With the unveiling of two new editions of Xbox One and the return of several flagship franchises, Xbox delivered a solid press conference at E3 2106.
The show opened with the reveal of the Xbox One S, a new white version of the console that is 40 percent smaller than the original.
They also closed out the conference by announcing Project Scorpio, another new type of Xbox One that will be “the most powerful console ever built.” With a 6 teraflop GPU, Project Scorpio will offer top-notch visuals on 4K screens when it comes out late 2017.
Our first game preview was an electrifying video for Gears of War 4. The demo featured the franchise’s trademark cover-based combat as a group of COG soldiers fought off alien Locusts. The newest installment in the Epic Games series will be out on October 11th.
Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft’s Xbox division, added that the new Gears of War will be one of numerous upcoming games that will feature Xbox Play Anywhere. This new cross-platform initiative will allow any copy of a game with Play Anywhere support to work on both Xbox One and Windows 10 PC.
Forza Horizon 3 was also introduced as an Xbox One and Windows PC exclusive. Set in Australia, the realistic racing game will allow players to seamlessly join their friends in co-op.
Square Enix Director Hajime Tabata took to the stage to show off the “fast and fluid” combat of Final Fantasy XV. Set to a fantastic musical score, the player character faced off with a colossal Titan in a live gameplay segment.
The press conference had plenty of news for fighting game fans. A trailer for Tekken 7 revealed the game will roll out for Xbox One early next year. We were also told that Killer Instinct Season 3 will add a new playable character, General Raam from Gears of War, to its roster of fighters this March.
A new trailer for Battlefield 1 gave us a glimpse into the various forms of combat in The Great War, including aerial dogfights and tank battles. For EA Access users, DICE’s latest game will be available for Xbox One on October 13th, nine days before it arrives on PS4.
Among other games featured at the show were real-time strategy game Halo Wars 2 and sci-fi platformer ReCore. There was also Gwent, a spinoff of a skill-based card game from the Witcher series, and Rare’s Sea of Thieves, a colorful, cooperative ship battle game in the vein of Guns of Icarus.
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