Before talking about my mixed feelings after the Xbox / Bethesda showcase I figured it was best to look at some numbers first: In short what we saw was almost an hour of gameplay, with just 16 minutes being from upcoming exclusives (24%) and 21 minutes (31%) being from exclusive games in total. Conversely all new exclusive announcements besides Horizion 5 were accompanied by a CGI trailer.
The intent here is not to bash this presenation but to help reign in the sort of half-hype I have seen generated by it and to help work through using numbers, a process which may not be healthy but so be it.
What we seem to be seeing is a combination of the collective corner both Sony and Microsoft have pushed themselves into; namely announcing games too soon, and then having to repeat that cycle to avoid having nothing to announce at the next major showcase. There are numerous ways out of this cycle, which all other games companies are currently taking, but Xbox/ Bethesda seem the most locked in. This is a good sign of things to come as the full potential of the new 23 studio roster will comes to bear in 2022 but it is important to remain calm until then. And I will be looking more into that studio roster in future.
Other things I have seen as critisms I would like to downplay: I am sure we will see extended Halo gamplay in a seperate show soon & Battefield was always unlikely to come to gamepass because it wants to be a true blockbuster.
In summary I feel like this could have been a better showcase by showing more of fewer games, The outerworlds 2, Contraband and Redfall could have waited and I would loved to have seen more than 5 minutes of Halo. My advice to Xbox would be to calm dow, more of us will buy a Series X/S when there are the games to justify it, those who will buy a console on hype already have one.
| Show - intro & outro | 1:07:10 | ||
| Segment | Time | ||
| Stalker 2 | 0:05:00 | 0:11:45 | 0:06:45 |
| Back 4 blood | 0:02:00 | 0:13:50 | 0:11:50 |
| Sea of thieves | 0:03:00 | 0:18:25 | 0:15:25 |
| Yakuza like a dragon | 0:01:00 | 0:19:25 | 0:18:25 |
| Battlefield | 0:03:00 | 0:22:25 | 0:19:25 |
| Phyconauts | 0:01:30 | 0:24:40 | 0:23:10 |
| Fallout 76 | 0:02:35 | 0:29:15 | 0:26:40 |
| ESO | 0:01:00 | 0:30:50 | 0:29:50 |
| Party animals | 0:01:40 | 0:32:30 | 0:30:50 |
| Hades | 0:00:50 | 0:33:20 | 0:32:30 |
| Summerville | 0:01:50 | 0:35:10 | 0:33:20 |
| Halo Single | 0:02:50 | 0:39:20 | 0:36:30 |
| Halo Multi | 0:02:05 | 0:41:50 | 0:39:45 |
| Diablo 2 res | 0:02:05 | 0:44:05 | 0:42:00 |
| Plauge tale 2 | 0:01:25 | 0:45:30 | 0:44:05 |
| Far cry 6 | 0:02:35 | 0:48:05 | 0:45:30 |
| Slime rancher 2 | 0:01:15 | 0:49:20 | 0:48:05 |
| Shredders | 0:01:55 | 0:51:15 | 0:49:20 |
| Atomic heart | 0:01:00 | 0:52:15 | 0:51:15 |
| Replaced | 0:01:55 | 0:54:10 | 0:52:15 |
| Grounded | 0:01:45 | 0:55:55 | 0:54:10 |
| Among us | 0:00:35 | 0:56:30 | 0:55:55 |
| Eiyduen cron | 0:01:40 | 0:58:10 | 0:56:30 |
| Eiyduen cron | 0:00:40 | 0:58:50 | 0:58:10 |
| Age of | 0:01:40 | 1:00:30 | 0:58:50 |
| Flight sim | 0:02:30 | 1:04:50 | 1:02:20 |
| Horizion 5 | 0:02:00 | 1:06:50 | 1:04:50 |
| Horizion 6 | 0:06:40 | 1:13:55 | 1:07:15 |
| Gameplay | 0:58:00 | ||
| Exclusives | 0:20:50 | ||
| Upcoming exclusive | 0:16:05 | ||
| Total gameplay | 86.35% | ||
| Exclusive | 31.02% | ||
| Upcoming exclusives | 23.95% |
| Starfield | 0:02:10 | 0:04:40 | 0:02:30 |
| Contraband | 0:01:40 | 0:15:25 | 0:13:45 |
| Outer worlds 2 | 0:01:35 | 1:02:10 | 1:00:35 |
| Redfall | 0:04:25 | 1:21:10 | 1:16:45 |
| Total | 0:09:50 |
Buying order: Switch, better pc
