Poll: How Would You Grade The Xbox Games Showcase 2024?

…. I was whelmed.

B....If they announced Doritos Crash Course 3 I would give it an A, and this is a little outlandish but if they announced the speculative upcoming handheld I would have given it an A+.

Nothing against summer game fest, but we absolutely NEEDED this

Better than expected. Couple of announcements short of great though.

B+, great pacing, very little wasted time, lots of games even those that aren't my cup of tea looked great. Much better than expected, by far the best of the summer!

Now that my friends is how you do a damn showcase 🙂

A+ That was a lot of games. It seems like Xbox is the show that people want to be at. Dragon Age, Metal Gear, Assassins Creed, etc. Maybe Xbox is the summer show that SGF wants to be.

Good stuff, looking forward to Doom, MGS3 and I think that bayou game looks quite good too

Much better than Summer Games Fest for me, I give it a B, loved that drop of Gears E-Day news at the end!

Nothing looked that fun to be honest.

I’ll be honest — this past year my Series X has taken a big backseat to PS5, Switch, and Steamdeck. I was even toying with selling it, but decided to hold off until today’s showcase.

I’m glad I waited; this was fantastic and represented everything I’ve been wanting from my Xbox for years now.

There will surely be questions about what’s going multi-platform and, as we’ve seen with first-party Xbox titles in the last few years, great trailers do not mean a great finished product. And a lot of these reveals were known quantities/leaked beforehand (which is not Xbox’s fault).

But for the first time in a very long time, I’m excited to own an Xbox. Now please MS — just deliver on your promises and stop shooting yourselves in the foot.

A, it's the best show I've seen in years. It was around 80 minutes long but didn't feel long and had a great format with no down time. A lot of games that I'm looking forward to playing

This was awesome. Lots of good stuff shown, really excited for Perfect Dark and that Expedition 33 game caught my attention.

Great. Lots of games, non-stop trailers with lots of gameplay. I don't like the fact though that we're starting to show trailers of games without even a year attached to them(looking at you Perfect Dark)

Microsoft really put their whole Xbussy into that showcase, I’m impressed.

Would have loved some new Rare IP and a Gamepass shadow drop but apart from that it was great.

Great show. Far better than others this year.

3 games interested me

@LocalPenguin oh yeah when the lyrics came and went during the trailer it was epic!

I give it an A.

Lots of games shown.

Indiana Jones, Gears of War, Perfect Dark, State of Decay, Fable, MGS.

A lot to look forward to.

B. Would have liked that Gears Remake at least acknowledged BUT the E Day trailer gave me the feels. Marcus and Dom ❤️

Lots of games I wasn’t interested in but a handful I liked the look of a lot. Good show for sure.

Metal Gear Solid and Perfect Dark for me. Really glad to see more of both. Hopefully Perfect Dark isn’t years and years away.

The rest wasn’t really for me.

Where is our Activision games!?

feels harsh to grade a B as that w as great but no Activision games, no Forza Horizon news, Banjo or Marcus Gears collection, despite not promises of them, drops it down from an A

They showed ***** all. Just season passes and dlc for games thats been out years. SoF, fallout, WoW, every other games ***** aside from maybe 2.

I guess I’m the minority here as I thought it was pretty bad as whole. There were a couple games I cared about but most of it just seemed like the most generic stuff. Gears E-Day getting announced was sweet… but no gameplay. I’ll give them this, DOOM and Perfect Dark looked great. Age of Mythology looks interesting as well, not sure if I care to try it though. But pretty much everything else I was just saying “meh” about.

Got an A from me.
I posted early today I had a good feeling about this.

It's crazy how this was so much better than the main Summer Game Fest presentation. And although it was probably not totally needed, I loved how it clearly said whether it was in-game and/or cinematics for each video. Good stuff from Xbox!

Absolutely fantastic! Blew the doors off every other presentation of the last week.

Absolutely top-tier material. Very densely packed showcase.

My surprise highlight was Wuchang: Fallen Feathers as soulslike is my favourite genre and it looks absolutely fantastic!

Also very excited for more Gears of War and South of Midnight, Fable, Indiana Jones, and a new Life is Strange that continues Max’s story.

Very very good.

