This year’s Xbox E3 briefing went off without a hitch and was a brilliant spectacle to witness live and in person. Hosted by Xbox head, Phil Spencer, the briefing kicked off with the unveiling of the Xbox One X, previously known as Project Scorpio, the world’s most powerful console with true 4K, compatibility, and is the smallest console in the Xbox family.
The Xbox One X is set to release on November 7th for $499 USD and includes the following standout features:
- True 4K
- 8+ million pixels
- HDR
- Wide colour gamut
- Premium Dolby Atmos sound
- 4K UHD Blu-Ray playback
All original Xbox One games and accessories will be compatible with the Xbox One X with Xbox exclusive titles and some third party games getting free 4K updates, including:
- Gears of War 4
- Forza Horizon 3
- Killer Instinct
- Halo Wars 2
- Minecraft
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
- Rocket League
After a fantastic reveal of the stylish Xbox One X console, the briefing delved straight into premieres and first looks at 42 different titles, 22 of which are Xbox console exclusive.
A list of the games coming exclusively to the Xbox One family are:
- Forza Motorsport 7, releasing in October, which was announced along with a brand new Porsche GT11, which was unveiled for the first time and exclusively for the Xbox E3 briefing;
- Metro Exodus – set to release in 2018;
- Player Unknown Battlegrounds, currently the most popular streaming title;
- State of Decay 2 – set to release in 2018;
- Crackdown 3, which releases in November;
- Super Lucky’s Tale, releasing in November, a rather cute and colourful game that could be said to be a spiritual successor to Crash Bandicoot, Banjo Kazooie and Super Mario 64;
- Sea of Thieves, a multiplayer pirate game;
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps, which will be a Windows exclusive; and
- A whole heap of ID @ Xbox titles.
That was not all. Xbox also announced that after learning that over half the users of Xbox One were making use of their backwards compatibility programme, they have decided to add a selection of original Xbox games to the programme.
And finally, the briefing was closed out with a more in depth glimpse of Bioware’s newest IP, Anthem, which looks pretty darned good. This could be Bioware’s answer to Destiny.
For the first official conference at E3 2017, we’re off to a pretty good start. Xbox certainly surprised and delighted.