Xbox One Event Recap: Everything You Need To Know

Games & Wrap Up

Now it was precisely at this moment that the show began to get a lot hazier in terms of what exactly microsoft was trying to convey about their new system, with a lot more talk rather than solid information.

It started off with EA sports coming out to talk about how important control and thinking is in sports games, and that new features of xbox one will help them create better game’s as a result.

An interesting side note with the EA bit, was the return of NBA Live which until this point has been dead in the water with the 2K series absolutely dominating it the last few years. We’ll have to see if a new console can breathe new life into the failing brand.

They then decide to show some “gameplay” of how things will look on Xbox One, which are all pre rendered cut scenes and not actual gameplay, and finish off their segment by quickly announcing that Fifa will have some exclusive online content for xbox, without clarifying or saying what it is.

Then we have Microsoft studios come out with a similar sales pitch, talking up Forza 5 and showing “gameplay” (cutscenes), announcing a new game Quantum Break  with little outside of a vague teaser trailer, and then quickly stating that the system will have 15 console exclusive games for it’s first year, 8 of which are new franchises. When I first heard 15 games I have to admit i was a bit excited to see more console exclusive centric development, but then also realized that they didn’t qualify what counts as a game, for all we know 5 of them could just be games along the lines of kinect adventures, or may even just be xbox live arcade games, though the latter case can still lead to some amazing titles.

The next part of the conference was probably the most surprising but also perplexing, with Microsoft talking about the idea of “interactive” television. One prime example given for this earlier in the show, and reiterated here, is the example of being able to watch a sports game on espn, while watching your fantasy league stats update based on how the games going, while also being able to skype with friends. Along with this example microsoft made one of the most out of left field announcements of the day, by having 343 studios announce a partnership with Steven Spielberg to create a live action Halo tv series that would air exclusively through the Xbox One.

Now it’s at this point that they begin to pretend to wrap up the show, but of course there’s always one last  big surprise announcement, which this time around is….early access DLC for the next Call of Duty. This then lead to the last 10 minutes of an hour long presentation being focused on the development of COD: Ghosts, as well as showing a “worldwide Reveal” trailer that was once again, all cutscenes. The behind the scenes look did offer some interesting new info, including writers behind the new story and more dynamic level design in multiplayer featuring evolving battlefields, but all in all most of this info is not something that can be said to apply exclusively to the new Xbox, and thus felt very out of place for an xbox “reveal” show.

All in all the final taste of the conference was a huge focus on media and UI more than actual games, though a good part of this could be due to the fact that E3 is less than a month away, meaning Microsoft simply chose to get these parts of the way first, and reveal a lot more hard info come June. As of right now we still have no release date outside of “later this year” with no price point either, leaving us with about the same amount of info as the PS4, for now. Both major players of shown just a taste of what they have to offer, and Hopefully come June we’re going to see a lot more hard info to really make the gaming masses excited for some new titles to experience.

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