So good to see people are very happy about the showcase! I don't know why it felt a bit lukewarm for me and I was certain there would be another round of doom & gloom lol.

Probably it was the lack of gameplay and all those japanese titles. Atlus games releasing on Xbox is good I suppose, but it's boring waste of showcase space. Hellblade & Forza presentation felt particularly pointless without gameplay.

It was great to see Fable but I'm not sure how I feel about it. Gave me too much Hogwarts Legacy vibes and the humour fell flat and didn't have the same unique charm. Visually it was beautiful.

South of Midnight is an interesting one. Compulsion have an eye for artstyle & design and this was no exeption. Loved the guitar music and characters look nice. Hopefully they'll nail gameplay this time too.

Steampunk stuff is always welcome and when it's rpg by inExile you simply can't be anything but hyped. Clockwork Revolution was one of the highlights for me.

More to follow..

It's a bit doom and gloom for me, but that's purely because people here convinced me I'd see some Jet Set Radio. I literally hold no expectations for any events these days. but Jet Set Radio is the one game that could get my attention. So my only dream was crushed.

Overall the event was very solid. Most importantly they did a proper deep dive into their most important game of the generation so far. Wouldn't say I'm 100% sold on Starfield just yet, but they certainly did their best to sell it. My most anticipated game is probably Avowed but that still doesn't have a release date, which gives me a feeling it could even drop into late 2024.

Just for me personally with no Jet Set Radio and still ambiguity about Final Fantasy's future on Xbox, can only say I was slightly nudged towards Series X over a PS5, but still waiting to be properly sold on next-gen.

Edit: It's probably more correct to say Starfield hasn't 100% sold me on Series X; if I had a Series X I'd probably already want to play it. I'm just waiting to see if it's the game that makes me want to buy a new system. I can't help but hold reservations in case the game collapses under the weight of it's own ambition.

It was good in my opinion but not great.

Not enough 3rd party GamePass announcements (especially ones that can be downloaded right now.) I fully expected to see Cyberpunk on GamePass after the DLC trailer but that didn't happen.

No Gears and no Halo

No bigger surprise announcement (See above or FH6 or Wolfenstein 3 or Banjo or whatever)

The Xbox Showcase was shorter than I expected. Around 65 minutes if I recall correctly. Considering we knew the full length of both shows, the length of the Starfield Direct took me by surprise.

On the plus side, Fable looked amazing, Avowed a little different than expected but great nonetheless, Clockwork Revolution is now one of the games I look forward to the most.

7.5/10

Playground tend to reveal Forza Horizon in the year of release, so that'll either be 2024 or 2025, I think there's a chance we could see a slightly longer development time for Forza Horizon 6 as a few from the Forza Horizon team move over to Fable/have moved over to Fable, Forza Horizon will also have another new director (Forza Horizon 5 had a different director from FH1-FH4 too and that was moved into a 3 year cycle).

It might be time to add something new to Forza Horizon but I don't know what, but maybe the new director will want to try something different, I absolutely love Forza Horizon series but it is mostly the same amazing foundation but in a different setting so they could shake things up a little, add bikes? Lol. Maybe a deeper story?

Wolfenstein 3 is obviously dead or rebooted, those Linkedin profiles throw me off but MachineGames is a very small studio (150ish) and their focus now and the past couple years is very obviously Indiana Jones which is very early in development, the announcement was clearly a recruitment tool. So surely if Wolfenstein 3 was in development, it would have released by now?

I think it was rebooted.

But yeah, I think a Banjo would have been possible or something, a little nostalgia injection announcement, InXile was an awesome surprise announcement but it's a new IP so it can't be a nostalgia hit I think it was missing something like that, a Killer Instinct, a Killer Instinct would have put it at a 9/10 for me, Lol.

Not much Microsoft HASN'T revived lately though.

No Halo isn't really surprising aside from the Battle Royale, they already revealed everything about Season 4 a couple weeks ago, they've also said they aren't doing roadmaps anymore, I also think 343 may be in the doghouse a little. No Gears is a bit surprising, I guess those Gears Collection rumours were bullshit after all.

I wasn't expecting a Gears 6 announcement but an early in-engine look would have been hype to see the Unreal Engine Gods at work.

But hey, Xbox is finally moving away from Halo/Gears/Forza, Lol. Sure Fable is there but the IP has been dead for over 10 years, and Forza was there but only a little, this showcase showed that Xbox can finally stop relying on Halo/Gears/Forza and the breadth of variety they have now which is a good thing in my eyes.

Recently I responded to someone saying Game Pass caused an issue of Japanese developers skipping the platform unless they get a Game Pass cheque. Even Atlus is releasing titles on Xbox now, day one, without a Game Pass cheque, fucking Atlus!

I understand Phil's frustration with Square Enix, cause c'mon man, Lmao. Clearly it's mostly Square who is the one waiting for a Game Pass cheque whilst many other Japanese developers are actually trying.

SMT will be next I think and I'd be surprised if Persona 6 was exclusive now.

Disappointed in no Jet Set Radio reveal but I'm sure it's coming in time, probably just needs a little longer to cook.

The Starfield 30fps stuff is tedious and I think there is a lot of faux outrage, or people upset who don’t know a lot about Bethesda games. Fallout 4 is not able to maintain a locked 60fps on the PS5 or Series X, except in very sparsely populated areas. And that game came out in 2015. To this day I believe the Skyrim anniversary edition is the only Bethesda RPG on console that has an officially supported 60fps mode, and even that game has drops.


If you want 60 FPS in a Bethesda RPG, you need a PC with an absolutely top tier CPU, and it’s always been this way. There are just too many physics, lighting, and AI interactions in the engine, vastly more than most other games.

Can't wait to explore Fairfax Castle again but show me Oakvale!

Got to say, the lighting in Starfield is downright stunning in certain areas.

FWIW: Flight Simulator 2024 is a Sequel.

Will Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 be a completely standalone sequel, or will it also be offered as a paid update for existing players? 

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is a standalone simulator and the next-generation sequel to Microsoft Flight Simulator that launched in 2020. Current aircraft and airports that are in Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020), as well as virtually all Marketplace add-ons, will be supported in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

What kind of support can Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) players expect to see once Flight Simulator 2024 has been released? 

We will continue to deliver our Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) Roadmap which has content ranging from Aircraft and Avionics Updates, Sim Updates, City and World Updates, and also the free Dune DLC. We will continue to support Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) post the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launch.

Will all purchases users have made from the Marketplace be transferrable to the new simulator?

With very few exceptions, virtually all add-ons that work in Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) today will function in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Add-ons that were purchased from the in-simulator Marketplace will not need to be re-purchased in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 FAQ - Microsoft Flight Simulator

So 2024 is now Flight Simulator 2024, Avowed, Hellblade II and Towerborne.

Geoff Keighley's Polls

Xbox showcase

A - 53.2%
B - 28.8%
C - 10.4%
D - 7.5%

124,034 votes

Game Fest

A - 17.5%
B - 36.8%
C - 27.8%
D - 17.9%

140,469 votes

PlayStation showcase

A - 14.4%
B - 30.8%
C - 33.5%
D - 21.4%

158,602 votes