I rate it an A. That had got to be the BEST showcase I’ve seen. It was a great mixture of new games and a few trailers and updates for some already announced ones. I’m probably not going to play a couple of the games in there, but they looked pretty dang good! However, there was this shooter game (can’t remember the name) that had a really appealing art style, so I might play that when it comes out. I left the livestream when the CoD portion was about to start (since I don’t have an interest in it) but I will say that I like the aesthetic of the next entry! Mysterious and cool.

My only issue was that a couple of the games didn’t get release dates. The Perfect Dark reboot looks great and I’ll likely play it once I try out the original games, but it still didn’t get a release date. State of Decay 3 I believe has been known for about four years, but all it got was a cinematic trailer and still no release date. Shame Everwild didn’t show up, but I wasn’t really surprised at it not appearing, given its development got rebooted not too long ago. Still, I think it was a good showcase! Absolutely worth my time.

Great showcase but no silksong. 😭😭😭

Generally very good.
Only marking it down to a B as it is a bit light on 2024 content (nearly all 2025), no shadow drops, no date for GoW (could be years away!) and no Everwild.
Otherwise, it hit all the right marks.

This Call of Duty looks pretty sick too. Looks like they completely overhauled the movement and it's blowing my mind.

As more of a PS main barely using my xbox. Xbox cooked. God damn. The year of gamepass reward points will have alot of use in 2025

I knew not to get my hopes up but can't give it an A without Silksong.

Also an awful lot of 2025 releases that will no doubt be delayed several years.

Still, some great games and deserving of a B

Weren't there rumours about a surprise drop at the end of the show? Did I miss anything (didn't have the chance to watch it, just reading the articles)?

If thwse last three showcases are anything to go by I’m truly worried about the future of gaming

Epic. If I have to point any “missing “ would be Activision games on gamepass and the legendary Xbox portable. But everything were good.

No handheld! But still 🔥🔥 easy A

@tho_mi new gears

B+.
It was a good pace with plenty of games, most of which had a date (even if its just "2025"), and updates but there just wasn't any real hype bomb drops. Just a chill drop of decent looking games coming out.

Hardware refresh but no new controller was a bummer.

Go look at the grades for the PlayStation State of Play (on Push Square) and Summer Game Fest. Compare them to this. Yeah, Xbox killed it with this showcase!

@tho_mi think it was Gears announcement

The people that watched it, loved it. It was missing a few announcements like the new controller and ABK games being dropped on Game Pass, but the show was excellent. It gave an impression of very solid high-quality games in the pipeline. Avowed and Indiana Jones this year!

Only disappointment was the rumor of something 360 jrpg related not being true.

@Artois2 @Rmg0731, thanks, that I saw, so I didn't miss anything.

@antstephenson Avowed, Indy, Call of Duty, Flight Sim, and Ara History Untold is a pretty stacked 1st party lineup for the 6 months left of '24.

Then they also had Stalker 2, Assassins Creed, Dragon Age, Life is Strange and a ton of content announced for '24 like Starfield, Fallout 76, ESO, Diablo, etc.

It was a lot for 2024 but yeah 2025 looks like it will be even more stacked than the great 2024 they seemed set up for.

Avowed
Indiana Jones
Fable
Perfect Dark
Doom
State Of Decay 3
AtomFall
Wuchang
Dragon Age
Gears Of War
Flintlock
Expedition 33
AC Shadows
Metal Gear Solid
Stalker 2
South Of Midnight
Shattered Space

10/10 A+ Stacked show.
Gonna keep me busy.

One of the best I've seen for years - banger after banger. An 'A' all day long for me

All I can say is that for the first time ever, i was impressed by a games presentation. Ive been gaming since the early 80s, always multi console, so its not an insignificant amount of time.

They hit so many areas with games that genuinely looked great. Many I had not heard of but are now on my radar.

Going back to eday is brilliant for gears as well.

All that said, nothing is perfect. Some missing release windows, no mention of a portable xbox or halo. And no mention of when acti games will hit gamepass. Still, easily best games show i can recall and destroyed sonys earlier. (Though astro is gonna be great)

Solid A … not sure where some of the missing stuff went though… controller , Towerbourne, dungeons of Hinderburg and the ABK stuff … still awesome though!

B.

Some excellent games no knocking that.

But a lot are some ways off and not a lot of gameplay shown on the stuff out this year. That’s why a B.

