There was a lot of anticipation over what was going to be covered in Microsoft’s Xbox 20th anniversay stream even though the team were trying to temper expectations. After watching it for myself I’m surprised with how many of the rumours leading up to it turned out to be true but I still walked away from it thinking it was one of their best efforts of recent times.

Clocking in at just over thirty minutes the stream (see below) revealed the following:

• A six part documentary about the history of Xbox is coming in December. It looks like it will cover both the good and bad times and I’m really curious to see how far it will go.
• Another 70 titles were added to backward compatibility, including all the available Xbox games from the Dead or Alive, F.E.A.R. and Max Payne franchises. A lot of them are getting performance enhancements too.
• The Halo TV series is still alive and kicking. It’ll be coming to Paramount+.
• Halo Infinite‘s multiplayer is now live! Though they are calling it a beta until the game’s official launch in December (when the campaign hits) it’s looking pretty feature complete and progress carries over too.

It’s a shame that the Halo Infinite rumours went into overdrive just before the event as it might have lessened the impact the announcement would make but the timing is still perfect. Reception to both Call of Duty Vanguard and Battlefield 2042 is mixed at the moment and this could be a timely way to give players an alternative. They’re even throwing in a bundle of bonus cosmetic items for anyone who starts playing now.

Nothing here to disappoint me except I need to find enough time to get in play for both Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite now… 🙂