XBOX E3 Expo 2019 Highlights

Xbox recently held their E3 2019 press conference. There was quite a bit included throughout with there being new games, release dates, Double Fine joining Xbox Game Studios, Xbox Game Pass for PC, xCloud, and information about Project Scarlett (the next Xbox console). So let’s go ahead and dive into the good stuff. You can watch the full briefing below if you want to spend 1 hour and 40 minutes of your life on that.

Games

There were a lot of games shown off and announced. Some of the highlights for me included LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Psychonaughts 2, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, and Phantasy Star Online 2. Here’s the full list of games featured in the briefing. Keep in mind that these are not all new games, but may feature games coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC:

• Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

• Batman: Arkham Knight

• Battletoads

• Blair Witch

• Blazing Chrome

• Bleeding Edge

• Borderlands 2: Commander Lilith & The Fight For Sanctuary

• Borderlands 3

  • Releases on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on September 12, 2019.

• Borderlands: The Handsome Collection

• Creature in the Well

• Cross Code

• CrossfireX

  • First Crossfire entry on consoles and in the West.

  • According to ScreenRant, the game will “be getting a single-player campaign, battle royale, and exclusive content for Game Pass subscribers when it arrives stateside.”

  • Releases on Xbox One in 2020.

• Cyberpunk 2077

  • Keanu Reeves shocked everyone with his appearance for this game.

  • Releases on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on April 16, 2020.

• Dead Static Drive

• Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

• Dying Light 2

• Elden Ring

• Felix the Reaper

• Football Manager 2019

• Forza Horizon 4: LEGO Speed Champions

  • Next expansion for Forza Horizon 4

  • Releases on June 13, 2019.

• Gears of War 5

• Gears Pop!

• Halo Infinite

  • This was the crowning glory of the show at the very end.

  • The game will be a launch title for Scarlett and brings Martin O’Donnell back for the musical score

  • Releases at Holiday 2020

• Halo Kart Racing

• Halo: Master Chief Collection

• Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition

• Ikenfell

• Imperator: Rome

• Killer Queen Black

• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

  • New LEGO Star Wars game that covers all 9 core Star Wars films.

  • Releases on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC in 2020.

• Leisure Suit Larry: Conjugal Visit

• Lord of the Rings Living Card Game

• Marcus Fenix Files His Taxes

• Metro Exodus

• Microsoft Flight Simulator

• Minecraft Dungeons

  • A dungeon crawler in the Minecraft universe

  • Releasing on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC in spring 2020.

• Ori and the Will of the Wisps

  • Follow-up to Ori and the Blind Forest

  • This game looks beautiful.

  • Releases on Xbox One and PC sometime 2019.

• Pathologic 2

• Phantasy Star Online 2

  • This SEGA title is finally coming to North America and I’m stoked! I remember playing the first one on Gamecube with my friends and it was a lot of fun.

  • Releases on Xbox One in 2020.

• Psychonauts 2

• Riverbond

• RPG Time: The Legend of Wright

• Sea of Thieves

• Secret Neighbor

• Spiritfarer

• Star Renegades

• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

  • Releases on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on November 15, 2019.

• State of Decay 2: Heartland

• Supermarket Shriek

• Tales of Arise

• The Good Life

• The Outer Worlds

• Totally Accurate Battle Simulator

• Totem Teller

• Twelve Minutes

• Undermine

• Unto the End

• Wasteland 3

• Way to the Woods

• Yu-Gi-Oh!: Shadow Realm Simulator

Xbox Game Pass for PC and Ultimate

PC gamers can now subscribe to Xbox Game Pass for PC ($1 for the first month if you hurry, and it’s still in beta) so you can get instant access to over 100 games. You can find a full list of compatible games on Microsoft’s website, but some highlights include Hollow Knight and Halo: Master Chief Collection (when each of those games launches). Xbox Game Pass for PC will normally run $4.99 during the beta before a price hike to $10 a month..

If you have an Xbox and PC for gaming, you can also get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate which offers Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Game Pass for PC, and Xbox Live Gold. This bundle will run about $15 per month. Not bad if you already get those things separately.

Elite Controller Series 2

I’ve never understood the appeal of these Elite controllers for Xbox, but I’m also not a hardcore gamer, nor a professional gamer. If you’re one of those though, you’ll probably want to check out the new elite controller for Xbox One that can have up to 3 profiles saved. You can also adjust the tension of the thumbsticks.

xCloud

I felt like this was passed over way to quickly. All we learned was that people at the conference would get to try it, you could turn your Xbox One at home into a personal xCloud server, and it’s coming in October.

Project Scarlett

I’ve been thinking of picking up an Xbox One recently, but this E3 convinced me to not do that because of Project Scarlett. You see, the number one selling point in my opinion to people like me who didn’t get an Xbox One is that the next Xbox console will feature backwards compatibility for three generations. That is all previous Xbox consoles. That will let me get rid of my old Xbox and Xbox 360 and free up some space which I always love doing.

If that doesn’t have you sold quite yet, Project Scarlett is also boasting super powerful performance with a processing power 4x more powerful than the Xbox. Combine it with the GDDR6 RAM and new SSD for a new machine being touted as 40x more powerful than the current generation of consoles. Can we get a remaster of Mass Effect with a faster elevator on the Citadel? Xbox is claiming 120 frames per second too for fluid gameplay. There’s a lot more technical speak too including the ability to use ray-tracing.

Also, if you like physical media, don’t fret yet. In an interview with Eurogamer, it was confirmed that there would be an optical drive.

Project Scarlett will launch Holiday (October-December) 2020.