The Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase was good, but not perfect
Written by Michel Musters op Monday 13 June 2022 17:00
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The Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase aired last night. Microsoft decided to do something unheard of: all games that were shown will be released – barring any possible delay – within a year. Something gamers should be delighted with, but of course it turned out slightly differently.
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People who play games and follow the game industry closely – let’s call them ‘gamers’ for convenience, since that’s the name of this website – are strange creatures. We want everything and we always know how to express it perfectly in words, especially after a press conference or livestream from a major publisher. Not only we as editors, but also you as visitors always have your own opinion ready about what went well during a press conference or what could be improved. And that’s fine; nothing is more fun than conclave about our greatest passion.
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One of the most common complaints after a random press conference or livestream of one of the big three is that many of the games shown are still taking so long. Often only a CGI trailer is shown without gameplay, or if you are unlucky only a logo. Somehow that makes sense, because there is often nothing to show; that’s how early the project in question was revealed. But it does put a damper on an otherwise exciting announcement.
All three current console farmers are guilty of this from time to time. For example, Nintendo showed a tasty logo of Metroid Prime 4 a few years ago and we all know how that ended: development restarted and we still haven’t seen anything of the game. Sony usually shows some images of a game when it is announced – even if it is sometimes an estimate of the end result rather than actual gameplay – but certainly previous generations also had a hand in revealing games years before release. Think of The Last Guardian and Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which took years to come.
Microsoft even seems to have a patent for it in recent years. After relying almost entirely on third party games at the start of the Xbox One generation and then turning things around a few years later, the company is busy putting together an impressive lineup of developers. But of course it takes years to develop games and Microsoft wants to show something in the meantime. So in recent press conferences we have been able to ‘enjoy’ logos and brief teasers from games like State of Decay 3, Fable, Avowed, Perfect Dark and Everwild. None of those games were shown at the Games Showcase yesterday, by the way. That speaks volumes about the chance we’ll be able to play them soon: there isn’t one.
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That does not alter the fact that Microsoft’s reform is slowly but surely starting to bear fruit. An excellent opportunity for the company to insist on this with the playful idea of only showing games that will appear in the next twelve months. When Microsoft explained that at the beginning of the Showcase, I could already see Phil Spencer sitting in the conference room when he proposed this idea, grinning broadly and daydreaming about the reaction of gamers. “You did it, Spencer, old giant! You made our dream come true!” Loud cheers follow.
There was certainly enough foundation to sustain that tactic, because – along with the lineups of third parties and independent studios – there is plenty on the calendar. Because it was about games that will all be released soon, an enormous amount of gameplay was also shown in an hour and a half; another spearhead of demanding gamers. To top it off, there was a lot of variation in graphics and graphic styles, where Xbox used to be criticized for its gray uniformity. So the company ticked off three important boxes. Check, check and check again. And the world saw that it was good.
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Oh no, not. Starfield may be promising in its scale, the colors off The Last Case of Benedict Fox in Redfall may splash off the screen and Pentiment may well be an ultimate experiment by Obsidian; it’s not fast enough for demanding gamers. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is food for a very specific target group, Forza Motorsport looks mega-impressive and Diablo 4 and the free-to-play Overwatch 2 give us some confidence in Blizzard again, but again, it’s not good enough for demanding gamers. Hideo Kojima is working on an Xbox gamebut all details are still missing. Hollow Knight Silksong Coming To Xbox And Game Pass, but where is that release date? We want more!
Is it due to the insatiable thirst of gamers that the opinions about the Games Showcase are not entirely positive after all? Of course not, after all, it should never be the fault of the consumer. Despite Microsoft making an impressive effort, more balance would have helped the show. The mid-section of the presentation relied too much on indie games that slowly melted together due to their unorthodox appearance. And with that rule to only show games that come out within 12 months, Microsoft cut itself a little bit. First trailers of previously announced games like Fable, Perfect Dark, Avowed or Hellblade 2 completed the picture.
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Still, the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase was not a bad presentation. The variety of different types of games ensures that there was something delicious for almost everyone. In any case, as a Game Pass subscriber you are in the right place, because just about all games that passed by during the presentation appear on the service immediately upon release. For the first time in a long time, we can’t complain about the fact that Microsoft has announced a pack of new titles that are still many years away. That at least ensures that we have refreshing new food for what we as gamers excel at: complaining together.
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