Here’s all the big news from the Xbox Games Showcase and Starfield Direct

A round-up of the headlines from Sunday’s presentations

Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase and Bethesda’s Starfield Direct were held on Sunday.

The presentations, which can be rewatched in full below, generated plenty of headlines across their combined runtime of almost two hours.

The Xbox Games Showcase featured several new title announcements, plus updates on previously revealed games including fresh details, trailers and release windows.

It also included the reveal of new hardware, with Microsoft announcing plans to release a black version of the Xbox Series S with increased storage.

Starfield Direct featured plenty of new gameplay as the heads of multiple Bethesda departments showcased its character creation, combat, galaxy exploration and more.

Three editions of the game were also announced, two of which include its first story expansion and early access to the title.

Starfield Constellation Edition (Xbox Series X/S)

£249.99

$299.99$337

$299.99

Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition – Windows Digital Code

£34.99

$52.79

Starfield Constellation Edition (PC)

£249.99

$299.89

$299.99

Xbox Series X Digital

Xbox Series X

Xbox Series S – 512GB

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Dying Meme says:
11th June 2023 at 7:33 pm
Going by just the main showcase itself without the Starfield Direct, solid 7/10. Probably the best Xbox Showcase they’ve done this generation and far better paced than last year’s. I think my one sticking point continues to be that for how much they promised and emphasized the lack of CG/cinematic trailers at the show, a lot of stuff they did show were “in-engine” which is basically a cinematic trailer just rendered in real time as opposed to pre-rendered. I was also kind of disappointed we didn’t see that much in terms of gameplay from most of first-party outside Avowed and Forza, since Hellblade was basically a cutscene with some minor gameplay from a splice of the actual story, and that Compulsion game they showed with the stop-motion as well as Fable were both in-engine trailers not representative of actual gameplay, which I was especially irked by with the Compulsion game because I typically can’t stand when they announce new IPs without gameplay to give me a sense of what to expect. That Clockwork Revolution conceptually looks really cool, but that’s also mainly because it reminded me almost to the point of infringing on BioShock Infinite. I’m going to need to see more of what that game is going to do differently even if I’m usually down with what inXile does.
Atlus definitely stood out though. I’m so glad that Project Re:Fantasy re-reveal didn’t leak out like the Persona announcements because I had a genuine first reaction to it and was left really blown away with how much work they had done in those 6 years since they last talked about it. The U.I. and battle system look immaculate.
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Xenu says:
12th June 2023 at 6:33 am
The Xbox showcase was very well received. Microsoft really turned the tables around. Lots of first-party stuff, new announcements & so many Atlus projects!
Only 35% of the games release on other platforms than Xbox or PC. Sony’s showcase was 75% multiplatform.
In Geoff Keighley’s poll a whopping 53% give the Xbox Showcase an A. Only 18% gave it a C or D.
PlayStation’s showcase was only 14% A but 54% gave it a C or D.
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