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Xbox Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase on June 12 at 10 am PT, 6 pm BST [Update: Xbox Games Showcase Extended at 10AM PT, 6PM BST]

Reader mode
I like the show. 7.5/10

A lot of the big guns seem to be 2023 games, but there is plenty that interest me for the rest of the year. Thanks Gamepass!
 
The thing with the Xbox conference is that I felt it didn’t do much to attract people that aren’t already part of the Xbox echo system. A lot of the games were the usual ‘Xbox crowd’ style of game and those that weren’t are going to be or are already on other systems.

Of the big three console makers they lag behind Nintendo and Sony in terms of sales but they aren’t doing much to pull people in from those crowds. I’ve yet to get a PS5 but I think Gamepass is great and I’m waiting for Microsoft to show me games that aren’t just their usual template so to speak. Something like Banjo would really have appealed to the Nintendo side of me. Then I would have liked the better single player action adventure games akin to TLoU, GoW, Spider-Man.
 
Overall, I say it every year, but man MS’s lineup is just not for me. A few games being the exception (and those are mostly multiplatform anyway), I just walk away unimpressed. Like I like Prey for example, but Redfall did nothing for me. Scorn is just eh, I’m not a Forza player, Starfield despite its cool idea of exploring a galaxy looks incredibly dull (aka, like any Bethesda game essentially) and it’s every year the same song and dance with Phil: “hey guys we really like Japanese games too, here’s some games” which is great, but those games (the Kojima collab excluded) will be playable on other platforms anyway.

6/10
 
Sadist said:
Overall, I say it every year, but man MS’s lineup is just not for me. A few games being the exception (and those are mostly multiplatform anyway), I just walk away unimpressed. Like I like Prey for example, but Redfall did nothing for me. Scorn is just eh, I’m not a Forza player, Starfield despite its cool idea of exploring a galaxy looks incredibly dull (aka, like any Bethesda game essentially) and it’s every year the same song and dance with Phil: “hey guys we really like Japanese games too, here’s some games” which is great, but those games (the Kojima collab excluded) will be playable on other platforms anyway.

6/10
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The Koei Tecmo game isn’t confirmed to be releasing on PS5 (or Switch even if that isnt expected)
 
Blue Monty said:
The Koei Tecmo game isn’t confirmed to be releasing on PS5 (or Switch even if that isnt expected)
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That’s just one game in the end

I mean, I know a lot of people are super excited for MS their stuff, that Gamepass is thriving and more, but you know, I just can’t help but be underwhelmed.
 
I suppose I’ll be the one to get the claws out - I thought it was incredibly boring.

Stuffed to the brim with games you can play elsewhere, too few genuine exclusives, terrible pacing and no cohesion.

There’s serving up variety to hit as many people as possible, then there’s just throwing a bunch of trailers together to inflate the length of your show.

I’d argue the Xbox audience has little to no interest in most of these games, but ‘free games’ are hard to scoff at.

MS want to be the Netflix of gaming - and more power to them - but they’ve lost their edge for me.

There was a rebellious spirit to the original Xbox and early 360 years, now the brand feels very corporate and vapid.

Nearly everything was 2023 and some of the showcases just left me so cold.

I miss the days when a game from MS had a really distinct personality, now they barely release anything at all.

Every year is a ‘win for GamePass’ but no year has enticed me to jump in.

I usually buy and enjoy every machine, but I feel like MS have done nothing for me for close to a decade.

Though I’m also humble enough to admit that could have more to do with me than what they’re doing.
 
Blue Monty said:
The Koei Tecmo game isn’t confirmed to be releasing on PS5 (or Switch even if that isnt expected)
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This is really weird, no platform confirmation except Minecraft Legends and Cocoon. As of now, with exception of these two, all the new third party announcements in the show are Xbox (timed) exclusive. We're still waiting for some clarity. Especially for High on Life.

There's not even a word on A Plague's Tale Requiem is still coming to Switch via cloud...
 
