5 Xbox One Announcements That Make It a Must Own in 2019

Halo Infinite

Going into E3 this year, there was a clear question that Microsoft needed to answer: Where are the exclusives? While Nintendo and Sony have been knocking it out of the park with their first-party blockbusters, Microsoft has been waning a little, with mediocre scores for Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2, numerous delays, and even a cancelation (RIP Scalebound).

So Microsoft came out all-guns-blazing from the very off, kicking its show off with a quick tease of Halo Infinite. Now, granted, we currently don’t have a release date for the game, but we’d hedge our bets that it’ll release towards the end of 2019, or sometime in 2020. And even if it doesn’t release next year, you’ll still have plenty of other stuff to get your hyped while you wait, and at least you’ll be all set to dive into the action come release day.

If there was one announcement that shows Microsoft means business going forward, it was certainly the appearance of Master Chief.

Game Pass Improvements

Xbox Game Pass is a pretty neat idea. For the price of $9.99 a month, you get access to a library of over 100 Xbox One and Xbox 360 games to download and play at your leisure. It’s essentially Netflix but for video games, only on Xbox One. And while yet another subscription service may not be all that appealing to some, what Microsoft touted regarding improvements for Game Pass certainly make it a more enticing service.

First and foremost was the announcement of some pretty major third-party Xbox One titles hitting the service. Fallout 4, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Tom Clancy’s The Division, and The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited are all available to play right now and signpost Microsoft’s commitment to providing a comprehensive service for its players. There’s literally hundreds of hours of content in just those four games, and if Microsoft continues to bring major third-party titles to the service, its value for money will only continue to get better and better for us players.

It’s not just great new games that Microsoft announced for Game Pass, though. It’s improving the tech that’s running it all, too. FastStart was announced for Game Pass, which, according to Xbox Game Pass Head of Engineering, Ashley Speicher, allows players to begin playing games from the service twice as fast as currently possible. The tech is being rolled out for some games later this month, but its full release has yet to be seen.

Still, with Microsoft spending time and effort to make sure that Xbox Game Pass has great games and is a fantastic user experience, by 2019, this could be offering an unparalleled level of value for money.

New First-Party Studios

Continuing to address the ‘exclusives issue’ on Xbox One, Microsoft opted to put its money where its mouth was and announced that it had purchased five game studios and welcomed them into the Microsoft Studios family. Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Undead Labs, and Compulsion Games have all been acquired in order to bolster Microsoft’s group of first-party studios and hopefully flesh out the number of Xbox One exclusives we see each year.

Microsoft also announced that an entirely new, California-based studio was being set up and headed by Darrel Gallagher, who was previously studio head at Crystal Dynamics. The studio, called The Initiative aims to “create groundbreaking new game experiences,” though we’re yet to find out exactly what they’re working on.

Again, Microsoft was clearly investing in 2019 and beyond. We’re unlikely to see any brand-new unannounced games from any of these developers release this year on Xbox One, but they’re certainly exciting additions to the Microsoft Studios family all the same.

Crackdown 3

Despite initially being announced back in 2014, Crackdown 3 was once again on Microsoft’s stage at E3 this year. The first thing you’ll no doubt notice when checking out its E3 2018 trailer is the voice of Terry Crews, who has now seemingly assumed the role of Crackdown 3’s protagonist… or some badass who likes to blow everything up in the game, at least. Accompanying Crews’ commentary was a ton of explosions, superhero leaps from the top of 60-story high buildings, and of course, a visually striking world.

As one of the Xbox One’s exclusives that was supposed to have released for the past few years now, we’re pretty confident the February 2019 release window should finally see the game on store shelves. With the beginning of the year now becoming just as busy as the end in terms of video game releases, having Crackdown 3 to kick things off on Xbox One in 2019 is certainly a promising sign for the rest of the year.

Gears 5

While Halo’s sci-fi shooting action is arguably Xbox’s headline franchise, Gears of War doesn’t sit too far behind it. And so, with Halo Infinite leading us into Microsoft’s conference, it seemed apt that Gears of War 5 took up the rear in order to ensure things went out with a bang (though Cyberpunk 2077’s trailer did a pretty great job of that, too).

When it comes to exclusives, though, Gears and Halo sit pretty at the top of the list of the very best on Xbox One. Rather than following a Fenix this time, the main focus of Gears 5’s story is on Kait as she travels across a range of different environments and lands. And thanks to this, the trailer also showcased a more vibrant color palette than the usual drab grays that make up many previous entries in the series. The icing on the cake? A 2019 release window.

Hopefully, this isn’t an Xbox One exclusive that’ll slide out of 2019 into 2020, and as one of the most thrilling and interesting third-person shooters out there, it sure makes Microsoft’s console look that much more exciting next year.