Microsoft’s E3 2016 Announcements
E3 has come and gone folks – in it’s wake is nothing but excitiment for the new year of gaming. For those of us willing to actually pay attention for what’s to come. Microsoft put on quite a showing this year – with one big drop that will be sure to have gamers anticipating the gaming giants future.
Microsoft’s E3 2016 Press Conference was huge this year. Tons of new system announcements, tons of game announcements and some really cool cross-platform info coming to us as well. Here are the announcements that we got this year with a brief description on what it is and what it means for the future of Microsoft gaming:
Game Related Announcements:
Forza Horizon 3 announced
Forza’s newest instalment will take place in Australia and will be the largest and most diverse game yet, according to Playground Games. It will include a massive amount of new usable cars and will, for the first time ever, be 4 player co-op.
The game is set to release September 27th.
Killer Instincts Roster gets larger – General RAAM being added
General RAAM will be added as a season 3 guest character to already released killer Instinct. You’ll remember RAAM as the merciless Theron leader from the Gears of War franchise.
The Division: Underground DLC
The Divisions first of 3 dlc’s to be released June 28th.
Survival, the second, set to be released later this summer. The three DLCs are a holy trinity set on dismissing the ciritcism for the games bugs and disappointments.
Inside Release Date Announced:
Limbo developer Playdead announced the games release on June 29th for Xbox One. To celebrate, Limbo will be available for free on Xbox One till June 20th and 21st and 22nd for stream.
Gwent: The Witcher 3’s Card Game Announced
The super popular card game within a game, Gwent, is set to be released as its own game and was announced with a live action trailer. It will include a full single player campaign and a cross platform multiplayer. The developers of at CD Projekt are simply redesigning and improving the visuals for the upcoming game.
Minecraft Cross Platform Realms Announced
Mojang announced that it will allow players across Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, i0S and Android to play together. Gear VR is said to be included. In addition to this exciting news, their are several add-ons on coming to Minecraft pocket addition including city texture packs and adjustable village AI. According to the Minecraft team this is the first step towards a fully mod able Minecraft.
Tekken 7 announced
Game developer Katsuhiro Harada announced at E3 that the seventh instalment of Tekken will be coming early 2017 and will be made for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.
Dead Rising 4 Announced
Microsoft confirmed, after photos had surfaced earlier, that Dead Rising 4 will star Frank West who was the original protagonist from the first game.
The game is set to release in the holiday season, given the game is set around Christmas
Scalebound Coming to PC
The platinum action game Scalebound will now be released for PC and will be apart of Microsoft’s cross platform program.
State of Decay 2 Announced
The game is coming sometime in 2017 and will take place again in Trumball Valley.
Halo Wars 2 release date
Dan Ayoub, head of 343 Industries, revealed that Halo Wars 2 will be available for Xbox One and Windows 10 on Feb 21st 2017. The beta will be from June 13th – 20th.
Microsoft System announcements:
Xbox One S Announced
The sleeker looking Xbox One S will be 40% smaller and it will support 4K.
It will be included with Microsoft’s new Project Scorpio system to allow older Xbox One games to be carried over to the newly announced systems (for more info on Project Scorpio scroll to the bottom of the this article).
Xbox Play Anywhere
A new initiative that allows players to buy a game on Xbox One and play it on Windows 10 PC and vice versa. The program was announced by Rod Ferguson, co-creator and studio head of The Coalition, by saying that Gears of War 4 will be cross platform compatible with the Campaign, Multiplayer and Horde mode.
Microsoft OS
Some really cool additions to the Xbox systems including, 6 of which include:
- Music: Background music for your gaming, much like Spotify, will be added to the system to allow you to jam out while meeting your gaming needs.
- Our favourite A.I. from the Halo universe is making its way to the Xbox to help us navigate our gaming platform, Cortana is on her way in all her digital glory.
- Language Region Independence: This system is coming in to play for those of us living in a country not our own, but wish to be playing or using our consoles in league with our native country. No more region locked Xbox’s – the world is yours to choose from.
- Clubs: Players will have the ability to create groups of gamers around the globe and create memberships. That said, be ready for massive clans – its the likely the first step individuals will take this feature in.
- Looking For Groups: Microsoft showed off their coolest feature to date at E3 – LFG – allows you to post and search for ads to accomplish goals in different games. For those of us unable to find a friend to finish that quest online? Look no further – job boards are coming.
- Arena: This is Microsoft’s push into the eSports arena. A Microsoft feature that will allow for competitive gaming to take place on a much larger scale. It’s a system level feature that allows people to make tournaments and challenges directly on Xbox Live.
Xbox Design Lab
This newest feature is what Xbox Gamers have been waiting for – well those of you who appreciate the ability to customize. The new lab allows players to design and personalize Xbox One controllers, purchasing them at their leisure.
Big Announcement: Project Scorpio confirmed
Microsoft closed its conference off with the confirmation on a more powerful version of Xbox One, code named Project Scorpio which is due holiday 2017.
The demo reel confirmed that virtual reality for Fallout and other “premier VR” experiences would come with Scorpio, but no other Specific Xbox virtual reality hardware announcements were made. Phil Spencer, Xbox head, announced on stage that Xbox One peripherals would be supported by Project Scorpio and that all Xbox One games will be playable on Xbox One S and Project Scorpio so “no one gets left behind”. Spencer stated that – “Project Scorpio will be next addition to the Xbox One family, and it’s ultimately the next step in delivering our vision of gaming beyond generations”, so big hopes are being placed on this upcoming project. They believe that when it officially ships out it will be the most powerful console ever built.
So that’s is for this year folks. Some really cool minor announcements and some huge ones could be the first evidence of Microsoft’s shift to more user-friendly gaming. Stay tuned for more announcement in regards to these ones over the year and we’ll do our best to keep you in the loop with the future of gaming.
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