New Life is Strange game! And a release date! Excited by that!

Very impressed - A for me.

10/10 easy, xbox is cooking

I gave it a B. I agree, it was really good if you own a XBox, but if you were someone like me, who watches more for third party, it was meh. If I had a XBox, would've said A.

This is how you do a showcase. Stacks on stacks! I got 9 new games on my wish list. I think thats a new record for me.

Wow!! This was damn good!

@LocalPenguin Saw you comment and damn it, we need an S-tier after this one. I was blown away by sooo much.

It was almost TOO much, if such a thing is possible. Perfect Dark was my highlight. No wait, it was Doom. No wait, I think it was Indiana Jones. Maybe Gears? I can't decide.

Just bought 6 months of Game Pass Ultimate. My ROG Ally is ready 🙂 I counted 8 games I want to play and this showcase topped the one a year ago. Amazing work Team Xbox!

@Banjo- Why waste time during the showcase for that? Xbox always have an after event show where more announcements can be made.

Easily the best show thus far in terms of previews. State of Decay 3 needed gameplay to get me excited.

My highlights,
-South of Midnight
-Indy Jones
-Gears
-that Mouse game? Forgot the name. Winter Burrow or something. But it looks cozy and interesting.
-oddly even Cod-blops had my interest with the early 90's Tom Clancy-ish presentation

Was a great show. Xbox with all the games and they all look great. 2nd year in a row showing up Sony. COD looks to have been properly improved.

Better than Sony's showcase days ago! I think many Xbox owners will be pleased. For me the only thing that I'm excited about is Gears and too early to say for Perfect Dark. I still think Fable is meh. A lot of games shown were expected from the newly acquired Studios. I still expected to see more from Microsofts older first party studios under their umbrella. Perhaps they are working on "next generation" titles for the biggest console leap according to Microsoft. Lastly I hope microsoft amends the pricing on all series consoles by making them cheaper and actually advertising the boxes!

that was absolutely fantastic so many games in there that I will definitely be playing

Had to give it an A despite a lot of 2025 games and not too many with actual release dates. That being said, we only have 6/7 months left of 2024 with games like BO6, Stalker 2, Indiana Jones, MSFS 24, Avowed etc coming in 2024 and 2025 is looking to keep the games coming...

Hardware makes no difference to me, I have my Series X so not interested in 'digital' Series S/X or the new Series X.

The fact that most will also be available on Game Pass - even games I wouldn't be 'excited' for at £70 were interesting enough to be excited to try. Gears of War returning to the 'WAR' was a personal highlight for me as I wasn't that 'excited' by 5 and where they would go with '6', so glad they are returning to the War aspect.

@AverageGamer Right, but then the Call of Duty show started and only the new consoles had been announced. I still think it's likely that Game Pass additions are going to be announced today or tomorrow, but I have doubts about the new controller now.

A, cant see the show being better without it being a 4 hour show. We know for a fact they did not show everything they have under their sleeves!

Anyone else get the feeling MS could have easily filled another hour with reveals given what was missing?

15/10 all killer, no filler for me personally. Even the things I wouldn't usually touch had me pretty interested.

I gave it an A, but I would have liked to have given it an S...!

To qualify for an S I would like to have seen at least an acknowledgement of the existence of The Marcus Fenix remasters, and where the &%$! was Gears 6...?

No Gears 6 was a massive disappointment for me, though E-Day was a huge and gladly received surprise. Indeed, I was only talking to my mate on Friday and said to him that E-Day would have made a great setting for a game.

Talking to him today (whilst playing Horde in Gears 5), we were lamenting the absence of Kantus', Armoured Kantus, Corpsers, Wretches and even the Kryll. Hopefully, with E-Day being set earlier than 4 and 5, we will get to see the return of some of these favourite enemies...

My Xbox game wishlist:

✅️Expedition 33
✅️State of Decay 3
✅️Fable 4
✅️Doom
✅️Gears of War E-Day
✅️Metal Gear Solid
✅️Black Ops 6

Maybe one game I wasn’t interested in. Easy A and I loved the summer game fest presentation. Odd to see Ubisoft and ea use this as their showcase as well.

I guess I'd give it a C, I guess...?

