Let’s Rank Microsoft’s E3 Press Conferences This Generation From Worst to First

6. E3 2013

Let’s just get this out of the way. E3 2013 was never going to be great, but not for lack of trying. The show took place less than a month after their not-so-great (and that’s putting it nicely) Xbox One announcement. Not only did this announcement rub many fans the wrong way by focusing on almost everything but games, it was also dragged through the ditches of the Xbox’s biggest competition, the PS4, in a simple, but extremely effective, video showcasing the power of physically sharing video games. Fans would need months to forgive Microsoft, but with E3 happening less than a month after the announcement, that wasn’t possible.

It wouldn’t matter anyway because right at the start of their conference, Microsoft seemingly shot themself in the foot once more.

“The Xbox One will launch in November for $499.” Sigh. Sony would take the ground once more following this announcement by announcing that their competitor system, the PS4, would launch for $399.

What followed this price announcement was a pretty decent attempt at salvaging what goodwill Microsoft had left, but it wouldn’t be enough. A new Halo was announced among other large announcements, but the thing most will remember from this conference was the stale taste in their mouth courtesy of an expensive price tag on a system of which the announcement was pretty disappointing. 

5. E3 2016

From this point on, it was somewhat tough determining where each conference falls when compared to each other, and that’s a good thing. Why? Other than their 2013 E3 conference, Microsoft has been on the upturn, both in public perception and announcements overall. During their 2016 E3 press conference, Microsoft announced the Xbox One S for $299, effectively making their console $100 cheaper than their competition. This system also included a 4k blu-ray player, something the PS4 Pro is missing. Following that announcement, Microsoft teased Project Scorpio with a flashy, hype trailer. Scorpio would go on to become the Xbox One X, which still serves as the most powerful home console on the market today.

To accompany those announcements, Microsoft did what they do better than any other company that has a showcase at E3: games, games, games. This isn’t to say that Microsoft has better games–that’s up to you–but it’s to say that where other conferences have 5, 10, 15 video game announcements, Microsoft has 40. These announcements aren’t always giant–sometimes they’re a character reveal for Killer Instinct–but sometimes they are. Regardless, Microsoft’s conferences are filled with information about a multitude of games. In 2016, Gears of War 4, Sea of Thieves, Scalebound (rip), Recore, Final Fantasy XV, Dead Rising 4, Forza Horizon 3 and more took to the stage, leaving Xbox fans with no question as to what they could be playing in the months to come. It’s unlikely that each of these games and their showcase on the Microsoft stage had you excited, but just by the sheer number of games detailed, you were bound to have some announcement to revel in.

4. E3 2014

As previously mentioned, Microsoft’s rise up to the frontrunners of E3 began the year following their not-so-great 2013. If you watched the company’s 2018 E3 conference, you know that they showed off nearly 50 games. It wasn’t always like that for Xbox, though. The confident and proud company you saw on stage this year began, or rather, reincarnated in 2014.

Microsoft’s 2014 E3 was truly a turn for the company. 

This conference began with an explosive trailer for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and only slowed down occasionally. Following the announcement that Advanced Warfare would get DLC content first on Xbox (the last time this would happen as PlayStation would gain the rights to this in the years to come), Phil Spencer, with the help of others, detailed Forza 5, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Evolve, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Sunset Overdrive, Dead Rising 3, Fable Legends, Ori and the Blind Forest and yep, The Master Chief Collection.

Do you remember where you were the day this collection was announced?

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2, remade from the ground up, Halo 3 and Halo 4. Furthermore, each of these would come in 1080p, 60fps, with dedicated servers and 4000 gamerscore, all on one disc. Despite your feelings on the collection today, this announcement was incredible. The conference didn’t stop there, though. A Halo 5 beta was announced to be coming later that year, Inside was announced with Xbox One exclusivity, The Witcher 3 received a demo on stage, Rise of the Tomb Raider was announced and more.

3. E3 2018

Simply put, this year’s E3 conference from Microsoft was the culmination of what Phil Spencer has been trying to do since he became the head of Xbox: sell the system. If you haven’t picked one up yet, it might be for a number of reasons, but you can’t say because of a lack of games. Sure, maybe their first-party exclusives don’t appeal to you, but with the Xbox One X, it’s easy to declare Xbox a great place to play third-party games.

