It was time to finally see the E3 presentation I was waiting for and also find out if any of my predictions came close. I think I can safely say in this case I missed so badly that I definitely won’t be making a living out of that in the future! 😉

Making a huge point in showing how Xbox and Bethesda are now one big happy family was having Bethesda’s Todd Howard open the presentation with more detail on Starfield. Not a whole lot more detail was revealed about the game apart from a new cinematic that showed more of the art style and the release date of November 11, 2022 but it did solidify the look and feel which makes me think of a grungy Interstellar. No gameplay at this time to answer my “Sim or RPG” question but with less than eighteen months until it arrives I’m sure we will see more closer to that date… there’s still The Game Awards! It was also made very clear that this is an Xbox console exclusive so no more room to manoeuvre around that one.

There was plenty more to see and there was little filler either with lots of trailers, in game footage and release dates scattered through the whole ninety minutes. Sea of Thieves gets a new update with a Pirates of the Caribbean tie-in and it is amazing to think it has taken this long to happen as they both cover very similar territory. It does make me think we could see more Disney connections in the coming months. Forza Horizon 5 looks phenomenal in its Mexico setting and is likely to be my next purchase. Flight Simulator arrives on Xbox at the end of July with Top Gun Maverick content too. Psychonauts 2 lands right after that in August and it’s great seeing how much attention it’s being given lately… a lot of people are playing the original game in anticipation of it. Halo Infinite is due later in the year and yes… it looks a lot better now and the multiplayer looks sweet. There was Contraband from Avalanche that looks like it’s the much rumoured co-op crime caper. Hades finally arrives on Xbox too which is a nice surprise. There was even confirmation of The Outer Worlds 2 coming as well via the biggest pisstake ever. And all of these will be on Game Pass.

Closing the presentation was Redfall, a co-op shooter from Arkane which pits a team of players against a horde of vampires. Having Bethesda games both open and close the presentation hammered home just how much this partnership means to Xbox as a whole. There’s a lot of other content that could have been covered as well such as Avowed, inXile’s new game or even the next Wolfenstein but that these can be held in reserve really shows that the “no games” discussion about Xbox platforms has reached its end. I still wished there was more to see but I’m guessing we’ll get another one of these later in the year!