If you’re an Xbox player eagerly awaiting Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase on June 11, you’ll be pleased to know that it sounds like we’re in for a real treat of a presentation, without any fluff or filler, and then a whole Direct showcase dedicated to Bethesda’s Starfield. However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Unlike last time around, it doesn’t look like there’s going to be any sort of guarantee that the games we see during the presentation will be dropping on Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S in the next 12 months – although, thankfully, we’re pretty certain the Starfield release date is staying the same.
Responding to a series of questions from curious fans on the social media platform Twitter, Microsoft’s vice president of Xbox games marketing Aaron Greenberg has claimed that the Xbox Games Showcase and Starfield Direct will deliver “roughly two hours of non-stop games, games, games, games, and Starfield” on June 11. Interestingly, this also comes with specific confirmation from Greenberg that “there will be no movie or TV show trailers” in the Xbox Games Showcase.
So, you don’t need to worry about time being wasted showcasing Paramount Plus TV shows that you’re never going to go out of your way to watch – just as an example. We know we all like to think that the best Xbox games out there would make good TV shows, but it’s becoming clear that it’s not as easy to take a video game and make it a TV show as it seems. Where The Last of Us was exceptional, the Halo series was lacklustre at the best of times. This is a Xbox Games Showcase, though, so the absence of these things isn’t too surprising.
Adding to this, Greenberg also expressed that “none of [the] first party games in the show are full CG trailers” – something that often sets unrealistic expectations when it comes to the final product. Rather, “everything is in-game footage, in-engine footage, or in-game footgae with some cinematics”. When it comes to knowing what to expect, this really is fantastic news. However, Greenberg does only specifically mention first-party games. So, this could mean titled developed outside of Microsoft and its’ studios may be included with full CG trailers.
So, that’s something that’s worth keeping in mind – and you can check out a short TLDR on what to expect from Xbox On below:
It’s also worth keeping the fact that the in-engine footage we see during the Xbox Games Showcase may not be the final product in mind. When asked whether it “will be like last year that they come out in 12 months”, Greenberg’s response was a simple one: no. This would suggest that we’re going to see a few games that could be over a year, or even two years, away. We don’t quite know how far forward into the future this is Xbox Games Showcase is going to take us, but we could see titles scheduled for Fall and Winter 2024 at the very least – which isn’t so far away, but still over 12 months.
If you’re looking forward to this, or the Starfield Direct start straight after, we hope this offers you some comfort. When it comes to this Xbox Games Showcase, what you see should be what you get – and that, with any luck, should be good. Starfield, at least, is looking like it could be one of the best Xbox RPG games out there – and we asked an AI if it’s going to review well, and it said yes. Not that you should trust the word of an AI completely, but it made some good points.