Xbox fans, we weren't dreaming last night, were we? Microsoft's Xbox Games Showcase really did go that well, yeah? Because my word, that felt like the best summer showcase we've seen in years - not only for how slick the whole presentation was from top to bottom, but also for the calibre of reveals and the E3-of-old excitement those reveals brought to the Pure Xbox offices yesterday.
Let's run things back for a minute. It's been a rough few months for Xbox fans, with Microsoft's recent studio closures and at-times confusing messaging around multiplatform releases putting a dampener on things recently. It's not been all bad, Developer Direct back in January was solid, and Xbox Game Pass keeps on trucking, but it's not been the easiest few months to be an Xbox fan, put it that way.
Well, this weekend's showcase was maybe the best answer to all of those doubts that we could have ever wished for. The team kicked things off with a Black Ops 6 Game Pass launch date before firing right into the reveal of DOOM: The Dark Ages - if that ain't a confident start, we don't know what is. From there, an almost two-hour thrill-ride never let go, as Microsoft delivered what felt like a streamlined version of one of its Xbox 360-era E3 showcases.
That throwback energy was felt in multiple ways, too. One of them, funnily enough, was the type of games shown off here - and some of the old school franchises that made a big splash. We may have moved away from that eight-shades-of-brown vibe that the 360 era often delivered in spades, but you can't deny the excitement of the time, and the unbelievable lineup that console brought to the table. To see a Gears of War origin story, Playground's big Fable reboot and a brand-new Perfect Dark all in one showcase felt like a real treat. Ah, what nostalgia can do, eh?
The thing is though, it isn't just nostalgia carrying these titles - not at all. That Perfect Dark reveal was one of the surprises of the show in just how good it looked, Fable continues to look stunning running on Forza-tech, and need we say more about what The Coalition will no-doubt deliver in Gears of War: E-Day? They all reminded us of Xbox 360 era reveals in both the sheer quality on show, and Microsoft's confidence in bringing these games to market - something that often felt missing during the Xbox One era.
If we're to have any major gripes about the show, it'd probably be the almost total lack of video game release dates. Yes, Microsoft's slate for the next few years looks absolutely stacked and we're excited about almost all of it, but when we'll actually get to play most of these games still remains a mystery. Aside from the weird appearance and disappearance of an Avowed launch date, 'sometime in 2024' is about all we can cling onto for Xbox's most nearby of releases, not to mention how many games are coming in 2025 and beyond. But hey, at least we don't have to square the money aside to buy these - almost every single title that appeared last night is launching right into Xbox Game Pass!
And so, we're just about coming around from what felt like a bit of a fever dream of an Xbox showcase, especially with that great whopping Gears of War reveal at the end there. Sure, we didn't see Xbox's much-rumoured handheld device show up here, and you could maybe make an argument that genre variety wasn't at its peak this year, but Microsoft's 2024 show felt like the most exciting summer showcase in years - and we're more than happy with that. If E3 still existed, Xbox would have surely 'won' it - and fans have absolutely tons to be excited about in the coming months and years.