Haven't really gone through any news article yet to read up on what was shown but at least we're getting a new DOOM game so that's something at least.

It was great. Seemed to be a lot missing tho.

Also not sure why they waste time on stuff that isn't exclusive, first-party, or Game Pass. They have so many good things. Why waste time on Dragon Age and Assassin's Creed and other multiplatform things? We know those are coming.

Jaw dropping from start to finish

This was an enjoyable showcase, but there are a couple concerns. Shattered Space, Avowed, and Indy are all coming this year, but none of them got dates. Towerbourne and Ara are also supposed to be this year and didn't show up at all. I'm expecting a couple things to get delayed into 2025 at this point.

2025 for both Doom and Fable is awesome though (fingers crossed on them making it)

Solid B for me, but id also add its easily the best of the 3 big shows.

The most conspicuous thing, for me, was that there was a LOT less ABK stuff than I expected, and probably quite a few others as well. Call Of Duty Black Ops 6 and World Of Warcraft.

For someone coming to it on the back of the acquisition, it was a terrible showcase, since it was pretty much the XBOX Game Studios, Bethesda and Other Partners Showcase.

Microsoft, let's have a proper Activision showcase soon, K, Thx.

Some amazing games coming! But would have loved to hear something about the hand held Xbox.

An unmitigated A.
Absolutely fantastic showcase, one of their best ever.

Awesome show! Gave me some hope for gaming’s future, despite all the crap it took to get here.

Doublefine is keeping its secrets for another day. I am getting more and more intrigued with each show they are not at. Hopefully it's a big 3d platformer even if its not psychonauts 3.

@OldGamer999 so you fulfilled your own prophecy? Spooky

Best Xbox showcase in a long time.
But a few game has a lack of gameplay, way too much “woke”, and a few boring announcements.

I don’t care about COD, but that presentation was one of the best ever. Thorough, full of gameplay, and detailing information on the changes and improvements.

I wouldn't give it an A but a solid 9/10 for me. Brilliant showcase.

Easy A+ for me. One of the single best showcases in the history of gaming imo. And it’s only highlighted by the fact that Sony only has 1 big first party release in 2023 and 2024. The right show at the right time.

@BacklogBrad

I was also hoping to see what Double Fine was working on. It’s been a little bit so they are gonna have something to show very soon I expect. Easily one of my favorite studios.

Ok Xbox… that’s more like it 👍🏻

My humble verdict: A

Oh my heart be still, finally more Fable at last and Avowed looking rather fun. Just wish they could give some solid release dates.

Finally that SNAKE phil spencer crawls out of the woodwork once the heat has died down

Solid B for me. The only thing I wished was there was the rumored xbox handheld, an ABK dump, and some Final Fantasy/Square Enix announcements (not Life is Strange). It would've been near perfect for me with those.

@Deljo
I know it’s scary 😦
Glad it was great though.

Solid B for me. Too much first-person shooters for my taste, but it was a really cool show.
Not a lot of games for me in particular but the few that do interest me look really good.

That was unbelievably solid. Even knowing some games were coming, what was shown blew me away. One or two things I was kiiiiind of hoping for that did not show up, but after a showcase like that, I have no right to complain. Easy A.

@OldGamer999 🤣 it was decent tbf

A+. Indiana has GOTY candidate written all over it. Machine Games pushing all the right buttons.

XB did well today, hopefully the negative news is in the rear view mirror now and we hear great news like today going forward.

@LocalPenguin It was a throwback because just like the original title it took Dom 5 minutes to kill one enemy 😉

Definitively A on how it was put together! Pace & music were on point, from start to finish imo.

Another reason was because I completely forgot to watch my F1 race …

Even the COD SP could be something good too.

I think the ABK stuff will be added on the normal pace. This show was S Tier, not all for me but I see the potential is there!

I wanted some FH6 & Sebile controller (was a May announcement so I wonder what happened)

That was one packed showcase… things that no one is talking about enough:
Starfield Shattered space is amazing
Where was clockwork Revolution
All eSO dlc free for a short time
EA and Ubisoft showing gameplay only on Xbox
Where was Silksong
COD looked strong but feels like everyone went meh
Diablo trailer was not kid friendly
Indy looked great but not as cinematic as cartoonish

I take it the handheld/shadow drop rumor was just meant to sabotage the show by giving false hope. At least the show was more than strong enough to weather any of that. I'm glad xbox held off on commenting about "their excitement" or any of that. They just let it speak for itself.

