E3 2017 - Microsoft Conference Recap

So, the Microsoft conference has been and gone, and lordy, did we get a lot of stuff to cover. In light of our predictions, what did we get?

The main highlight: Xbox One X

We’ve been given the official name of the Xbox Scorpio now, and it’s going to be known as Xbox One X. We got to see what the final form factor of the console will be, coming in even smaller than the Xbox One S is already. Quite how they’re fitting all that power into such a small box is quite frankly astonishing. The price of the console was given at $499 and £449.99 in the UK, which confirms the numbers that’s been doing the rounds for a while. We also know that it’s going to be launched on November 7th - which is within the dates of the star sign Scorpio. Coincidence..?

The surprise: Original Xbox Backwards Compatibility

One of the things I thought would be the biggest surprise from the Microsoft conference would be the announcement of Original Xbox Backwards Compatibility joining the rest of the program, but, there it was. Phil Spencer dropped this one almost casually whilst destroying the recent speculation surrounding the idea that backwards compatibility isn’t bringing in the numbers. No word on whether the OG titles will be updated to have achievement support, however.

Things we didn’t see from the predictions

Admittedly, there was a chunk of our predictions that just weren’t there. VR and Mixed Reality was essentially nixed pre-conference, with Microsoft stating that news on that will be tied to the desktop for now, until it’s natural to come to the Xbox platform. UWP apps were nowhere to be seen, Xbox Games Pass and Arenas/Clubs were also absent. What we did get, was games. Lots and lots of games.

There were a lot of games shown and we got to see most of what we expected; Forza Motorsport 7, State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves, and Crackdown 3. However, Halo was weirdly missing, given that there’d already been noise about it appearing in some way shape or form, if not the main series of games.

But we did see a whole load of other games that are sure to whet gamers appetites; Metro Exodus, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Deep Rock Galactic, The Darwin Project, Dragonball FighterZ, Black Desert, The Last Night, The Artful Escape, CodeVein, Tacoma, Super Lucky’s Tale, Ashen, Life is Strange 2 Before The Storm, Shadow of War, Ori 2 And The Will Of The Wisps and Bioware's epic-looking Anthem.

Phew! Of particular note, is that Brendan Greene turned up to announce that Playerunknown’s Battleground will be making an exclusive appearance on the Xbox platform sometime in late 2017. We also found out that Cuphead will be releasing on the 29th of September this year.

Lastly, there were announcements for existing titles that will receive 4K updates when the One X launches in November, these included Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, Killer Instinct, Halo Wars 2 and Minecraft. The latter of which will also be receiving complete cross-play compatibility - over mobile, VR, PC and consoles along with a “Super Duper Graphics Pack” for the game.

Overall, it was a conference heavy on games that are going to benefit from the increased fidelity of the One X. We’d been told to expect games this year - and games we got. In spades.