What I would like to see is something similar to the Switch presentation. Show us your 1st party games that are coming out launch day to the next holiday season (so 1st year). Show us what we can expect in the first year, meaning releases dates or windows. For Switch we knew Zelda was a very strong launch day title, then we went into the launch window (few months after launch) with Mario Kart, ARMS, and Splatoon 2. After that to end the year we got Fire Emblem Warriors, Mario Odyssey, Xenoblade 2, Bayonetta 1+2, and Kirby. Bayonetta and Kirby were shown later and that's fine if they wanna keep some game announcements for later, but the point is show us most of your 1st year lineup.

Sony's presentation lacked releases dates (nothing new from them), but this is definitely one area they can beat them at. The question for a new console launch is what can you offer in it's 1st year?

Do they need to beat Sony's conference or beat Sony's console?  Those are two very different questions.  For the past couple of years I've been hearing Microsoft had the best show at E3.  Meanwhile their console sales are in the toilet.  Microsoft is really good at being "showy".  They figure out tricks like showing off a bunch of third party games first even though those same games are going to also be on Playstation.  So people say that have the best show and then turn around and buy a Playstation anyway.

The #1 thing a company can do to make their system successful is have great exclusive games.  For Microsoft this would be even better if they have exclusives that really show of their hardware capabilities and are also available in the first 12 months after launch including a launch exclusive that is at least as good as Spider-Man.  I think Sony has the long term advantage in game development with their SSD, but it's also going to be a few years before we really start seeing games that make full use of it's capabilities.  That means Microsoft has the advantage in the short term because their system is technically more powerful.  They need games (ideally really fun games) that show that off. 

Here are some other things that will put Microsoft on top.  If they did all of the things I'm suggesting they could launch with price parity and still crush Sony.

1) Leverage Minecraft to keep people from PS5.  They could say, "We are promoting cross-play with all of our platform partners."  Who would be their partners?  Series X, PC, Switch, and Mobile.  Everything but PS5.  On top of that they need to update the console versions of Minecraft to include the most popular mods from the PC.

2) Have Rockstar come out and announce GTA6 as a timed exclusive.  It will come to Series X one year before PS5.

3) Keep having a steady stream of exclusive games.  This is especially true for the first couple of years.  Eventually enough third party games will release, and that will be the main driver of sales, but in the first couple of years they can really distinguish themselves from Sony with exclusive content.

If they did everything I suggested, then they would crush Sony in Generation 9.  If they only do some of the things then they'd be competitve, assuming price parity.  On the other hand if their conference mostly shows a lot of third party games and maybe just a couple of exclusives, most games don't have a soon release date, and they've got nothing at launch that can compete with Spider-Man, then Sony is going to hand their ass to them again.

In that case yeah, they need a Unreal Engine 5/Horizon 2 moment. Betting its going to be one of the most visually impressive game shown for next gen, so far.

A worthy successor to the original Banjo Kazooie and/or a great Blast Corps sequel, but I'm sure that's just a starry-eyed dream at this point.

Honestly though, matching PS5's price (probably plus a year's subscription of XBL), with an awesome looking Halo Infinite and new Forza at launch would give Sony some fierce competition in the US.

This makes my head hurt. Will never happen, Rockstar games are way too big to be money hatted. Hypothetically in some blizzaro alternate reality it would be true, they lose a lot of money from the revenue they would get from in-game purchases alone.

All of that would be great, however you'll just be matching whatever Sony did in their conference. Also don't forget Sony showed that actual console with their conference. They (Sony) played the long game and waited. It worked. D21Lewis was right tho. Xbox would have to go beyond what PS5 did for their conference for people to see that as a win over PS5. I can still see people finding fault in Xbox games just like folks now finding fault in PS5's offerings. So in the end, I'm not sure if it's anything outside of something major that Xbox could do. The price is something to think about. I bet we won't hear anything about prices from either until like September.

Still I like your suggestion. I would play KoTOR over Demon Souls. Banjo-Kazooie would have to be on the level or better with Ratchet & Clank. We already seen how marvelous the last game was. More than likely it'll be the same. Forza vs GT7 would be a hell of a dog fight. We know Forza will deliver. I mean it's easily one of the best racing sims ever. So is GT, but Forza became better than them over the years. A Gears standalone won't be enough to combat the iconic series that is Spiderman. Especially after the last game for Spidey. I would still be excited for Gears tho.

Remember GTA 4? Still I agree that NOW they won't be moneyhatted from either of them because they're trying to maximize their sales and content.

Why are we pretending that MS didn't have a next-gen centered conference? I understand that it was a disappointment, but you can't brush it off just because it was webcam quality.

GT is more of a driving sim. Forza is more of an sim/arcade racer. Not comparable really :P

Huh? Mate, have you played Forza? We're talking about Forza Motorsport here, not Forza Horizon.