Microsoft introduced its own dedicated showcase this year with Xbox Developer Direct, and so far, we’ve had the debut show, a Starfield Direct, and a big Xbox Showcase this year. In the future, you can expect even more of these livestreams as Microsoft prepares to talk about its upcoming games more regularly.
“What I can say is we’re going to have more beats to talk about more of what we do because the content lineup is so strong,” Xbox head Phil Spencer said to IGN. “And I say that completely recognizing that 2022 wasn’t so strong, but we have our biggest booth here at Gamescom and we have a huge presence. So I think what you’re going to see from us, where maybe last couple of years we’ve been more on an annual [cycle] in terms of when we talk about our games around, I still call it E3, around the E3 timeframe, this year, we did Developer Direct in January, we did our showcase, we’re here and the biggest we’ve ever been at Gamescom, and you’re going to see more regular times to talk about our games because the portfolio is deep enough that we can support that.”
It has been a busy Gamescom week for Xbox, as Age of Empires IV made its debut on Xbox consoles, a new live-action trailer for Starfield kicked off Opening Night Live, and gameplay for Ara: History Untold was revealed during the show. Starfield launches in September for Xbox Series XS and PC, and beyond Bethesda’s big sci-fi game, there’s a new Forza Motorsport, Fable, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II to look forward to.