Microsoft finally showed off what it has planned with Halo: Infinite and a bunch of other first-party exclusives today during its Xbox Games Showcase.
Princess Peach’s Leading Role And More New Releases
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There were a lot of games, and a lot of exclusives, but not a lot confirmed for this holiday launch of the Xbox Series X. Still, Halo: Infinite at least will be there and it seems like it will have a giant open world to keep people busy with, hopefully until the newly revealed Fable game Microsoft announced is finally out.
Here’s everything Microsoft showed during the pre-show and hour-long main event.
Xbox is finally getting a Dragon Quest game.
During the pre-show with Geoff Keighley, Square Enix announced that Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age will be coming to Game Pass for both console and PC on December 4. Despite the series’ decades-long history, this is the first to ever be playable on a Microsoft console.
Exomecha is a free-to-play competetive FPS that looks like it was dreamed up by Michael Bay.
Coming to Xbox One and Series X sometime in 2021, Exomecha seems like a Transformers-inspired arena shooter where you run around shooting at other players while big metal robots fight overhead. It could be fun or it could just exist to throw microtransactions at you.
Echo Generation is giving me major Stranger Things-vibes.
From the makers of Riverbond, Echo Generation is another voxelly adventure game filled with some creepy music, beautiful scenery, and old-school turn-based battles. It’s coming sometime in 2021.
The Hello Neighbor cinematic universe is growing.
Hello Neighbor 2 was also announced during the pre-show. A sequel to the first game, which also got a follow-up prequel called Hide & Seek, it doesn’t seem like developer Dynamic Pixels and publisher tinyBuild have plans to stop making creepy games about home invasion anytime soon.
Veteran Sega developers are teaming back up at Square Enix for a 3D platformer called Balan Wonderworld.
Sonic and NiGHTS co-creators, Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima, have teamed back up at a new Square Enix studio called Balan Company to head up a new project called Balan Wonderworld. It’s set to release next spring and looks just as whimsical and old-school as you’d expect. It’s also coming to all the major platforms (Xbox Series X, PS5, Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and PC).
Halo: Infinite has a giant open world.
We caught our first glimpse of Halo: Infinite’s campaign today and while it included a lot of familiar sights there was also a lot of firsts for the series, including a new grappling hook that lets Master Chief swing around like Spidey. The game’s open world is also apparently bigger than all of the levels in the last two games combined. It looks like a lot. And of course it will run at 60fps.
State of Decay 3 exists in some form.
Microsoft showed off a cinematic trailer for the next game in its zombie survival sim series. There was blood and it was scary but no release date yet.
The cars look even prettier on next-gen.
Microsoft also showed a trailer for Forza Motorsport.
Everwild is a gorgeously animated new game from Rare.
It’s coming to Xbox One and PC.
Tell Me Why will be released in parts.
The Alaska-bound adventure game by the studio behind Life Is Strange will have its first chapter arrive next month, on August 27.
Ori And The Will Of The Wisps is getting a big update optimizing it for Xbox Series X.
It’ll play in 4K at 120fps.
Grounded is coming to Xbox Preview on July 28.
Obsidan’s adventure-game take on Honey I Shrunk The Kids will be available to try out in early access next week.
DLC is coming to The Outer Worlds.
Called Peril on Gorgon, the expansion arrives on September 9.
Obsidian is also working its next big RPG.
It’s called Avowed, will be first-person, and (surprise!) set in a magical fantasy realm, called Eora.
There’s a new interactive narrative game in the works called As Dusk Falls.
It looks like it uses a hybrid comic-book style and is taking diverse representation seriously.
Destiny 2 and all of its existing expansions are coming to Game Pass in September.
It looks like Game Pass subscribers will have a chance to catch up in Bungie’s loot shooter before the release of Destiny 2's next big expansion, Beyond Light, coming in November (which will then also be included in the Game Pass version). The game will also be streamable on xCloud with a Game Pass Ultimate subscription, and will be optimized for Series X sometime soon letting you finally play the game in 60fps on console.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is coming to PC and console.
A sequel to the 2007 Chernobyl survival game has tried to get off the ground for a while now, and this is the most in-depth look we’ve had of a revived S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 since the previous one was cancelled.
The water in Hellblade 2 looks amazing.
Ninja Theory’s Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II continues to look great but we didn’t hear anything about when it’s coming out.
Psychonauts 2 has Jack Black singing some tunes.
The next SteamWorld game will be an Xbox exclusive.
It’s called The Gunk and it’s coming sometime in 2021.
Tetris Effect is coming to Xbox One and Series X with multiplayer as Tetris: Effect Connected.
Tetris: Effect Connected will have co-op when it comes to Xbox One and Series X later this year, with multiplayer getting added to existing versions of the game on other platforms in a free update next summer.
We got a trailer for CrossfireX.
A shooter from Smilegate and Remedy, CrossfireX looks like the war on terror pumped up with some mysterious intrigue and super soldiers.
There’s a new Warhammer 40K hack ’n’ slash game from the makers of Vermintide.
It’s called Warhammer 40,000: Darktide and unlike Vermintide is therefore set in the series’ grim, futuristic setting. It’s coming sometime in 2021 and like the earlier games it will feature 4-player coop which is good because the city of Tertium looks too scary to explore alone.
A new version of Phantasy Star Online 2 is coming in 2021.
Called New Genesis, it looks like an overhaul of the nearly decade-old MMORPG and it’ll be a timed console exclusive on Xbox.
Psychological horror game The Medium is out this holiday.
It’ll also sport a “dual reality” feature where two different game worlds are rendered simultaneously across a split-screen and it looks really neat.