Early June is always an exciting time for the video game industry as developers put together trailers to show off their latest creations and players gather to watch and talk about the reveals. While E3 once again took the back seat this year (due to cancellation), industry icon Geoff Keighley led the charge with his collective Summer Game Fest event, which some have come to playfully refer to as “Keigh3”. Headling this year’s big week of gaming news was Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase and Starfield Direct, totaling just shy of two hours of gaming goodness between the two. With twenty-seven titles in total shown, we have a lot to discuss, let’s dive in.
First Party: Heading into the showcase Xbox made it abundantly clear that their first party games would be held front-and-center and Aaron Greenberg, Xbox’s VP of Games Marketing, also further set expectations stating that all new game trailers would be in-game or in-engine footage as well. Since its initial announcement in 2020, players have been anxiously awaiting an update on Playground Game’s Fable reboot and they got just that with a beautifully-crafted in-game trailer that can be seen here. And yes…this is in-game footage and yes some actual gameplay is mixed in as well; this isn’t CGI stunningly enough. We still don’t have a release date for Fable, but many are expecting a 2025 release. Next up was a look at Compulsion Games’ first project under the Xbox umbrella, South of Midnight. The in-engine trailer didn’t give players many details to work with outside of a bayou-like, southern setting with fantasy elements baked in, but that alone seemed to stoked the flames of excitement for this one.
The first party train kept chugging along, showing off Obsidian Entertainment’s long-awaited return of epic fantasy RPG Avowed (last shown in Xbox’s 2020 showcase). While it looks like Avowed went through a bit of an art direction change, it is still set to take place in Eora, the home of the popular Pillars of Eternity series, and is currently tracking for a 2024 release. From there Xbox set sail detailing a new content expansion for their popular pirate title Sea of Thieves. Similar to the Pirates of the Caribbean-themed “A Pirate’s Life” tale of last year, the latest content drop, Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island, is scheduled to drop in July. From the sea to the sky, next up was a look at Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, a new update (game?) that will allow pilots to take on jobs from agriculture aviation to helicopter mountain rescues to cargo transport to air balloon piloting. Additionally, MSFT Flight Sim is headed to Arrakis with a Dune-themed expansion set to arrive in November.
But wait…there’s more…a lot more. Crashing the stream next was a new in-engine trailer for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. Continuing its award-winning audio design from the original game, this sequel is setting itself up to be both an audio-visual masterpiece when it arrives next year. Forza Motorsport drifted its way to center stage next, showcasing what is clearly set to be the greatest simulation racing title to date; coming later this year in October. Taking off, Starfield got the next trailer spot, but it also had a whole nearly 45-minute deep-dive dedicated to it, so we’ll let you read all about that one in the next piece. While not developed by a first party studio, Towerborne is next on our first party list, as it is being published by Xbox Publishing. This screen-scrolling co-op fighter (1-4 players) is set to include hours of fun with plans for a strong seasonal structure already in place. Last, but not least, Xbox ended their main showcase with a look at InXile Entertainment’s next marquee title Clockwork Evolution. A time-altering, steampunk title already drawing comparisons to the award-winning BioShock Infinite. It’s pretty safe to say that Xbox’s first party offering is looking quite strong for the years ahead and this doesn’t even include updates to other highly anticipated titles like Perfect Dark, Everwild, State of Decay 3, Indiana Jones, Contraband, and more. Put on some sunglasses; the future’s looking bright.
Third Party: While the first party was the main focus, there were still plenty of intriguing third party projects that showed up as well. Right out of the gates on the third party side, fans were treated to a first look at Ubisoft’s upcoming open world, story-driven Star Wars game Star Wars Outlaws. In Outlaws, players don’t play as either a Jedi or a Sith, but rather as a scoundrel working her way beneath the law through a world overrun by crime syndicates. Payday 3 also made an appearance at the event, dropping a brand new trailer for this heist-thriller title with a release date of September 21st. Sticking with the theme of crime, Cyberpunk 2077 is known to have quite a bit of its own and gave us a look at its upcoming expansion Phantom Liberty, featuring Idris Elba as a law enforcement officer and the return of Keanu Reeves as Johnny Silverhand. Moving from Night City to a city of your own creation, Cities: Skylines II showed up with a brand new trailer as well, ahead of its upcoming October release. And of course a city wouldn’t be complete without heroes, so Winston and the Overwatch crew obliged with a look at Overwatch 2’s upcoming “Flashpoint” mode, hero mastery, a co-op event, story missions, and more.
One thing Xbox has been criticized for in the past was their lack of Eastern-developed games available on both Xbox consoles and their Game Pass subscription service; Microsoft has continued to improve their relationship with Eastern publishers and truly showcased it in their Summer showcase. Kicking off the impressive run of titles was an announcement trailer for Persona 3 Reload, a remaster of the original PlayStation 2 game in Epic’s Unreal Engine with updated visuals on par with Persona 5. The Persona hits kept coming with Atlus also confirming Persona 5 Tactica, a P5 spinoff focused on turn-based and grid-based gameplay (akin to Fire Emblem) set to release this November. Popular series Yakuza also made an appearance with a quirky, slightly NSFW trailer that featured Ichiban waking up on a beach in the debut trailer of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth (coming early 2024). Next up, Capcom unveiled a new IP Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, described as “an epic clash between the spirit realm and mortal man.” Probably the biggest of the Eastern-themed announcements; however, was the debut of Metaphor: ReFantazio, a new Japanese role-playing game from the minds behind Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5.
And last, but far from least, Xbox demonstrated their love for indie titles with nearly a handful of independent studio announcements. First up was 33 Immortals, a 33-player roguelike, co-op experience developed by Thunder Lotus Games (known for Spiritfarer). This one carries similar vibes to 2018/19 game of the year nominee Hades, infusing it with 32 additional players and the increased number of enemy mobs and big baddies that accompany that change. Climbing to the next spot on the list was Don’t Nod’s Jusant, an exploration platformer with a heavy emphasis on puzzle-infused climbing, set to debut in Fall 2023. Counter-intuitive to its quiet-themed title, Still Wakes The Deep has been making some noise amongst fans with many awarding it as their favorite indie of the show. Secret Mode and The Chinese Room are expecting this haunting game aboard what seems to be an abandoned oil rig to land some time in early 2024. Rounding out the run of indies was Dungeons of Hinterberg, an action-adventure RPG that is packed full of puzzle solving, monster fighting, magic wielding and more, while set in and around an alpine village.
The final announcement of the show, before heading into the Starfield Direct, was a new Carbon Black Xbox Series S featuring a highly requested bump in hard drive space to 1 TB. The new console is priced at $349 (US dollars) and is set to release on September 1st. For those keeping track, the showcase featured 27 games, 18 of which have already been confirmed to be coming to Game Pass at launch. Additionally, Xbox hosted a “Xbox Games Showcase Extended” show on Tuesday, June 13th that further broke down reveals from Sunday’s showcase, while adding in some new reveals as well. A full breakdown of the extended showcase can be found here. Overall a very strong showing from Xbox this Summer.
Image from: Xbox
