Xbox E3 2016 Press Conference: All the Announcements

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Microsoft took the spotlight for the Xbox media briefing at E3 2016 Monday morning. While some of the company’s announcements were leaked early, like the new slim model of the Xbox One, they still had plenty of surprises for the assembled press and fans.

The Xbox One S was announced first, coming in August for $299.

Rod Ferguson was next with Gears of War 4, which will be one of the first games in the new Xbox Play Anywhere, program: one purchase lets you play on Xbox One or Windows 10 PC, with progress and achievements on both platforms. Every co-op mode in the game will play crossplay between both platforms, as well.

Laura Bailey, the voice of Kate in the game, took the stage for a live gameplay demo. She kicked a healthy amount of butt, making her way through a massive storm, and a lot of gunfire. A new catapult was shown off, and through some teamwork was used as a mortar. A new weapon can be jammed into an enemy, lift them up, then shoot them – it drew an impressive reaction from the crowd.

When your teammate AI identifies a sniper, they’re then tagged on the screen for you. Another new weapon, launching bouncing buzzsaw blades was shown off. The game hits October 11, 2016, and a new branded Xbox Elite controller for the game will also be released.

Killer Instinct was next, with a special new character: Gears of War‘s General Raam is joining the fight! He’s coming THIS WEEK and is free to play this week as well.

Another Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusive was shown next, with a trailer that showed the Australian outback. It’s a new Forza.

Forza Horizon 3 was announced, and Ralph Fulton from Playground games came out on stage. The game is indeed located in Australia. They did a live gameplay demo, with four players, two playing in 4K on Windows 10, and two playing on Xbox One S in HDR.

“It’s the most fun open world we’ve ever built.” There are new vehicle types, and the largest car roster ever in a Forza Horizon game. Co-Op, with one button live joining was added into the game for the sequel, and we saw a Lambourghini racing a dune buggy racing a monster truck, because why not. Forza Horizon 3 hits September 27, 2016, and is another Play Anywhere game.

Another trailer started, in stark black and white. Joule, the “fearless leader” was introduced, and it went full color. Next was Mack, “explorer,” a robot dog. It’s a third-person action shooter, it looks like? Seth, escape artist (another robot turret spider thing?), Duncan, heavy hitter (also robot, gorilla style) were also introduced. This is ReCore, another play anywhere title.

Final Fantasy XV was next, showing a demo of “The Trial of Titan.” The demo introduced the new “fast and fluid battle system” of the game.

The demo starts with the player character getting nearly crushed by a massive titan’s fist. as he tries to hold out against the Titan, he also has smaller enemies to deal with. His friends/party members show up to back him up. He then switches between them, attacking the Titan’s arm in live tandem. When one of them casts Blizzara, they all do, and a real-time press of B cuts the frozen arm off. September 30, 2016 for Final Fantasy XV.

The Division was next, with new updates including randomly generated missions, new dungeons, and a trailer that says “The Fight Never Ends.” The first DLC pack will hit Xbox One first, on June 28.

Battlefield 1 was next, and will come to Xbox One first with EA Access, a few days before its full multiplatform release on October 21. EA Access subscribers get it October 13 instead.

A trailer featuring dogfighting, tanks, and even machine gun fire from a motorcycle was shown. A zeppelin crashing to the ground on fire, mortars – it’s the same trailer form Sunday’s EA press conference.

Mike Ybarra from Xbox Live was next on stage. Xbox One is adding Background music, language region independence, and Cortana this summer. Clubs on Xbox Live was the next announcement, a social network made just for Xbox, where you can create groups with shared interests.

Looking for Group for Xbox Live will help you find people to play with.

Finally, Arena on Xbox Live is a new tournament platform for competitive gaming on the platform.

Minecraft was next, showing off play on Xbox, Gear VR, and iPad all at the same time. “It’s the first step in our journey to unite Minecraft players on all platforms.” Texture packs are launching today for the game to “let players make anything in Minecraft.” New add ons are coming this fall as well, with full mod ability. They showed new aliens that they modded with add-ons, did battle, and fought off the invasion. “It’s the first step for a fully moddable future for Minecraft.” Minecraft Realms the cross-platform mode is available now.

New Xbox One controllers, fully customizable, will be available for order. You choose the colors of the main controller, the thumbsticks and buttons. “8 million ways to make it yours.” Xbox Design Lab.

A trailer started up “from the creators of Limbo. It showed a stark office-like environment – Inside, coming June 29. Chris Charlo from ID@Xbox took the stage to talk about the game. To celebrate the launch, Limbo is free to all Xbox One players starting today.