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the silksong trailer is by far the highest viewed trailer of the night on the xbox channel

screenshot2022-06-13o3kxs.jpeg

screenshot2022-06-13b2jd7.jpeg
 
I thought it was a great showing and I loved how they capped it at next 12 months. Really promising future for the platform.

Starfield looked fantastic. Absolutely met my expectations
 
Blue Monty said:
The Koei Tecmo game isn’t confirmed to be releasing on PS5 (or Switch even if that isnt expected)
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I got the sense from how Phil described the relationship with KT that it was an MS funded thing a la Bayonetta 2, but nobody really knows.

As for other stuff I gotta say Pentiment really caught my eye. I blew threw The Name of the Rose last fall and this game is giving off strong Umberto Eco vibes.
 
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CM132 said:
Starfield is impressive. It could be my favorite game ever.
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Right? I’m so shocked that the feedback has been anything less than amazement.

How it all fits together as a game is an unknown, but everything they showed is a substantial leap over their previous efforts. It’s fundamentally still ‘Skyrim in space’ I’m sure, but the visuals, scope and mechanics go well beyond that. I’m afraid of just how many games I might ignore getting lost in this one
 
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Yeaj those bethesda games seem like they still share that rough fallout engine dna. If you were not with xbox already i dont think this will change your mind quite frankly.
 
Maxrunner said:
Yeaj those bethesda games seem like they still share that rough fallout engine dna. If you were not with xbox already i dont think this will change your mind quite frankly.
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That was the thing for me in the event , the event is great for people already on the Gamepass/Xbox ecosystem or that they are already interested on it but for people outside of it I think it felt like more of the same even if the variety is bigger than before thanks to even more indies on GP. I will still play FM7 tho
 
Blue Monty said:
That was the thing for me in the event , the event is great for people already on the Gamepass/Xbox ecosystem or that they are already interested on it but for people outside of it I think it felt like more of the same even if the variety is bigger than before thanks to even more indies on GP. I will still play FM7 tho
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Silksong announcement was really suprising considering that their main sales on console side rests with switch and that Atlus announcement just keep showing Nitnendo struggles with Third parties. They keep getting screwed....
 
I got caught up with an excellent 20 minute highlight video from Engadget. I’ll be honest, there’s a ton here that looks cool, but I don’t think there’s actually a lot that I would play. But there still was enough there that I’d call the show a success. Forza, Silksong, and Starfield are enough to win me over.
 
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I thought the presentation was great and showed a decent amount of variety.

I see a lot of people complaining that Microsoft still hasn't sold them on an Xbox and can't help but think that these people are missing the point. Microsoft is prioritizing their marketing around gamepass, not Xbox hardware, and I think they're doing a great job at demonstrating the value of the service. Sure, plenty of the games shown can be played elsewhere, but on other platforms, most of those game must be purchased individually in order to play them, and most consumers don't have the means to own all of them.

For me personally, I have become interested in a lot of games I would have otherwise overlooked since I subscribed to gamepass, which is exactly what Microsoft wants. Between my Switch, my PC, and gamepass, I don't really see the need to own another current gen console, which is why I sold my PS5 and do not own an Xbox console.

People talk about Microsoft needing to differentiate itself from Sony, but in my opinion, they have already done that and it's Sony who needs to come up with a better value proposition if they want to retain and grow their userbase.
 
It was fine, but I really regret watching the whole thing instead of just looking at a summary. There were definitely some cool games shown, but most of the stuff doesn't align with my taste, and even the games I was interested in aren't really that hype for me. There was also the Persona announcement which should have been really exciting, but Atlus being Atlus kind of soured it for me. My main takeaway was that the stuff I most want to see from a Microsoft presentation just isn't ready to be shown yet, so it was just an okayish presentation for me.
 
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Herb Alpert said:
It was a far more interesting showing than the Playstation one, wasn't it ?
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In my opinion yes. I didn't even think the State of Play was all that great.

