Xbox at Gamescom 2023

We’re excited to meet Xbox players at gamescom in Cologne, Germany this August,  with fan experiences that are bigger and better than ever! 

It’s the fans that make gamescom the biggest gaming event in the world, and we’re thrilled to greet you this year with the largest booth we’ve ever had at gamescom. Attendees will be able to experience a huge amount of exciting new games coming to Xbox, PC and Game Pass with fantastic photo opportunities and the return of Xbox FanFest.  

If you can’t make it to Cologne this year, don’t worry. We’ll bring the Xbox booth directly to you, with deep dives, gameplay and developer interviews live streamed across three days of the show. We can’t wait! 

Keep reading for more details on everything we’re up to at gamescom 2023. 

Xbox Booth 

Did we mention that the Xbox booth is bigger than ever this year? Because it is! We’ll have over 30 titles in the booth awaiting eager players, spread across over 150 gaming stations, amazing photo ops and experiences, and a specially constructed 300-seater theatre. 

Attendees will be able to check out exclusive theatre presentations from Bethesda Game Studios’ highly anticipated Starfield, as well as upcoming Xbox Game Studios releases Forza Motorsport from the developers at Turn 10 Studios, and Ara: History Untold from the team at Oxide Games. Towerborne, the newest adventure from the developers at Stoic and unveiled at the Xbox Showcase, will be hands-on for the first time and we’ll have the latest content coming to The Elder Scrolls Online and Microsoft Flight Simulator. 

Over 25 titles from our third-party partners and ID@Xbox friends will be playable on the booth. This includes the world debuts of GSC Game World’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2, Overkill Software and Starbreeze Studios’ Payday 3, DontNod’s recently announced Jusant, FromSoftware’s ARMORED CORE VI: Fires of Rubicon, Recreate Games’ Party Animals, CD PROJEKT RED’s Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Spotlight by Quantic Dream’s Under the Waves, Sega Atlus‘ Persona 5 Tactica and many more. 

Attendees can also come and help us celebrate 10 years of ID@Xbox and experience a diverse range of ID@Xbox titles for hands-on, including Paradox’s Lamplighter’s League, Thunderful’s SteamWorld Build, Amplifier’s Lightyear Frontier, and lots more. Whatever you’re into, the Xbox booth will have something for you. For the full list of titles playable on the Xbox booth visit here.

And make sure you don’t miss out on the PC Game Pass Challenge! This adventure offers participants a fun opportunity to win thousands of exciting prizes including PC Game Pass memberships, OMEN gaming laptops, HyperX headsets, and NVIDIA GeForce NOW Ultimate memberships. Get ready to discover your next favorite PC games with PC Game Pass and reach new possibilities to game however, wherever you want.

Xbox remains committed to the belief that gaming should be safe, inclusive, and accessible for all. We’re ensuring that all areas of the booth are wheelchair accessible and Xbox Adaptive Controllers will be available on request, as well as select demo stations with adjustable height desks. We will also have multiple American Sign Language (ASL) and German Sign Language (DGS) interpreters and “Here to Help” staff to assist players of all abilities. Additionally, we’ll have sensory aids and a quiet room for anyone who needs them. 

You will be able to find us at Hall 8 of the Koelnmesse, North entrance. See below for the consumer show opening times:  

• Thursday, August 24 – 10:00am – 8:00pm CEST  
• Friday, August 25 – 10:00am – 8:00pm CEST  
• Saturday, August 26 – 9:00am – 8:00 pm CEST  
• Sunday, August 27 – 9:00am – 8:00pm CEST 

Xbox @ Gamescom 2023: Live From The Showfloor

No matter where you are in the world, we will bring gamescom 2023 to you, with three days of approx. 3 hour live streams direct from the Xbox booth.  

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, join Team Xbox and friends for a series of streams taking a deeper dive into some of the highly-anticipated games at gamescom 2023, with gameplay, developer chats and community segments to give you a flavour of the show. 

Whether you join us for every stream, or just dip in for the latest on your most anticipated titles, we’re looking forward to connecting with fans across the globe and showing off some of the amazing games coming to Xbox.  

Keep an eye on Xbox Social channels for the full content schedule in the days leading up to gamescom. 

The live English-language broadcast from Xbox’s gamescom booth will be available in German, Castilian Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish and Latin America Spanish along with ASL and English Audio Descriptions. You can catch the Xbox Booth @gamescom Live Stream on regional Xbox channels on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and elsewhere. 

Xbox FanFest @ Gamescom 2023 

Celebrate Xbox at gamescom 2023 with Xbox FanFest’s in-person and virtual experiences. Fans are invited to join the After-Hours Booth event for early access to the Xbox gamescom booth, connect with Team Xbox and fellow Xbox players, play FanFest Trivia, and more! If you’re planning on being in the Cologne area, opt in for a chance to win tickets at xbox.com/fanfest. No Purchase Necessary. Open to registered Xbox FanFest fans, 18+. Ends 8/8/23. See Official Rules for details. 

Can’t make it to gamescom? No problem! Join our virtual event on August 23^rd, 11:30am PT / 20:30 CEST at twitch.tv/xbox. Play Xbox FanFest Trivia with fans from all over the world for the chance to win awesome prizes. Learn more at xbox.com/fanfest (See Official Rules). 

