September gonna be a great month for Xbox and Game Pass.

Of course, Starfield hitting it off followed by some great GP day one releases of Payday 3 and Lies of P.

DeepL Translated.

Phil Spencer: The relationship with Japanese manufacturers that Sarah Bond is developing is extremely important to us. We have very good relationships with the manufacturers we have announced, but there are still some that we would like to do better, but not enough. Overall, I think our relationships with Japanese manufacturers are improving.

I have a lot of friends at Square Enix, but I think we can evolve that relationship further, and we will continue to work hard because there are a lot of Xbox users who want Square Enix titles.

In fact, four years ago, Atlas had nothing like the relationship it has today. This time, they were able to present not only "Persona" but also new works like "Metaphor: Refantaggio". I believe that we can do something similar with Square Enix.

--Even after our interview at TGS last year, the number of Xbox users in Japan continues to increase. What are your thoughts on this point?

Phil Spencer: It's a lovely situation. More importantly, we need to increase support for game developers in Japan. We will create an environment where Japanese creators can more easily make Xbox games. We will sell them on the global Microsoft Store. We will also bring first-time Japanese titles such as Capcom's "Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess" to the Xbox. Last year at TGS, Sara Bond and I went to Japan to communicate with various manufacturers, and we will definitely go again this year to make them understand the importance of the Japanese market to us.

Can we expect any new announcements at the Tokyo Game Show?

Phil Spencer: We have not yet decided what we will announce at TGS. We hope to go, and if we do, we hope to announce new games that the Japanese gaming community will enjoy.

【インタビュー】Microsoft Gaming CEO フィル・スペンサー氏インタビュー - GAME Watch (impress.co.jp)

Didn't watch Ubisoft's showcase, I completely forgot about it.

But watching the stuff on Youtube, I'm looking forward to Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin's Creed Mirage and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

2023 Showcase review (Part 1)

So, showcase game by game as promised.

Fable - haven't played a single game in the series and not gonna play this one either. Gameplay wasn't shown which is a bit disappointing but anyway, as I see from the reactions in Xbox community it was a great choice to start the show with.

South of Midnight - another CGI trailer for a game that is not coming out until 2025 most likely. Don't really personally care about it, because just like with Fable, haven't played anything from Compulsion.

Star Wars - Outlaws - the worst one in entire show. Xbox, please don't waste showcase time on Ubisoft ever again. I love the original Star Wars trilogy, but Ubisoft being a developer behind a game is a huge red flag for me.

33 Immortals - this game looks interesting, has nice art style, even though I'm not sure how it will be playable with this 33 coop players feature. Might give it a try if I don't forget about it by the time it comes out and will not have anything more interesting to play.

Payday 3 - don't care about this franchise tbh. Another weak game in the showcase IMO.

Persona 3 Reload - day one for sure. Persona 3 is the best Persona game, so it's nice to see it being refreshed for modern platforms. The only downside though is that once the rumours have started to circulate around this remake, I feared that Atlus will change way too much and spoil this brilliant game, like Square Enix did with FF7. But turns out, that it's quite the opposite, and they are playing super safe to the point that it probably might be a 1:1 recreation of original game on Unreal Engine. A bit of missed opportunity as the game would benefit from certain gameplay reworks. They could have done something with Tartarus but it looks like they didn't. 

Avowed - this is the game that has certainly grown on me during this trailer. I wasn't interested when it was first shown, but now I might give it a try.

Sea of Thieves - Monkey Island DLC - I understand that SoT is a very popular game, even though I can't care any less about it, but I think DLC stuff can be announced with simple social media posts and not waste showcase time. 

Flight Simulator 2024 - a lot of improvements over 2020 it seems. Makes me think that it might be PC only, but who knows. 2020 didn't run too well on consoles. Probably not gonna play it, as 2 hours in 2020 was enough for me.

Flight Simulator - Dune - same as with SoT, but I love Dune movie, so I'll give this DLC stuff inclusion a pass this time

Hellblade 2 - I loved the first one and it was one of the very few announced XGS games I plan to play at some point. Graphics captured on Series X looked good, but still no gameplay is a bummer. This game will make a reappearance next year I guess though, so there is still time for gameplay footage.

Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth - happy for all Yakuza fans. This is a franchise that I really wish I would like, but I couldn't get into it after few attempts unfortunately. Great announcement anyway

Fallout 76 - Atlantic City - see SoT comment.

Path of the Goddess - something new from Capcom with an interesting setting. Doesn't look like it's an AAA game, so it's nice to see Capcom trying to make smaller titles.

Forza Motorsport - looked absolutely amazing, too bad auto simulators ain't my thing.

Elder Scroll Online Necrom - same as SoT and Fallout 76

Overwatch 2 - Invasion Update - same as SoT, F76 and ESO

Persona 5 Tactica - getting a bit sick of Atlus milking Persona 5 tbh. But the fact that it's a strategy game in Persona 5 world, makes it day one.

