[dropcap]M[/dropcap]icrosoft kicked off their E3 presence today with a 2-hour conference showing off games coming to the Xbox One in the next couple of years. The Xbox E3 2017 Briefing was a never-ending flow of trailers and gameplay. Although it ended after a little less than two hours, so you know…

Despite that, they actually chose to start by revealing Project Scorpio properly. It’s actually called the Xbox One X and it’ll be dropping in stores on November 7th for $499. It’s capable of playing games in 4K resolution and the console itself is Microsoft’s smallest one yet. Aside from that, they also announced the Xbox One S will be available for $249 next week. Finally, Microsoft also explained that their backwards compatibility service would be expanding. Now we’ll be able to play games from the original Xbox on the Xbox One, as well.

GAMES, GAMES, GAMES!

After revealing the Xbox One X, Microsoft starting talking games, and this took up almost the entire conference. Phil Spencer took great pride in telling us that we’d see 42 games in total and that’s exactly what we saw. Some got more attention than others, but there was plenty to see, complete with availability details and release dates.

Forza Motorsport 7

To kick it off, Microsoft explained their partnership with Porsche and revealed a new game and a new car. Forza Motorsport 7 is your racing simulator complete with weather conditions, tons of tracks, and sweet car details. The game looks great and it’ll be exclusive to Xbox One, launching on October 3rd.

Trailers Round 1

Next, they showed a lineup of game trailers with the occasional developer delivering a few words. This kicked off with Metro Exodus, a post-apocalyptic nuclear fallout fantasy coming out in 2018. Assassin’s Creed Origins went next, taking place in Egypt and depicting the very beginning of the Assassin’s Brotherhood. AC Origins will launch on October 27th.

The next group was totally rapid fire:

• Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds — A massive multiplayer last-man-standing shooter. 100 player enter; only one leaves. It’s a timed exclusive, launching late this year.
• Deep Rock Galactic — This looks like Team Fortress with dwarves. It’s exclusive to Xbox One, but no launch window was given.
• State of Decay 2 — Zombie Apocolypse, a small team focusing on surviving and rebuilding. We’ve been here before. Comes out Spring 2018.
• The Darwin Project — More last-man-standing combat. They dressed this one up like an e-sport. It looks a bit like Overwatch, though. Exclusive to Xbox One, but no release date

Minecraft

Minecraft is getting two updates, this year. This Summer, they’ll be adding a community market and crossplay. Now you can play on the same servers with Switch, mobile, Xbox One, PC, or whatever you want. In the Fall, they’ll add a graphics pack and 4K resolution.

Trailers Round 2

• Dragonball Fighter Z — Want an anime fighter featuring Dragonball Z characters? Well, now you’ve got it! Again! Coming early next year.
• Black Desert — An Xbox One exclusive MMORPG that’s coming early, next year.
• The Last Night — This is a super artsy game made by Raw Fury. This will launch on Xbox One first, but we weren’t given a date.
• The Artful Escape — So is he imagining all of this, ooooor…? Launching on the X1, first. “Coming when it’s damn well ready.”
• Code Vein — Looks like Dark Souls with a few extra heaping helpings of anime. It’s coming next year.

Sea of Thieves

Rareware has been working on a little open world (open seas?) MMO featuring pirates. They had a fun little gameplay demo up with some humorous banter that made the preview a little more fun. We got to see the crew tracking down treasure in a sunken ship and on a far away island. They were heading back to a market to cash it in but got ambushed by another crew. The game looks fun, but we’ll need to see more genuine gameplay to be sure. The narrator even made jokes about it being scripted.

Trailers Round 3

• Tacoma — Launching first on Xbox One. It’s kinda like Gone Home, but on a space station. Coming August 2nd.
• Super Lucky’s Tale — Conker, what have they done to you?! Oh, wait. You’re not Conker. Colorful 3D Platformer? Check. Coming out November 7th.
• Cuphead — Is it still a boss rush game? Don’t know. Looks nifty. We have an article on that. Releasing exclusively on Xbox One on September 29th.
• Crackdown 3 — It’s like Saints Row started trying to direct players more. Exclusive X1 release on November 7th.

ID@XBOX

Yup! Microsoft showed off their indie support again. Most of these aren’t exclusive. We can’t tell if any of them are, actually. We’ll just list those quickly, below:

• Osiris: New Dawn
• Raiders of the Broken Planet
• Unruly Heroes
• Path of Exile
• Battlerite
• Surviving Mars
• Fable Fortune
• >OBSERVER_
• Robocraft Infinity
• Dunk Lords
• Minion Masters
• Brawlout
• Ooblets
• Dark and Light
• Strange Brigade
• Riverbond
• Hello Neighbor
• Shift
• Conan Exiles

The Home Stretch

Microsoft was finally winding down after taking extensively about three games, going through three rounds of rapid-fire trailers, and giving us an indie sizzle reel showing off another 19 titles coming to Xbox One. They still had some news up their sleeve, though. The final act began with a trailer for Ashen, which looks like Dark Souls tried to go dressed in Overwatch’s art style. It’s exclusive, but there’s no release date.

Then we got a trailer for Life Is Strange: Before the Storm. Episode 1 of this will be available on August 31st. Then they talked about the sequel to Shadows of Mordor, Shadows of War. This Lord of the Rings game will allow you to not only forge a unique story like its predecessor but will also let you take orcs into your own army. The gameplay looks sick, but the banter may have been a little TOO clean. We can only hope it’s like that in the actual game, which launches on October 10th.

There was a gentle moment for the next trailer. The composer played the trailer music live on a piano. That’s how we were introduced to and moved by Ori and the Will of the Wisps. There was no gameplay, no launch window, or even anything regarding availability. We know nothing about the game, but a new Ori game can’t be a bad thing, can it?

Anthem

Now for the moment that EA’s audience has been on the edge of their seat for since yesterday. Anthem got a beautiful gameplay trailer. Bioware’s new IP plays much like we expected. It’s reminiscent of Mass Effect, but the focus seems to be on exploring and taking on missions in multiplayer. It feels a bit like an answer to Destiny in some ways, but we won’t likely see this game until after E3 2018.

Xbox E3 2017 Briefing Final Thoughts

This morning’s presentation was fast paced and exciting. New games came after new games and release dates were on a good chunk of it. Microsoft made a strong case for the Xbox One, today. However, they failed to interest anyone that doesn’t have a 4K television in the Xbox One X. At least, it seems that way to us.

The Xbox E3 2017 Briefing delivered most on games. A whopping 42 titles were shown that would be coming to Microsoft’s console. We’re especially excited for Sea of Thieves, Super Lucky’s Tale, Cuphead, Shadows of War, and Ori. Let us know what you think in the comments, or if you haven’t watched it yet, check the video below for the Xbox E3 2017 Briefing. (The show starts at about 34:20 in the video below.)