Reaction: Bethesda Delays Make June's Showcase Even More Important For Xbox

Here in Xbox land we're no strangers to waiting months and months for a big first party launch. Throughout the Xbox One era fans suffered through huge periods bereft of anything from Xbox Game Studios, especially when that studio family was relatively small. Well, after Bethesda's recent delays to both Starfield and Redfall, we might have to suffer a little longer yet.

The good news though, is that there's now light at the end of the delay tunnel. Xbox has scooped up an extraordinary number of studios since the gloomy days of the Xbox One, and at least we have things to look forward to. Even if we're just talking about Bethesda, we've got Deathloop, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Starfield and Redfall all due within a year or so.

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However, Xbox needs to show more to keep its fanbase engaged and that's why next month's Showcase is really, really important. Xbox has an unfortunate habit of talking about games too early — the Starfield delay shows that — but we really do need some proper first party gameplay next month. Fable, State of Decay 3, Forza Motorsport and many more have been announced for years at this point, yet we've seen no actual footage of these games in action.

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Now, we're not advocates for showing things too early — give the dev teams the time they need — but it does get to a certain stage where you need to see some solid footage to have any faith that these projects are moving along as expected. We've seen negative reports surrounding The Initiative and its Perfect Dark reboot, along with similar stories about Rare's Everwild, and we hope that isn't happening elsewhere at Xbox Game Studios.

The lack of solid footage for upcoming games isn't helped by the fact that Xbox is eerily quiet as the other big players are talking. Sony's steady stream of State of Play showcases have gone down pretty well for the most part, and even Nintendo has been more active than Xbox as of late. There's a lot going on at Xbox Game Studios, but sooner rather than later, fans should be treated to more than a mere dangle of the first party carrot.

And that's why we think that June's showcase is even more important for Xbox after the recent pair of Bethesda delays. We're incredibly excited about what Xbox might show, we're just wary that it could be a whole lot of nothing, especially as far as 2022 is concerned. There's basically nothing from Xbox Game Studios with a confirmed 2022 date now, and we can't help but be a little concerned by that.

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This might all sound a bit doom-and-gloom but in all honesty, the situation is far from that. Xbox's upcoming slate sounds fantastic, and the sheer number of studios with unannounced projects is really, really exciting. That's not even mentioning Xbox Game Pass, which just goes from strength to strength each year. However, we need to actually see some upcoming first party games being played because after so long, it's tough to get hyped for a title screen or a CG trailer. Xbox; we'll keep the faith for now. We're just hoping you guys reward that faith at next month's Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase.

What do you want Xbox to bring to the showcase next month? Let us know down below.