I notice that with a lot of these presentations, when games from popular franchises get announced, they're given a lot of weight in terms of how exciting/noteworthy people perceive them to be. For me though, what's most important is how many of the games I can see myself playing and enjoying, regardless of popularity. I also like to see variety, both in aesthetics and gameplay genres. Based on that criteria, I thought Microsoft had the better presentation, regardless of how many "big announcements" were or weren't made.
 
Maxrunner said:
Silksong announcement was really suprising considering that their main sales on console side rests with switch and that Atlus announcement just keep showing Nitnendo struggles with Third parties. They keep getting screwed....
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It feels a bit premature to say that with how far out the releases are
 
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Mr.Fletcher said:
I suppose I’ll be the one to get the claws out - I thought it was incredibly boring.

Stuffed to the brim with games you can play elsewhere, too few genuine exclusives, terrible pacing and no cohesion.

There’s serving up variety to hit as many people as possible, then there’s just throwing a bunch of trailers together to inflate the length of your show.

I’d argue the Xbox audience has little to no interest in most of these games, but ‘free games’ are hard to scoff at.

MS want to be the Netflix of gaming - and more power to them - but they’ve lost their edge for me.

There was a rebellious spirit to the original Xbox and early 360 years, now the brand feels very corporate and vapid.

Nearly everything was 2023 and some of the showcases just left me so cold.

I miss the days when a game from MS had a really distinct personality, now they barely release anything at all.

Every year is a ‘win for GamePass’ but no year has enticed me to jump in.

I usually buy and enjoy every machine, but I feel like MS have done nothing for me for close to a decade.

Though I’m also humble enough to admit that could have more to do with me than what they’re doing.
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You summed up my feelings 100%. I love my 360, still have my original 360. My favorite system and era in gaming. Since then I have moved on to PlayStation and PC. I keep thinking Xbox is going to pull out all these bangers that they used to during the 360 days. And the continue to disappoint. And the games that do interest me, are going to be multi-platform. The vast majority of the games today just looked like your standard cookie cutter games.
 
Josh5890 said:
I like the show. 7.5/10

A lot of the big guns seem to be 2023 games, but there is plenty that interest me for the rest of the year. Thanks Gamepass!
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I say its an 8 for me simply because of the team ninja game and starfield. A persona 3 port is also good if it ends up on steam ill buy it for sure. Wish it was FES though
 
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Finally got to watch the presentation and, well, it’s alright. I’m still not buying an Xbox or getting Gamepass.

  • Redfall seems like it’ll be like Deathloop in that the trailers actively make me yawn but I’ll absolutely love playing the game because it’s freaking Arkane, man.
  • Am I the only one disappointed that the High on Life was a shooter? The dream is something like West of Loathing or a top down Zelda-like with Rick and Morty-esque trappings.
  • Silksong and Persona are huge wins for GP. Now put Persona on Steam too please
  • I really need to play Forza Horizon 5, the Hot Wheels stuff looks great. Same for Grounded, I’m a huge fan of seeing the world from a miniature perspective.
  • Scorn heard gamers liked gore and decided to deliver by the boatload. Definitely a rental type of game.
  • Minecraft Legends might be fun? Not into building stuff block by block but I like commanding those critters.
  • Farming game but in a mecha suit?! That’s cool. But what does it do for the gameplay? Seems like the same old gather-and-craft stuff to me.
  • Benedict Fox, I want to take your case.
  • Pentiment is probably my pick for Game of the Showcase. Look at that magnificent hodgepodge of random shit.
  • The shadow mechanic in the Ereban game looks neat. Especially liked how you had to make your path through the fan shadows. Just wish the aesthetic was more my jam.
  • Necromancer in Diablo IV!!! Honestly hype. But I will stick to Torchlight until Acti-Blizz gets its shit together.
  • Ravenlok has a great graphical style, but the movement seems a tad stiff, and save for one the monsters have rather boring designs.
  • They really had Kojima just announce he was making a game. And that’s it. No theme, plot, mechanic, nothing. And I thought logo-only reveals were bad.
  • Yep, Starfield is prettier space Skyrim. And honestly, that’s all it needs to be. Will be fun to muck around with it for a few hours. Then dive into the sweet, sweet mods.
 
