What might Xbox bring to their Xbox Series X Games Showcase?
With Xbox finally announcing a date for their Showcase event, we can finally start boarding the hype train, but of course, this is a train where we have no idea where it might stop. There are whispers of Xbox showing off everything and there are somewhere Xbox reveal the big stuff but keep a few little games for later on. The question is, with PlayStation showing almost everything in their gaming stable, will Xbox follow suit, or will they do their own thing?
Let’s start off with the games we know will be there, it is a small list, but here we go:
We already know Halo Infinite is going to launch with the Xbox Series X platform but will also come to the Xbox One family of consoles as well. Right now, we know little about the game, except it will focus on Master Chief again and developers 343 Industries, have been working on it for a number of years now.
They have started teasing things, with new audio clips and such, so the game showing up is almost a lock(e) at this point.
The first big reveal for the next generation of gaming, Senua’s Saga continues the story of Senua, but how it continues it is the big mystery. We know that the game is being developed by Ninja Theory again and it will use Unreal Engine 5 and the trailer from late 2019 was all in-engine, but it is now time to learn more of the story.
Like I said small, but now we can get into studios we might see, or I should say, will highly likely see content from:
The studio has been working on Forza Motorsport for years now and while they have done spin-offs to Horizon, with the heavy lifting done by Playground Games and tested the waters with the mobile games, their wheelhouse is Motorsport. It has been a few years since we got the last mainline entry in the Forza series (2017 to be exact) and new consoles are always a good time for racing games, as you can see all the details on things you know to be real.
Turn 10 Studios could also do something out of left field and offer up a new type of racing game, they might take the idea of underground racing and make that a full fledge game, or they might lose the tired and go for anti-grav racing, like F-Zero from Nintendo or Wipeout from PlayStation. Whatever they do though, there is no denying the game will look very special, as they tend to eek out great visuals even with launch games.
Like the studio above, Playground Games have been known as the driving force (pun intended) behind the Horizon spin-off series of the Forza brand. While Horizon 5 is possible, especially given that they have kept the two-year development cycle for a while now, it is more likely we will see the efforts of their second team.
A few years back, internally, they started up another team to focus on ‘open world rpg’s’ and while folks have taken that to mean Fable, it could be anything. The folks at Playground know their open world games, so they might have elected to start something new, the question remains though, does their open world expertise translate to games that move you slower than 5km an hour?
Rare is a studio that many still hold in high regard, even if their latest content has been underwhelming to say the least, not bad, just not what people wanted. Sea of Thieves, before it launched was sailing into stormy waters, as people were not keen on the idea, a patch of rough water at launch almost sunk this newest IP from one of the gaming industries longest running studios, but a change in wind kept them going.
While the seas are calm for now, the studio has also announced their next title, Everwild and apart from a fancy trailer, which you can see below, there is not a lot we know about the game. Given the talent that Rare have been fostering for a few years, there is a chance this could be something special, but given their track record since the purchase by Microsoft, holding back an expectation or two, might be the best course to take.
As a studio, Obsidian have had their fingers in many of the industries most beloved franchises over the years and while they have done less for hire work of late, they are still creating new and treasured series. Pillars of Eternity and its sequel gave life back to the top down RPG, while The Outer Worlds, gave gamers a taste of some classic gaming action.
We know they are working on Grounded, but that will hit early access on Xbox later this month and while planned to release in full in 2021, there is no word on if it will come to Series X, though I suspect it might. Outside of that, as a studio made up of many teams, they have two teams now without major games and while the team behind The Outer Worlds will be unlikely to show anything, unless it’s an enhanced version or DLC, the spotlight might shine on their Pillars team. There is just no telling what the studio might be working on, as they seem to change genres quite easily and frequently.
The smallest studio on the list, Compulsion Games is only know for their one big title, We Happy Few, which did ok when it released. It has been almost 2 years since that game released, but they have done some DLC for it, so given their smaller size, it is possible we might not see anything from them, but I would imagine, a taste of their next experience is likely.
