Xbox Games Showcase and Starfield Direct reaction: Xbox is back, baby!

We’re a long way from the ‘who won E3’ conversations of the past – mostly because E3 is now dead, and Summer Games Fest is dancing on its corpse. The downside of that is that there’s not one collective place for our summer games news, the upside is that there’s no pissing contest between the platform holders and publishers all trying to outdo each other. Instead, there’s room for each showcase to really stand out and get a bit of its face in the spotlight. Xbox proved, today, that this is a good thing: a suite of great games – the majority of which are set to launch in the next 12 to 18 months – all given time to breathe. A pleasing mix of gameplay, cinematics, and insight, all rounded off with some cool production design and some standout moments (here’s looking at you, Keanu). Let’s look at the stats; there were 27 games shown, 13 of which were from Microsoft’s in-house teams – the first party studios that form the core of the MS output. Further to that, there were 21 announced for Game Pass, day and date. That’s a pretty solid offering, right? A nice set menu of what’s to come after we’ve been hoovering up the scraps from the floor for the past few years. The nutrition-less crumbs of Redfall may have left a bitter taste in the mouth, but we’re going to be eating well from Starfield in three months, through the packed ‘early 2024’ window, and into the rest of the year. Read more