Xbox has just announced that they’ll be holding their July event on the 23rd, simply called Xbox Games Showcase. This lines up pretty well with all the rumors which pointed to the same date leading up to the official announcement. As Xbox Games marketing head Aaron Greenberg had previously stated, the Xbox Games Showcase in July will be primarily focused on first-party exclusives.
The last event that Xbox held was May’s Inside Xbox event, whichw as received pretty poorly by the majority of the gaming community. Marketed as the first next-gen “gameplay” event, the show had barely any real gameplay, with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla segment being the biggest disappointment.
We hope Xbox has learned from their mistake. The Xbox Games Showcase will reveal the first look at Halo: Infinite’s gameplay as well as give updates about other first-party games. Many people are expecting a Fable and Perfect Dark remaster/sequel. After all, Xbox hasn’t exactly been known for its exclusives, with services like Game Pass taking the center stage.
We also expect Microsoft to unveil the Xbox Series S (codenamed Lockhart) at the event, as well as announce pricing for both consoles. At the very least the price of Series X should be announced. As for other games, Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga might be present. A new Forza game is also bound to be present to showcase the Series X’s hardware, with a new Gears of War also being possibly announced.
We also expect to see more game announcements from Microsoft’s many new first-party studios. However, do note that almost none of them will be true Series X exclusives. Microsoft has already said before how they are taking a slower approach to transition the existing player base to the new console(s), which is quite the opposite of what PlayStation is doing with PS5.
The Xbox Games Showcase event will be held on July 23rd at 9 am PT (9:30 pm IST) as part of the Summer Game Fest.