@teknium_ They could definitely filled another hour. I’m guessing they don’t want to avoid fake cinematic trailer from their in house studios this year

There's nothing perfect, off course we wanted some more here and there, but overall it was great.

Nothing less than an A. Lack of dates for Indy and Avowed were bummers, but everything else that we got felt pitch perfect. 2025 games (Fable, Doom and South at Midnight) should be nailed on for the next Developer Direct early next year so no complaints there. Again, we pretty much got gameplay trailers for all the first party stuff following on from last years show (Perfect Dark in particular looked absolutely glorious!). Generally, all the third party stuff here looked quality. And for the first time personally, I've actually been sold on a COD game. Treyarch looks like they've cooked up something genuinely great with Black Ops 6.

This would have been a 10/10 if we had dates for Indy and Avowed, but this is otherwise an easy 9-9.5/10.

I'd give it a solid B. Nothing too mind blowing in my opinion but I'll have a reason to turn on my xbox now

@themightyant I’m not a fan of showing DLC at these gaming events either.

@SoulChimera Careful, you'll have the Kojima Cultists outside your house with pitchforks and torches

There were rumors of a Blue Dragon announcement I heard during the week but of course we get nothing. Xbox needs to start pumping out some exclusive Japanese content like we had in the 360 era.

An A for sure. This was the best show in a while and absolute dominance sign from Microsoft.
Too sad all of these wonderful games are being garbaged with Gamepass, with this strong lineup they could step back a bit from that subscription nonsense.

Probably the best line up of games announced by any of the big 3 console manufacturers for years.

Still, there were hardly any shadow drops and most were 2025 games which we all know will end up being delayed a couple of years if past history is anything to go by.

I often wonder how long a MS showcase would be if it just focused on 1st party games.

@DennisReynolds Xbox putting out AAA games in the age of everyone saying the gaming industry can not afford to make AAA games anymore….coupled with all the games they did not announce but could of… this felt like part 1 of two showcases and then said come buy our mid gen all digital refresh… hope it can entice more to own multiple consoles!

How many of these games are going to playstation?

@DennisReynolds I hope you still enjoy gaming.
It seems that these days, a lot of gamers are so dissatisfied with everything, that all that matters is, how many exclusives there are on system and a who has the best restriction model.
This XBox stream was so damn good and still, people are discussing about what was weak about it.

I'd have given it an A if it weren't for the Fable trailer STILL showcasing that weird looking chick as the main character. And if she ends up actually being the only option, then I'm out.

@DennisReynolds why such hate?

I thought it was excellent...for a 2025 presentation. I was really hoping XBOX would take the opportunity and fill the void left by Sony and Nintendo the rest of the year. I'm hyped for Doom. The rest is pretty solid looking stuff though.
If more of these were coming this year with an exclusivity window, I might be interested in getting an XBOX. As is, I'll be waiting to buy anything from them at least until 2025.

@cburg Thinking a showcase is mediocre isn't hate.

It was good. 8/10. The one game brave enough to go for artistic style got shot down by everyone hoping they fix the frame rate lol (Shadow of Midnight.) The games weren't very diverse, with mostly thematics seperating them. But Perfect Dark gave me goosebumps. Indiana Jones still looks a little stiff to me. But the biggest compliment I can give is it looks like I'll be dusting off my Series S. Microsoft (I'll not call them XBox anymore) are still probably the more cynical of the big 3. Thy got an 8/10 but had to spend 100 billion dollars to pass it off as their own. That will always be nauseating for me.

I gave it an a. This was the only true e3 level presentation the whole weekend and not loaded with mostly 8bit wannabe indie games. Some seriously great games shown. Yeah maybe I'm
It'll all be multiplayt maybe it won't, but the showcase was genuinely excellent. This is the kind of thing we missed from e3. Yes including some future games. Makes up for the time wasted on that awful Sony show and tolerating Geoff.

Fable, DragonAge, Assassins Creed, Gears of War, Metal Gear . . . What’s not to like! Just wish they were here now! 😂😂

Perfect Dark almost looks like an immersive sim. That was unexpected but awesome. Disappointed the blue dragon rumor was false though.