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I thought it was okay? There's just not much that lines up with my general gaming habits coming out of Microsoft right now.
  • Arkane making a co-op, class-based, loot shooter bums me the hell out honestly. I'm not the biggest fan of their games but I always loved to see them make games that nobody really makes anymore.

  • Silksong is great, can't wait, but showing a trailer still without a date seemed a little whatever.

  • Screw Blizzard and screw Riot so neither of those parts did much for me either.

  • More survival-craft games that is not really my speed either.

  • Starfield looked disappointingly familiar, and the promise of "1000 planets" turns me away more than it excites me. There's no way there's 1000 planets all with authored and interesting content to do.
And no updates on all the games that were announced years ago? Not trying to say the show wasn't stuffed but it feels like it's been so long since Awoved, Hellblade or Fable got an update.

To try and not sound like such a grouch I will say the variety on display is great. If you're already loving what Xbox is putting out this seems like one hell of a show. Most of it just doesn't line up with my tastes anymore.
 
DoofTroop said:
And no updates on all the games that were announced years ago? Not trying to say the show wasn't stuffed but it feels like it's been so long since Awoved, Hellblade or Fable got an update.
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That's definitely my main takeaway from the showcase. The showcase itself was decent enough, plenty of fun stuff to check out, and a wide variety of it at that. If you primarily play through Game Pass, you'll probably come away from this showcase pretty happy.

But for people on the outside who are waiting to get hooked into the Xbox ecosystem? This is yet another year where the brunt of XGS's output is absent, with only Turn 10 and Mojang making an appearance. Avowed, Hellblade II, Fable, Perfect Dark, Everwild, State of Decay 3, The Outer Worlds 2, and Contraband were all absent, as well as a lot of the rumored stuff: Project Belfry, Compulsion's next project, inXile's next project, and The Coalition's next project. While it would obviously be silly to expect more than just a few of those, not getting a single one is definitely disappointing. And while stuff like Starfield and Diablo IV are cool to see, we already knew about those games well before they even fell under the Xbox umbrella.

As someone who plays primarily on Switch and PS5, my interest in entering the Xbox ecosystem stems from their 1st party output, which has been lacking for years. I was hoping this showcase would be the one to finally give me a reason to take the plunge, but it looks like I'll be waiting a bit longer.
 
karmitt said:
Right? I’m so shocked that the feedback has been anything less than amazement.

How it all fits together as a game is an unknown, but everything they showed is a substantial leap over their previous efforts. It’s fundamentally still ‘Skyrim in space’ I’m sure, but the visuals, scope and mechanics go well beyond that. I’m afraid of just how many games I might ignore getting lost in this one
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I think for me (and this is absolutely a me problem), landing on a new planet/moon, unknown horizons, seeing scans pop up for fauna/creatures excited me. The player mines a little bit and then encounters local wildlife... And the first response is that the player character pulls out a gun and takes aim. It's then immediately followed by walking to a lab to take aim at even more things and peppering them with bullets with XP popping out.

They then fly out into space and rather than the exploration aspect... We shoot more things but now with bigger guns.

I got excited when they showed a single system, which could mean that the 5-7 planets would be small in scope but dense in content... Only for them to zoom out and reveal thousands of explorable planets that have no hope of all being filled with interesting stuff to do.

This is more just an explanation for why I was personally not into the Starfield showcase. I think it's just not what I primarily look for in games anymore, sadly. I guess you could say I shouldn't have expected a Bethesda game to not be centered around combat and you'd probably be right, haha.

I love seeing the enthusiasm though and I hope the game is awesome!

EDIT: The cities did look really cool, can't leave that out.
 
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Plenty of this stuff wasn't for me, but honestly: that goes for Nintendo Directs as well oftentimes =P . However, there was quite a bit of games with colour and humour in this presentation, which I respect (I can't stand Sony's focus on dark 'n gritty cinematic styles).