With that being said, Microsoft continued their pursuit of games, games, games this year with nearly 50 video game announcements, reveals, detailings and more: Battlefield V, Black Desert, Crackdown 3, Cuphead DLC, Cyberpunk 2077, Devil May Cry 5, Dying Light 2, Fallout 76, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Gears Tactics, Halo Infinite, Jump Force, Just Cause 4, and should I keep going? I will: Kingdom Hearts 3, Metro Exodus, Nier: Automata Becomes As Gods Edition, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, PUBG, Sea of Thieves, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Session, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition and yes, somehow even more.

Like I said, games, games and games.

2. E3 2017

In 2016, Microsoft teased a new console known as Project Scorpio. Microsoft began their 2017 conference with a bang by announcing that Project Scorpio was the Xbox One X and that it was coming that year with a price tag of $499. To accompany this announcement, Microsoft detailed quite a few games with special Xbox One X enhancements, namely 4k and HDR support. Exclusively, Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, Killer Instinct, Halo Wars 2 and Minecraft would be getting X enhancements. In terms of third parties, over 30 games were announced to be getting Xbox One X enhancements.

After all of the Xbox One X talk, Phil Spencer and Microsoft continued their tradition of, in some combination, showing off, announcing, revealing and detailing more games than any other stage show. Some of these games were Anthem, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Black Desert Online, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Forza Motorsport 7, Cuphead, Tacoma, State of Decay 2 and of course, the behemoth that is PUBG.

As if all of this wasn’t enough, Phil Spencer announced that original Xbox games would be coming to the Xbox One via Backwards Compatibility. The Backwards Compatibility for 360 games announcement in 2016 was huge and certainly plenty enough. Xbox took it a step further and added original Xbox games to the mix making BC a service that simply could not be passed up. And, if you owned the game, its BC capabilities were free.

1. E3 2015

It will be tough for Microsoft to ever top their 2015 E3 conference. Simply put, it was one of the best E3 stage shows in the expo’s existence. Let’s jump right into it.

The 2015 Microsoft E3 conference takes the cake as the company’s best E3 conference this generation for two reasons. First, is something that Xbox has been doing since 2014: games, games, games. As is usual these days, Microsoft’s conference was filled with so many video games announcements. The first of those was arguably the biggest, at least for Xbox fans.

Not only was the newest Halo multiplayer experience shown off, but a demo showcasing one of Halo 5: Guardian’s levels was shown. This demo would showcase information about Spartan Locke and why he was hunting Master Chief, new alien variants, new weapons and more. After that, Warzone, the newest Halo multiplayer mode was revealed and it was a first for the series. Warzone, which today is still popular, was announced as a massive multiplayer mode that mixed competing players and neutral AI that targeted any and all enemies.

Following those details, Phil Spencer did as Phil Spencer does and showcased the following: ReCore, Fallout 4, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, Forza Motorsport 6, Dark Souls 3, The Division, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Gigantic, Cuphead, Tacoma, Ashenn, Rare Replay and more.

Why stop at Xbox One games, though? During this same conference, Phil Spencer proudly announced that the Xbox One would be receiving Xbox 360 backwards compatibility.

Boom. Heads exploded.

Remember that video PS4 released showing how easy it was to share games on their system, in contrast to Microsoft’s Xbox One game-sharing dismay? The announcement of backwards compatibility was their counter to that. One of the PS4’s biggest problems is its lack of true backwards compatibility. Sure, there’s PlayStation Now, but that costs money and only allows you to play games via streaming. Fans have been asking for true BC in some capacity since the PS4’s announcement, but still today, those requests haven’t been answered. The Xbox backwards compatibility not only immediately placed hundreds of 360 games on the Xbox Marketplace for cheap purchase, with the promise of plenty more to to come, but it also allowed you to download the game in its entirety.

While the sheer amount of games that got some presence during the show and the announcement of backwards compatibility were certainly enough to call this conference Microsoft’s best, the show didn’t’ stop there. Microsoft also announced the Elite Controller, a $150 controller that is more premium and more customizable than any other Xbox One controller. It sold like hot cakes on day one and still does today.