When your name is Undead Labs, people are likely to think they know what you will work on and they managed to surprise people with State of Decay and then again with its sequel, but like Compulsion Games, they are a small team. With the developers working on, some large updates to State of Decay 2, quite often, there is a very small chance we will see something new from them, but like Obsidian, it could be an Xbox Series X version of State of Decay 2, which could be fun.
This is the list of studios we might see content from, but it will be for games already announced for other platforms as well:
As a studio, predicting the path that Double Fine might take, is like trying to chart how a tree might fall, sure you can have a strong prediction, but then Tim Schafer will just do something crazy and mess it up. The studio, while seemingly small, is larger than most people think, but they tend to work on two titles at once and we know one of them is Psychonauts 2, which is coming to most platforms already.
The other team shipped RAD last year, published by Bandai Namco, so it is unlikely that we will see anything from them this time, unless it is a game that has a much smaller scope. While the studio has been doing a lot of work on bringing classic games back, with the likes of Full Throttle Remastered, they also dabble in the publishing game, helping smaller teams get their games made, it is unlikely that an event for Xbox Series X, will see these games being shown, if they are still doing them after the buyout. You can see what the studio has been working on, with the latest developer diary video.
Much like Double Fine, inXile Entertainment is working away on Wasteland 3, which has been announced for other platforms, as well as Xbox One and PC, plus it is due out in just a few short months. Given that they tend to only work on two tiles at a time, with one being spun-up as the other finishes active development, we might see something new from them.
Back in 2018, they did release the most recent entry in the Bard’s Tale series, but there is no word on if they are keeping that series going, it is now 16 years old, or if they are doing something new. While it is possible, we will see something, there is more of a chance we shall see a new trailer for Wasteland and only that from them.
Ah, The Initiative, the only studio where we have no idea what they can do, as they are only a few years old and have yet to ship a game. It has been said that their goal is to create AAAA quality games, it is not hard to see what direction they might aim at. Lead by industry veteran Darrell Gallagher, who has overseen some of the industries biggest series, the studio has a good foundation to make something big and stor driven. Xbox have said they want them to be at the same level as Sony’s Santa Monica Studios, the folks behind God of War, so anything is possible.
The question remains though if we will see something new, in its entirety, or if the rumors are true and a rebooted Perfect Dark is on the cards for this new studio. Regardless of what they are working on, as a new studio, they have a lot of prove and whatever they show, will need to wow audiences, that is of course if they even show anything, it might be too early for them still; I guess we just wait and see.
Sadly, we get to the part of the list, where we will likely not see the studio appear and for a good reason, they have recently shipped a game and seeing something new, so soon, is just not likely to happen:
The Coalition is normally a cyclic studio, but in the past 12 months they have shipped two games Gear of War 5, or Gears 5 if you prefer and Gears Tactics. While development on Tactics was handled by Splash Damage, but it was lead by The Coalition, but they also did Gears 5, so the chances of them having something new are slim.
Given that they like trotting out Gears 5 in their console showings, at least up until now, it is possible we will see an enhanced collection of the Gears of War titles, but I doubt it will happen. Gears 4 and 5 possible, the older ones, nope, but outside of that, don’t expect anything else.
Ah Mojang, the studio has their meal ticket with Minecraft and they are going to keep punching it in as much as they can. They just worked on Minecraft Dungeons and while it has a release schedule ahead of it, it is highly doubtful that they will include anything into the showcase.
Unless of course, they announce Minecraft 2, that would be epic for them, but given that they have their own event, MineCon, anything big like that, would be the spotlight of said event, so don’t cross your fingers. It is possible we might get a spin-off game, MineKart or something, but even still the showcase would not be the location to reveal it.
So that is the line-up for Xbox Game Studios, a few knowns, a few highly likely showings and some stretches, but whatever the line up is, there is a few things we need to know. One is the release date, PlayStation were being coy, waiting for Xbox to announce, because they can simply release a week earlier to gain the upper hand, the other is price, how much will the world’s most powerful console cost.
While it would be nice to get details on services like enhancements to Xbox Live, a look at the new dashboard or such, that won’t be at this event, this will be all about the spectacle of the games, the rest will come in their expected September 20/20 stream.