@jesse_dylan "Why waste time on Dragon Age and Assassin's Creed "

Marketing deal/brand partnership. It associates the games with Xbox even if they're multiplat.ea is a close partner and assassin's creed supposedly sells best on Xbox, so it's a bit of mutual back scratching.

@Nintendo4Sonic If they can lock people into the subscription for their gaming, they end up making a lot more money than game purchases. I think the end game for gp is grow it too critical mass and reduce churn with schemes to keep people locked perpetually paying. It's a gamble, like making a GaaS game, but a pot of gold if it works, like a GaaS game.

@DennisReynolds at this point if we exclude third party paid for and new acquisition studios from ps and Xbox we can comfortably say neither of them make many games anymore.

Rated it an A. But Xbox have had great showcases before. They need to start backing them up with consistently good releases for them to mean anything. So right now it doesn't mean too much. Looking forward to Indiana Jones though. Will play that for sure when it releases. Glad it's a 2024 game.

Dragon Age: SBI looks like Fortnite in a Dragon Age skin. Absolutely abysmal. I’m still not ever how bad it looks.

@Fenbops I was trying to think of the best way to describe this and you have saved me a job. DA was one of the few I expected to be excited by and the tone of that trailer actually lowered my interest a few notches.

C Grade for myself.
Not much caught my eye and those that and as above some games actually put me off with trailers that did nothing for me. Also in a few cases there was an over reliance on cinematic trailers which tell you nothing, just show us game play instead.

Atomfall, Wuchang and Expedition 33 where the standouts for myself.

I will also take a look at Indy but am still not convinced with it being 1st person. If you are going to play as an iconic character then I want to see him and not just some fists on screen.

Still the best showcase around, from the format to the actual games shown.

Expedition 33 was definitely the highlight for me. That game looks incredible! Perfect Dark had the best showing of the 1st party stuff if say. Really impressed by what was shown there. Gears E-Day is a bit of a lame announcement. Fable looks pretty good. Overall a pretty solid show and definitely the best of the week.

Fantastic show. The only complain from my part is no release dates for the biggest releases of 2024. B overall

@Korgon expedition 33 looks great. Definitely the standout for me too.

I watched it late last night and it was amazing from start to finish. It’s a definite A from me. It was the showing of gameplay from many of the games that made the showcase even better and they all looked fantastic.

I thought we would of seen or at least heard that there is going to be an Xbox console to compete with the PS5 Pro. Sarah Bond did say at the end that they are hard at work on the next generation but that’s likely 3 or 4 years down the line before they say what it is, what specs it has, etc.

What year are we looking at GoW E-Day releasing? Doubt it’s 2025 otherwise they’d of shown in the trailer. I’m thinking end of 2026.

Watched this morning and highly impressed. My only criticism is the continued lack of any news re ABK games on Gamepass. As a minimum I think they missed a trick by not releasing at least one or two old Black Ops games onto GP, just to whet our appetites.

People keep moaning about lack of games or what’s next for Xbox hardware but when they get a plethora of great games shown to them….. yep.. they still moan!!!

Just enjoy the games people! Gaming is about the games. The rest , we have no control over.

For all those voting D, E and F... What were you expecting? It is so sad seeing console funboys these day even coming voting on a poll for a platforms showcase they dont even care its exist!

It was awesome. They really nailed it, and I'm glad, cause they HAD to.

After this show, I regained some kind of confidence in the brand.

I really wasn't expecting Perfect Dark, for example. And I found it awesome.

Really surprised that Phil was there, too, cause I was under the impression that something was going on under the curtain, and that he had quit or got fired.

But no, he was there, and seemed ok. And that made me happy, cause I simply just like the guy.

Gears of War really surprised me, too, with it prequel angle. I liked 4, and loved 5 (really loved it), so I was fine with continuing this story. But let's be honest : Xbox needs a big hit with its flagship franchises. So, bring Marcus and Dom back ! I can understand it, and even : I'm glad they're going this way.

I really think that this game is gonna success where Halo Infinite failed (and I'm saying that as a fan of Infinite), and is gonna reinstall the franchise in gamers's conversations.

So, yeah. It was awesome.