Forza Horizon is as close to a killer app as something can be for me (even before that sweet arcadey looking Hot Wheels expansion). Couple that with iD Software being on board and yeah, an XSX is on my future shopping list.

One downside is apparently their controller doesn't have gyro...?
 
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DoofTroop said:
This is more just an explanation for why I was personally not into the Starfield showcase. I think it's just not what I primarily look for in games anymore, sadly. I guess you could say I shouldn't have expected a Bethesda game to not be centered around combat and you'd probably be right, haha.
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(Sorry for the double post, dunno how to add quotes when editing an existing post).

I feel similar. Playing Skyrim I feel too much like a mass murderer. The appeal of these games to me is to feel like I'm part of that environment, and if I'm continuously killing stuff it erodes my suspension of disbelief fast. During Skyrim at a certain point I realised I'd probably killed more bandits then there were NPCs in the towns! Morrowind, by contrast, was much more about getting to learn the culture and the people, which made it engrossing. (Or course, Morrowind kinda had to because it's combat wasn't great =P ).

I lost interest in the Starfield trailer as soon as I heard the stupid aggressive machine gun noises. Doesn't seem like futuristic role-playing to me!
 
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I finally caught up with this. A solid if not spectacular showcase for me. One thing I am impressed with is the variety of games that Microsoft showed, even if there's nothing I personally consider a 'must play'. Redfall and Starfield look nice enough (even if I did get big No Man's Sky vibes from the latter, which I guess is inevitable). A couple of intriguing smaller titles like the Frontiers Mech Farming game, Pentiment and Gunfire Reborn (love me some roguelike Borderlands). Persona and Silksong were the big surprises, which shows Microsoft are flexing their muscles.

Overwatch 2 was my personal highlight, and I will probably be buying an Xbox in October for it (yes I know I can play it on other consoles but still)
 
Finally catching up with this since I had to work during it and I’m going to sum it up in 6 words.

The Last Case of Benjamin Fox
 
What I loved about the MS show yesterday was that it was clearly angled to show you all the stuff you're going to get right up until the next conference.

There was a lot of disappointment that previously announced titles were not covered but I'm pretty matter of fact - beyond 12 months out, I'm not interesting in hearing about your game. I don't want to hear about Xmas 2023's Hellblade, or 2024's Avowed. There's no point. I don't year after year of little slices. Show me it, tell me I'm getting it soon, or stay away.

I'd argue that the show didn't feel as punchy and varied as Nintendo's shows and it would probably suit them better to get this big show broken up and start talking 6 month timeframes rather than 12.

But that is seemingly two now who are more concerned around talking about what you will get and soon, not slapping some distant dopamine hit in your face.

Looks like it'll take people some time to adjust. Hell, it took E3 dying for people to twig that Nintendo don't just fire everything out that they're going to do in that one show. But it is a positive shift for the industry. We see how much of a millstone the BOTW2 and Metroid Prime 4 announces have been.
 
Fun show, lots of things caught my eye. Redfall, Hollow Knight, the new Forza, Diablo, Wo Long, the Sea of Thieves update 😍 , Pentiment...I could keep going with the smaller games like Benedict Fox or Ravelok but yeah, there's going to be a ton there I play.

Probably the most admirable thing was running a show that was relatively commited to both the games being available on gamepass and out in next 12 months. That naturally limits the scope of what you can show but it does make for an honest look at what's coming up. Between covid (which I think this preview season shows the entire industry is still catching up from) and what I'll describe as announcement debt (MS announcing a lot of projects way too early to give an idea of what their newly purchased studios are up to over the last few years and for recruitment purposes), there was probably a necessity there too but still, we always ask for games that aren't years out and they delivered that.

Solid B from me then. It wasn't an absolute banger of a show and my xbox isn't my main bread and butter but then again when it's filling in the gaps between my switch usage anyway, I'm not necessarily looking for other than what they did here.
 
For me personally while I do agree with what you are saying.. they could have shortened it a bit and had even more focus on 2022 titles than they had. It would have made the show better.

