Chief Collection of remastered Halo titles be the real deal? If so, there’ll be a great deal of clamouring for it, as some of my fondest memories with a video game is all-night LAN parties on Halo 2. We know Guardians is not destined for this year, so perhaps we’ll be forced to venture backward to get her fix of John-117.
Sunset Overdrive is being played up as the year’s most bombastic and ludicrous title, but I bet there’s one that could trump it.
Skills for kills, agent. Skills for kills. That’s right, there’s the long-rumoured Crackdown 3 to consider. Spencer has gone on record saying that it’s a game that’s “not dead” and just “needs the right team”. With any luck, we might get a glimpse of a cloud-computed Pacific City sometime in the not too distant future.
Those are the predictions grounded in reality. If you want the long shots I’m praying day and night for, here it goes.
Banjo-Kazooie. Geometry Wars. Viva Piñata. Alan Wake. Shadow Complex. And, of course, at the roughest odds possible, a thrilling conclusion to one of my favourite series currently left hanging, Condemned.
Oh, and release a date for Below already, won’t you? Super Time Force simply isn’t enough game to sate the Capy desire burning within my gut.
It doesn’t take a business analyst to see that Microsoft is left playing catch up to the PlayStation 4. They can cite attach rate numbers all they want, the Xbox One is behind in sales. Microsoft knew that fans weren’t happy, so they have been trying to right all those wrongs over the past few months with many updates fixing some of the consoles issues. I feel we will see a bit more of this at their press conference, announcements on upcoming features that will be implemented and just trying to build up some good will with their hardcore consumers, leaving the 360 to be a mere footnote of the conference just to show that they will still support it a little over the next year.
This press conference is going to be all about games, or so I hope. I imagine Microsoft wants to try establish some dominance by bringing a lot of big titles and a showcase of exclusives. It’s pretty obvious that Call of Duty: Advance Warfare will get some kind of showing on the Microsoft floor, hopefully in the form of gameplay demo. Though exclusives like D4, Fable Legends, Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive, Project Spark and Forza Horizon 2 are going to have some form of showing. I’m not certain about Metal Gear Solid V though, it’s going to be shown, but where? Will they stick to the Microsoft stage to push the message that the game is going on multi-platform? Or will they jump back to their old home on the Sony Press conference stage?
Then we have the mysteries of E3.
Like, what’s Rare working on? Is it Kinect related? Is it a revival of an old IP, as they have hinted at many times in past, or something completely new? What’s going on with Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six: Patriots? Is Rockstar going to announce their “new gen” game at this E3? And one that I really want to know about, what is happening with “Summer of Arcade” this year? Is Capybara’s game Below going to be one of the titles?
What else is there? I don’t feel like I can accurately speculate or predict at this point. Not without me just pulling out what I’ve been waiting for, like Shadow Complex 2, or Beyond Good and Evil 2. All I know that after last year’s fiasco, Microsoft needs to prove that they aren’t completely out of touch with their core demographic. This press conference gives a chance for Phil Spencer to set the tone for what he will do as Xbox head honcho.
When you take a moment to slow down and think about what’s happened to Microsoft over the past year, it’s been, quite frankly, just plain amazing. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Microsoft is slowly picking itself up thanks to the consumer and games minded Phil Spencer.
Following controversy after controversy, and amendment after amendment, the Xbox has had a rough and complicated start. All things considered however, the Xbox One has been doing pretty alright, not as well as its direct competitor the PS4, but still solidly trailing behind.
As far as expectations go, I’m worried about what Microsoft’s plan of action is going to be now. They obviously want to, at least, catch up to Sony. The Kinect-less Xbox One reveal is prime example of that. But what’s actually going to happen to the Kinect then? The Kinect has never actually been popular, and honestly, it seems like a waste of resources to continue supporting it. Likewise, it would be quite foolish to not support it at all, having had so many people forcibly buy it in the first place, so I really want to see where they are going to go with this.
In terms of games, the only game I’m really interested in seeing right now is Halo. It’s a pretty vanilla answer, but quite honestly, it’s the only franchise that truly excites me when it comes to Microsoft exclusives.
Going back to the competitive state of the industry, one other worry for me is third party software. Almost like a continuous smack down, Sony’s PlayStation 4 has shown that it runs multi-platform games much more efficiently than the Xbox One, so I want to see if any third party titles can do the exact opposite and turn the tables, running a smoother game on the Xbox One.
Microsoft will be coming to E3 this year with something to prove. The only good thing to come out of last year’s absolute disaster of an Xbox One reveal is that everyone suddenly forgot how ordinary their previous years of showings have also been.
With Phil Spencer now at the Xbox helm, Microsoft now have a real chance to have a spectacular show, some would say that all Microsoft need to do to have a better than last year is to simply show up.
I want to see Microsoft take a chance, I want them to interact with the crowd and show that they have learnt from other, less than stellar showings at E3 and I want them to talk with the conference attendees not at them. I would like to see Microsoft move away from their hardcore “bro” image and embrace new genres. It is time for Microsoft to take a chance and attract a more diverse segment of the market.
When it comes to games, I want to see more of Sunset Overdrive from Insomniac Games. This looks like one of the first games for the Xbox One that is breaking away from the grey scale games that tend to be flooding the new generation of gaming.
I would like to see a new generation of the Fable series that opens up the franchise and allows deeper RPG exploration.
A reboot of Halo 2 would be a perfect filler until Halo 5: Guardians eventuates and, well, the showing of anything Halo will be more than welcome.
I really don’t want to see Microsoft get up and say how much they have learnt in the last year about what gamers want and how they are truly listening. We all know they are going to say these things, we all know it is going to be cringe-worthy and we all know that nobody wants to sit through it. Still, it will happen.
I also would like to see the end of Microsoft doing anything they can do to obtain timed-exclusive content for various franchises. This doesn’t benefit any gamers whatsoever, so please just stop it. And please Microsoft, please no phoned-in Kinect presentations. Please!
Microsoft at this stage is trying to play catch up to PlayStation. They have dumped the Kinect to level the playing field in purchase price for consoles. Recently I recall hearing something about Xbox One will soon be able to “share” similar to the PlayStation 4. I believe that these small feature changes can sway a few fence sitters in terms of consoles. The real truth is that their success is pivotal on the games set to come. Xbox needs more console sellers like Titanfall to stand a chance against the punishing Sony seems to be giving them.
Expect to see more on Insomniac Games’ Sunset Overdrive, an exclusive that looks to be absolutely chaotic (in a good way). I can only hope that a few series returns rear their heads. Gears of War was one of the 360’s strongest franchises and I see absolutely no reason why it won’t come to the Xbox One, E3 would be the time to do it. Recently announced Halo 5 will no doubt take a huge chunk of time explaining why a Spartan suit is being protected by a poncho among other details, guessing at a late 2015 release for the next Halo. In keeping with the tone of catch up, I am going to take a very, very wild stab in that dark that Microsoft will hint at their version of a virtual reality interface, to compete with Project Morpheus and Oculus Rift. This will come in closing time, with a final announcement for a completely new IP to Xbox to leave viewers craving more.
Like I said Microsoft are playing catch up, so they are keeping their cards very close to their chest until E3, which is an excellent idea.