Recap: Microsoft’s Press Conference At E3 2016

microsoft xbox one

Microsoft’s presser kicked off day two of E3 2016. Here are the highlights:

The first order of business was showing off the Xbox One S, a slimmer version of the original Xbox One with various tweaks and improvements. A newer version of the One controller was also shown.

Phil Spencer took the stage to announce the new Xbox One S will cost $299.

Rod Fergusson took the stage to discuss Gears of War 4 and a new program called Xbox Play Anywhere (buy a game once digitally, play it on Xbox One or Windows 10). An extended gameplay demo of Gears of War 4 followed which showed off the impressive wind storm effects. Gears of War 4 releases on October 11, 2016.

A Gears of War 4 elite wireless controller was announced.

Rukari Austin, community manager for Killer Instinct took the stage to announce the newest playable character, General Raam.

Ralph Fulton from Playground games took the stage to introduce the world gameplay premiere of Forza Horizon 3. The game releases September 27, 2016.

ReCore was given an extended (and stylized) trailer and a release date of September 13th was listed.

Hajime Tabata and Mathew Kishimoto took the stage to discuss Final Fantasy XV, and to showcase a gameplay demo featuring the faster battle system. The game releases on September 30, 2016.

The Division will have deadly urban dungeons by way of The Underground expansion, coming first to Xbox One.

Patrick Bach from DICE took the stage to talk about Battlefield 1. EA Access members play Battlefield 1 early on October 13th. The standard release date is October 21, 2016.

Mike Ybarra took the stage to talk about Xbox Live improvements. Three features coming this fall include Clubs, Looking for Group, and Arena.

Saxs Persson and Lydia Winters took the stage to talk about new innovations being made to Minecraft. John Carmack joined them to talk about VR implementation.

There are new customizable Xbox One controllers via the Xbox Design Lab.

Inside, from the creators of Limbo, will be released on June 29, 2016.

Chris Charla from ID@Xbox took the stage to talk about the program and to introduce some of the upcoming independent games coming to Xbox One.

Guillaume Provost took the stage to showcase gameplay from We Happy Few from Compulsion Games. The game releases July 26, 2016.

Damien Monnier from CD Projekt Red took the stage to talk about Gwent: The Witcher Card Game.

Bandai Namco’s Tekken 7 will release in early 2017.

Dead Rising 4 will be releasing holiday 2016.

Shannon Loftis took the stage to introduce Hideki Kamiya the director of Scalebound. Extended gameplay footage was shown.

Craig Duncan from Rare took the stage to discuss Sea of Thieves after a trailer was shown. He introduced world premiere gameplay footage.

State of Decay 2 was announced for 2017.

Halo Wars 2 was given an extended trailer, and Dan Ayoub took the stage to discuss more about the game.

Phil Spencer took the stage once more to talk about hardware, and announced Project Scorpio, a beefed up console, coming holiday 2017.

This was a packed showcase from Microsoft. Later today we will see what both Ubisoft and Sony have up their collective sleeves. See you then!

Categories: games

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8 replies »

      • I changed my mind,Ubisoft is my choice just cause of South Park. I hope the prices are at least reasonable. I want DR4.

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        • I’m guessing that Project Scorpio is going to cost a heck of a lot more than this gen of consoles. And I super hope Dead Rising 4 releases on PS4 as well. So far, Amazon only has a listing for the Xbox One version.

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