Starfield - just like with Fable. Never played BGS games and zero interest in this one, but looking at the reception, everyone is impressed with how good it is. Hopefully BGS and Xbox deliver and the game will be super successful huge Xbox title for this year.

Jusant - I think I missed the second part of this trailer, but nothing that caught my interest. Average indie game

Still Wakes Deep - more or less the same as Jusant. Not memorable game from the show.

Dungeons of Hinterberg - love the games with such style. Might give it a try in the same circumstances as 33 Immortals.

Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty - I liked CP2077, it was bashed online totally undeserved. Will play this DLC for sure, maybe not at launch though. Bringing back Keanu Reeves once again was a good move as well.

Cities Skylines 2 - the game looked good for what it is, but I never played these type of games.

Metaphor: ReFantazio - the best announcement of the show as stated earlier. After years of silence about Project Re:Fantasy, never could have imagined that it will be officially unveiled at Xbox show. Looking through the trailer, everything screams like it will be another Atlus masterpiece. Nice to see that it is still based on the core turn-based SMT style mechanics. Calendar system and bonds from Persona are here as well. This is definitely the most wanted game for me from now on and nothing will probably top it by far. P.S. It's also great to see that this trailer is one of the most watched from all the games shown at the showcase. The game gets attention it deserves.

Towerborne - also was quite unmemorable unfortunately.

Clockwork Revolution - the moment I saw this game, I thought that it was Bioshock Infinite 2 or something like that. Looks promising, but we probably won't see it until 2025 as well.

2023 Showcase review (Part 2)

Brief summary:

Tier 1 absolutely must-play day one games for me: Metaphor: ReFantazio, Persona 5 Tactica, Persona 3 Reload

Tier 2 games with high probability that I'm gonna play, but maybe not day one: Hellblade 2, Path of the Goddess, Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty

Tier 3 games, I'm interested in, but might skip: 33 Immortals, Avowed, Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, Clockwork Revolution, Dungeons of Hinterberg

Tier 4 games, that I'm probably gonna just try in GamePass for a couple of evenings: Flight Simulator 2024, Forza Motorsport

The showcase goods:

- As you can see, not that many games from the total count I'm super interested in. But that's actually a great thing about this show. I'm not an egoistic person, so I clearly understand that I can't expect the showcase to just meet my taste and nothing else. Would be silly to expect that. Nice to see Xbox diversifying their lineup and bringing something for everyone. I think the diversification of lineup was great in this showcase. Well, someone probably could have wanted to see a "Sony game" from Xbox but it wasn't shown.

- The pacing was great and focus on the quality instead of quantity.

- Almost all the games shown are coming to GamePass, which is a good thing I guess.

The showcase negatives:

- The run time as mentioned before. It would actually be fine if we have another showcase of this scale around the end of the year, but I doubt it.

- Ubisoft being present at the show as mentioned in Part 1

- DLC and GaaS stuff that should be left out for social media announcements

- (Personal) - Nice to see that Xbox and Atlus are being this close that Atlus has 3 games at Xbox showcase, but the fact that there haven't been other JRPG developers besides SEGA present is a bit worrying.

- (Personal) - No SMT this year. I guess we ain't getting the main line SMT games after all. (At least not until next year). It's a bit worrying because I'm starting to think that team Xbox only cares about Persona franchise as it's popular and highly demanded. So, there won't be a push like that for SMT games and they will never come to Xbox maybe. Yes, SMT V is still might be tied to Nintendo by exclusivity contract, but SMT Nocturne HD should be an easy port as it's on everything by Xbox already. I get that these games are super hard and sometimes jokingly get called "Dark Souls of JRPG" for a good reason, so the player base might not be there for these games on Xbox. But still, I wanna believe. Team Xbox, please make it happen.

P.S. Though a bit about upping the score to 8/10 simply based on how good Metaphor: ReFantazio is, but I'll keep it a 7.5/10, so that to keep Team Xbox focused on improving. If they can delivery another showcase like this, I'll give them 8 next time.

It'll come if it doesn't have Nintendo exclusivity. Sega and Microsoft up each other's asses lately.

Xbox has got far more obscure Japanese titles to Game Pass than SMT.

Just focusing on Persona first cause it's bigger and Atlus is slow.

Sega hooked on Game Pass like a drug and long ass RPGs for Game Pass makes sense too, even if played by few.

Confirmed

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday applied for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction seeking to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard before the deal's July 18 deadline.

CNBC reported on the FTC's plans earlier in the day.

FTC Files to Block Microsoft-Activision Blizzard Deal

The filing asks the US District Court for the Northern District of California for a temporary restraining order that could keep the companies from consummating the acquisition while the FTC's in-house court is deliberating on the deal.

FTC to Seek Federal Court Order Temporarily Blocking Microsoft-Activision Deal | CNN Business

There's a real chance that it may go to the same judge who keeps smacking down the Gamers Lawsuit.

Docs Posted: gov.uscourts.cand.413969.1.0.pdf (courtlistener.com)