E3 2016 – Microsoft

Microsoft held its press conference this morning. MS played it safe, and we didn’t see much in the way of new titles. However they did show off a few surprises and confirm several rumors floating around these past few months, particularly two new versions of the Xbox One, the Xbox One S and the Xbox One Scorpio. The former is a smaller version of the console with a build in 2TB hard drive and 4k compatibility. The later, launching sometime next year, is an upgraded version of the console, due for release in 2017. We saw more of Sea of Thieves, Scalebound, Recore, and Halo Wars 2. Of course the shows big star was the upcoming Gears of War 4. Microsoft is making windows 10 the cornerstone of PC gaming. Several upcoming Xbox One games will feature Play Anywhere, meaning if you buy the game on Xbox, you’ll get a free copy for PC, and the game will feature cross-platform play. This will include Forza Horizon 3 (which brings open-world racing to Australia), the now confirmed Dead Rising 4, the (unfortunately delayed to 2017) Crackdown, Sea of Thieves, and of course, Gears of War 4. On the third party front, we saw footage from Final Fantasy XV, Battlefield 1, and Tekken 7. The latter confirmed that not only is the game coming to Xbox One (it was previously confirmed as coming to PS4), but we’ll be getting the Fated Retribution version. (By the way, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 for Xbox 360 is free this week and is backwardly compatible with Xbox One.) CD Projekt confirmed that the popular Witcher 3 cardgame Gwent will be getting a standalone game later this year. On the independent front, we saw more of Cuphead and Below (both of which should be out any day now) as well as gameplay of We Happy Few. The recent indie hit Stardew Valley will also see an Xbox One (along with a Wii U and PS4) release in the near future. On the hardware side, Microsoft introduced new customizable controllers. Also it looks like the system may finally be getting some much-requested features, chief among them being background music, clubs, and an arena system for tournaments. Finally, while the Phantom Dust remake is still dead in the water, the original Xbox version of the game will be receiving a remastering next year. Check out the trailers below and leave us your thoughts. I’ll be back tomorrow with the Playstation and UbiSoft press confrences.