Calling all game developers to devcom

This year, Xbox is a proud sponsor of devcom, the official game developer event of gamescom and Europe´s biggest game developer community-driven conference. 

If you’re a developer, stop by the Community Clubhouse - a free networking and learning hub for all those who live and breathe community and player experience. This amazing event is being hosted by Xbox, Two Hat, Keywords Studios | Helpshift, Affogata, and Odin. We’ll focus on how to successfully plan and build online game communities and explore exemplary end-to-end player experiences in games. 

Community Clubhouse event details: 

Date: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 
Duration: 8:30 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. CET 
Venue: Microsoft Office Event Space 
Location: Holzmarkt 2, 50676 Köln, Germany 

At devcom, you’ll also have plenty of opportunities to learn from experts at studios including Niantic, SEGA, Next Games, Rovio Entertainment Group, Supercell, and others on topics including Player Support & Engagement, Moderation, Community Management, Player Insights, Trust & Safety and more. Highlights include: 

• “Accelerate Your Game with the ID@Xbox Developer Acceleration Program” (Tuesday, August 22) – The ID@Xbox Developer Acceleration Program aims to empower underrepresented creators with the resources and information needed to bring their creativity, innovation, and originality to Xbox. Join Program Manager Annette Gonzalez to learn more about the program’s offerings, how to apply, and more! 

• “Pitch It!” Mixer (Tuesday, August 22 at 5PM) – Developers will have an opportunity to pitch their games to representatives from ID@Xbox and the Developer Acceleration Program. Please note that the “Pitch It!” Mixer is exclusively for developers, publishers, and investors with a business pass or above. For developers unable to attend the “Pitch it!” Mixer, please visit ID@Xbox to learn more. 

For more details and updates on our talks and events as we get closer to devcom, remember to visit the Microsoft Game Dev blog and follow the Microsoft Game Dev social channel. 

Xbox Social Media Coverage 

For all the latest updates on Xbox at gamescom this year, stay tuned to the @Xbox X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram and YouTube social channels, and the @XboxDACH Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube social channels. We’re using #Xboxgamescom as our event hashtag.  

Wherever and however you choose to join in the fun of gamescom 2023 we look forward to welcoming you to the show!  

Xbox at gamescom 2023  - Xbox Wire

TLDR

• Theatre Presentations for Starfield, Forza Motorsport, Ara: History Untold.
• Towerborne Hands-On.
• Updates to The Elder Scrolls Online and Flight Simulator.
• Stalker 2 Playable!
• Over 25 Playable Titles Including Payday 3, Jusant, Armored Core VI, Party Animals, Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty, Under the Waves, Persona 5 Tactica, etc.
• Hands-On Lamplighter League, SteamWorld Build, Lightyear Frontier, etc.
• 3 Days of 3 Hour Live Streams from Xbox Booth.

Playable Stalker 2 is very happy news.

Other than my original build being nerfed, I'm still enjoying it.  Up to level 62 Necromancer for the new season build.

I am also still enjoying the grind as I created a Rogue which is much different from my Sorc. Also around 60 with my new build and feel I probably can go tier 4 now as my Rogue damage output and survivability has outclassed my Sorc.

Also playing FIST which is a nice fun and frustrating side scroller game

^ That's pretty awesome.

I personally doubt the engine is actually a hybrid of Unreal 5 and Gamebryo, that just sounds like it would be a total disaster, trying to hybridize Gamebryo, an engine released in 1997 that was last used for a new game in 2015, with Unreal Engine 5, a modern engine. I think that what they are doing is designing the art assets such as character models, foliage, and textures in Unreal Engine 5, and then porting those new assets back into Gamebryo to replace the old assets, that way they can keep the original combat, physics, etc, but have them with graphics that look more modern. Since it's not a true hybrid engine project, I doubt that it will suffer from issues like GTA Trilogy remake. GTA Trilogy Remake was a completely different scenario, they took the original game and then ported the whole game into Unreal Engine 4, and then either AI upscaled original art assets or in some cases replaced original art assets with (often worse) art assets within Unreal Engine 4. What I think they're doing with Oblivion remaster is the opposite, they are designing the modern art assets in UE5 and then porting them backwards into Gamebryo, instead of porting the entire original game forward into a newer engine. 

As for Virtuos themselves, they do have a bit of a rough development history, but it reads like as of now at least, the plan is for a straight graphical remastering, gameplay, systems, etc. will remain untouched from the original, so they can only do but so much damage when they are pretty much only remastering the graphics and bug busting. Bethesda just needs to make sure the game is in development long enough that the bugs are squashed and that it's optimized well, don't let them rush it out before it's ready for release like Private Division allowed them to do with Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition. It's also worth noting that Virtuos is assisting Konami with Metal Gear Solid 3 remake, which so far looks fantastic:

I think that Bethesda should do the same honestly, once Starfield is shipped they should get a small team at Bethesda to assist Virtuos with development on the Oblivion remake, don't let them do it all by themselves, work on it with them so that you can keep a close eye on it and make sure it is a product worthy of the Elder Scrolls name.

Tbf...The only Unreal Engine part of MCC was the UI and character models (I believe in the customisation menus only) and they were largely praised from day one, everything else was broken but it was running on like 5-6+ different engines and some games were running on two engines at the same time with the ability to quick swap (CEA/2A).

Virtuous does not have a good track record though.