Microsoft at E3 2017
Coming into E3 2017, Microsoft knew that they had a lot to get done. After slowly releasing details on Project Scorpio and dealing with recent delays and cancellations of big games (the loss of Scalebound is still felt) the company knew that it had to reignite faith and excitement in the Xbox brand. With everyone having their heads down as they toiled away at the new hardware, games, particularly exclusives, fell to the wayside. With Sony and Nintendo shipping out blockbuster exclusive after blockbuster exclusive, Microsoft has been primarily cruising along on third-party support.
The reveal of the Xbox One X was simple yet direct. It was made clear exactly what it is and what it does. If you were in the market for a powerful video game console, then this is a more than viable option thanks to its ability to play all the games you already own on a standard Xbox One (or One S), use all the same accessories, and even upgrade old experiences with better resolutions and framerates. However, outside of telling us that (which was definitely welcome information), the company struggled a bit to actually sell it, this is in large part due to how they presented games during the show.
Microsoft had an impressive 40+ games take to the stage, 22 of which had some form of exclusivity. Yet, and this is certainly an odd thing to say, it felt like too much. When trying to sell new hardware, a focus is required, a slow down that allows devs and other speakers to really dig into the games on the screen, giving everyone watching a reason to pull out their credit cards. It didn’t help that the 22 exclusives weren’t exactly clear either. There were “launch” and “console” exclusives, “timed” exclusives, and “Windows 10” exclusives. It left question marks over the bigger games like Forza 7 and Crackdown 3, since they’re also available for PC. If someone has an Xbox One and a PC, there’s really no reason to invest in an Xbox One X.
All of this created a sort of dual message that didn’t exactly mesh. It was proof that the Xbox One ecosystem has games, a lot of them, something that has been an issue for the past year or so. And that was grear, but when you look back at the focus – introducing and selling the Xbox One X – it was a missed opportunity. Honestly, this is something that should’ve been broken into more than one event, sort of like how Sony did with the PS4 Pro and PSVR. Extended explanations of what everyone can expect from the hardware, so that games can do the heavy lifting later on.
Of course, we’re not saying that Microsoft’s showing was completely unimpressive or anything like that. It was good to see that there are some big exclusives coming soon and some serious third-party support thanks to the advent of the Xbox One X. Overall, it was a good showing, it was just shy of the greatness that it needed to have.