A sizzle reel of indie games coming this year was shown, with a huge variety of game types, from platformers to shooters to space combat.

Ark becomes an Xbox Play Anywhere game this fall, and anyone who already owns it on Xbox One can play it on Windows 10 when Play Anywhere launches.

Another indie game, coming to Xbox Game Preview next month, We Happy Few was next up with a live gameplay demo. A man sits at a “Redactor” machine in the 60s. He has a bit of an episode, hallucinating. A woman in a mask comes in; the pill he threw away is “joy” and when she takes it, she smiles creepily. As the player character walks along, he sees someone in a room inject a child with something, more joy it seems. “It’s never too late to have a happy past,” a sign says. You go into a party, where there’s a pinata – but when you hit it, it’s actually a dead animal. The others realize you’re off your Joy pills and start to chase and attack. It’s coming July 26 – creepy and awesome looking.

CD Projekt RED was next with the official announcement of Gwent, the card game from The Witcher 3 being released on its own. The developer got thousands of requests for it to be a standalone. Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is a full-blown multiplayer experience crossplay on PC and consoles, coming first to Xbox One and Windows 10. A gameplay demonstration was shown, and it’s the popular game from The Witcher 3 in full. There are some new cards, and your favorites from before. Closed Beta coming September 2016, go to PlayGwent.com to register for the beta.

Bandai Namco was next. Akuma from Street Fighter is joining the Tekken family. A brutal trailer shows him using all his big moves against Heihachi, and it goes directly into gameplay. When a player is charging a super move, you can interrupt it with a well timed combo. This is Tekken 7, coming Early 2017. The trailer demonstrated the new story mode that cuts between cutscenes and gameplay. A free copy of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is available for Live Gold members this week via backwards compatibility!

Dead Rising 4 was announced via a trailer that featured more insane weapons, including armor and a flamethrowing triceratops head. Frank is back, and it’s apparently Christmas time in the game. Coming Holiday 2016 to Xbox One and Windows 10.

Microsoft Studios, who has already released 13 titles for the Xbox One, was next. All their future games are Xbox Play Anywhere compatible. Save a game on your console, pick it up on your Windows 10 PC. Scalebound was spotlighted by Hideki Kamiya, game director. The player controls a human, but has a dragon backing him up. You can mount the dragon, and play co-op with other dragon riders. unique attacks are available when riding, naturally.

As they fought a giant spider-monster, combo moves where your dragon can launch you to hard-to-reach spots were shown off.

Next up was the pirate themed game Sea of Thieves from Rare. Craig Duncan, studio head, took the stage to talk about the game announced a year ago. “In Sea of Thieves you’ll embark on adventures with your friends.” You’ll play in the open world as a pirate, with co-op, PvE and PvP play. A gameplay video was shown, with real Rare fans being thrown into the game without any tutorials.

They were put into three crews, and just started exploring. One of the crews got drunk (in the game). The crews encountered each other, and had an epic sea battle. “Uhhhh… we’re sinking” happened at one point, yeah, they lost their ship. Looked like a blast and got a lot of applause.

Another trailer started, it’s a zombie game of some sort? After driving through and killing several with a car, three people get out to journey together. A camp was shown, growing. “Nobody survives alone.” State of Decay 2 is the game, coming next year.

Halo Wars 2 was up next, with a cinematic trailer featuring an old general walking through a warzone. Vehicles from both sides, and an enemy general walks through from the other side. ODST drops in, directly into enemy vehicles. The two generals meet face to face on the battlefield, as their armies clash into each other. “Know your enemy.”

Dan Ayoub, studio head of 343 Industries came on stage to talk about the game. “The crew awake to find themselves orbiting an ancient station called the Arc.” The new villain is Atriok, a brilliant general. The game (play anywhere, naturally) comes February 21, 2017. A week-long beta launches on Xbox One right now.

A gameplay trailer for Halo Wars 2 was shown, showing off new units and bigger armies than in the first. The Beta is live June 13 – June 20.

Phil Spencer came back on stage to close out the conference, saying freedom and choice are the major goals for the Xbox team now. The next step is true 4K gaming and high-fidelity VR.

A video aired, featuring Xbox team members talking about another Xbox One. It has 6 teraflops of power, “the highest res, the best framerate, no compromises.” Yes, it’s full 4K gaming. Developers also talked about the console, and said they were very impressed by the specs. They reassured that Xbox One games and accessories work on this console. 8 GPU cores in this “monster”. It’s called Project Scorpio, coming Holiday 2017. Xbox One, Xbox One S, Project Scorpio are all cross compatible, with all games and accessories working on all of them. A mic-dropper for the end of the conference.