@Fenbops Totally agree with you, this game just blew my mind.
This one, Expedition 33, and Mixtape (what is this game ???) totally got me with their artistic direction.

Just can't wait to play them.

@themightyant Oh I think Xbox the publisher is just fine. It was a great show, fantastic games all around! I still don't know what to make of Xbox the hardware though. I know they'll be making hardware for at least another gen, I just don't know if it will A) Be successful B) will come with a catch, C) Will just be a PC for a bit cheaper and more convenient but starting to price close enough to PC that it just makes sense to go PC. Phil's answer about hardware that the reason to play on Xbox is Game Pass Day 1 and PC cross-buy aren't very inspirational considering you get the former on PC and the latter doesn't matter if you're on PC. I think it'll all come down to price. If the next hardware offers a ton of bang for the buck, it should be fine. If it's totally merged with PC stores, it should be fine. If the USP is selling PC crossbuy, it sounds like a pretty way of saying "Please migrate to Windows 11." But they have the fix the empty Windows Store for that to work otherwise they're just saying "Please pay the Gabe toll on your way out" Price will be everything.

IDK, I definitely got very strong Deus Ex vibes from the Perfect Dark gameplay. Could be wrong, maybe it's scripted, but it looked pretty open ended to me. Maybe it'll look more linear nearer release, but so far it seems wonderfully open.

@themightyant "Please migrate to Xbox" is the one and only thing we can put in writing Xbox never actually says

Yeah I mean in theory the cross by is a great thing, not so much the cross-buy actually, it's the cross-SAVE that goes with it that might matter most. The problems with that as a USP are simply that easing the ability to leave console and go PC isn't helping the console overall, and the use case of going from PC to console isn't going to be a common one, and it'll take more than the offer of "someday you could leave your PC and go to consoles!" to convince PC players to buy on Windows Store instead of Steam (where "someday you could leave Windows and go to Linux!" Is an equal or stronger selling point in the market.)

And second, most importantly, their cross buy is absolute trash of the highest order, where very few games offer it, few publishers want anything to do with it, and even where there's no permitted cross-buy, few games even exist on the Windows store. Of my 300+ Xbox games less than 25 are cross-buy atm, and most of the others I spot check aren't even available to buy separately on PC. (I always use Elden Ring as my example for some reason, but just because it's so high profile - you simply can't buy the game from MS on PC at all.) They need some SERIOUS work to be done, including strong-arming publishers, if it's going to be a useful feature beyond marketing talk. Even freaking Skyrim isn't cross-buy yet, and they own it themselves. It's up there with "8k!" marketing as a theoretical feature as-is. Sega seems to support it heavily (but only for newish games), they're one of the only ones. Square has a few games, someone noted the Enix games tend to and the Square games don't.

Yeah the handheld has been a given for some time but it was fun to see Phil basically directly-indirectly say it. Still can't tell like you said if it's a PC or console (he threw in the comparison to Ally and Legion again, so still looking PC-like maybe.) I'm still assuming their hardware trajectory will be to merge console and PC, I thought so back with 1X and was kind of surprised Series became what it is instead, I just don't know if it starts with the handheld or the next gen (or if it's the same thing and is an eGPU hybrid system. Phil keeps talking "Form factors", he talked about form factors last time he commented on handheld. And again this time but while talking about non-handheld. Could be going for an all in one dockable.)

As a now HUGE Legion/Ally fan I don't need the Xbox handheld anymore, but I'm curious what they do on price if it's a PC. It can't be $600+ ($800 Ally X wtflol), but something will have to give to get prices that much lower. Adata now has a Windows handheld coming up for $500 with a tilt-out screen. They're multiplying! I'm near-certain the Xbox handheld will be snapdragon with great battery, WoA is the corporate synergy fotm and it fits here. But what they do with price (or what they have to cut down) will be interesting. Either way it'll be a better value than the $200 local-device-specific-streaming-only Portal. Will also be interesting to see how it stands out from the more easily marketable Switch 2 if the Switch 2 is as powerful docked as rumors say.

Perfect Dark is really my stand-out surprise of the show. I don't have any attachment to the series and would have been happy enough with a sort of throwback 00's NOLF-like type setup. I got giddy when I saw the Deus Ex shine through. It may not be a pure "Arcane game" but it's a more Arcane game than poor Austin's swan song is....