I feel 90minutes is just too long - I'd like game shows to be within the hour I think, maybe the directs some times are a bit short.. but 45-60 feels much better than 90 minutes and million times better than Geoffs 4 hour ones.

MS definitely going to right direction though, fully agree.
 
I think now Nintendo have got their own Direct formula down to an art everyone else now feels comfortable replicating their format for themselves. Everyone now knows people tune in for the hype announcements and if you linger too long on something people get bored (this was one issue with early Nintendo Directs). Just line the announcements one after another, and move from each one seamlessly and swiftly. Job done. All the big players will be doing this going forward I feel. They now know people don't really care for the congratulatory backslapping or waffle about 'the future of gaming'
 
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Mbolibombo said:
I feel 90minutes is just too long - I'd like game shows to be within the hour I think, maybe the directs some times are a bit short.. but 45-60 feels much better than 90 minutes and million times better than Geoffs 4 hour ones.
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Fully agree with this. The Direct format is fantastic and snappy but I feel like it just can't sustain itself when it runs for over an hour. I was pretty shocked yesterday when the MS Showcase hit 60 minutes and showed no sign of ending.

Overall though, Directs, State of Plays and the MS Showcases are good stuff.
 
I dissagree that it can't sustain over an hour.
I am 100% confident it can, but needs to be top tier.
If its just good to average, then you start to feel the length after a while.
And that was part of yesterday, i think it was steve from GVG that sad that they showed enough good enough games that he will keep his subscription to try those games when they came to gamepass, but there where not many games that wowed him.

Its also, that the naration with directs is still snappier.
 
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Mbolibombo said:
For me personally while I do agree with what you are saying.. they could have shortened it a bit and had even more focus on 2022 titles than they had. It would have made the show better.

I feel 90minutes is just too long - I'd like game shows to be within the hour I think, maybe the directs some times are a bit short.. but 45-60 feels much better than 90 minutes and million times better than Geoffs 4 hour ones.

MS definitely going to right direction though, fully agree.
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I was catching up late - and I found myself skipping through most of the stream after the half way mark. Which is unfair on the games in the latter half.. it was a lot to ask people to stick with them the whole way just to get to Starfield. I agree 45-60 mins long with separate batched announcements if need-be would be better.
 
I didn't watch it but I have been bored to tears by other MS shows, so this does sound like a good move.
 
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Let's be real: if Nintendo Came first with their direct with persona 3-4-5 port and Silksong, it would have praised as the best direct in whatever.
There was a lot of great looking stuff. That Benedict Fox game, Wo Long, Pentiment ... I was really satisfied with that direct.
 
It was way too long lol
Nintendo Directs at most have one deep dive on a game, not 5 or 6 like what happened yesterday.
Even for games I'm interested in (Redfall and Starfield), I thought it was a bit out of place. Should have just had a classic 2 minutes long gameplay trailer, and then after the show released those deep dive videos, imo.
 
Stairouais said:
Let's be real: if Nintendo Came first with their direct with persona 3-4-5 port and Silksong, it would have praised as the best direct in whatever.
There was a lot of great looking stuff. That Benedict Fox game, Wo Long, Pentiment ... I was really satisfied with that direct.
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This is such a weird hypothetical when the reception of Nintendo's Directs is almost entirely dependent on first party software.
 
I thought it was another very boring show, but that's been the Xbox standard for me these last few years. Probably more to do with my taste than their format, but the latter doesn't do anything to elevate their shows for me.
 
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Would be great if they did a June and November Conference, each announcing showing games releasing within 12 months.
 
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I realize this is unpopular but a part of me does miss stage shows. I think the Direct format is "better" for announcements and trailers but I have a weird nostalgia-y attachment to stage conferences. I think it's good Nintendo doesn't do them anymore looking at the last two E3s before they stopped (and the one time they've tried since, the January 2017 Switch show, I thought would have been better if it had a digital format), but I'm going to sort of miss them if Directs become the industry standard going forward.
 
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