Microsoft had the first E3 press conference this year and opened with a gameplay trailer for Hideo Kojima’s open world stealth game Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. It included beautifully render landscapes and a slight taste of some of the stealth gameplay we should be expecting to partake in.
Yusuf Medhi was brought on next to talk about the future of the Xbox 360; beginning with the announcement of a new version which is available now. This new 360 is modeled to take a similar look of the Xbox One and will be smaller and quieter. Beginning July 1st, Xbox Live Gold members will be able to take advantage of two free Xbox 360 games per month beginning with Assassin’s Creed 2 and Halo 3. An Xbox 360 release of World Of Tanks was also announced along with Microsoft boasting continued support of the console with Dark Souls 2 coming March 2014 and Press Play’s Max: The Curse of Brotherhood.
The show then shifted its focus to games for the Xbox One, with the first being Ryse: Son of Rome which came with a gameplay trailer showing off the graphical capabilities of the console. The button prompts shown during the gameplay suggest that the game is no longer the Kinect-only title it was originally announced as. This was followed by a quick reveal trailer for Killer Instinct which featured Jago, Glacius and Sabrewulf.
Ted Price then announced Insomniac’s Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive with a new trailer. The game was described as a new shooter which takes place in a “living world” where the studio can add new guns and change things whenever they want based on player feedback.
Forza 5 was up next with Turn 10′s Dan Greenawalt showcasing the game running on the Xbox One. Greenawalt explained that the console’s cloud processing will be used to create a “Driveatar” which learns how you take corners, how aggressive you are to other racers, how you drive, and improve how AI opponents will race against you. Your “Driveatar” will also allow people to race against you even when you’re offline by doing the race for you.
Minecraft then had a short announcement trailer to announce it was coming to Xbox One with both bigger worlds and larger multiplayer.
Remedy’s Sam Lake was up next and promised to revolutionize entertainment with Quantum Break. Lake explained the game will take place alongside a live action TV show. Choices made in the game will personalize the show for your experience, and the show will impact how you play the game. A gameplay clip was shown with the the protagonist, Jack, examining an explosion which is frozen in time and he pulls a woman out of it to save her.
Deadly Premonition creator SWERY65 had a trailer up next to announce a new episodic murder mystery game called D4.
Microsoft Game Studios’ Dave McCarthy then showcased Project Spark. A new title that aims to make game creation a game in itself. A developer demonstrated the Kinect functionality with voice commands changing textures, terrain, time of day and more. Smartglass was then used to sculpt on the world and create mountains. Any object in the game world can also be brought to life with McCarthy giving a rock a weapon and making that the hero’s companion. Friends can also be invited to build on your idea and play co-op through created adventures.
Marc Whitten came on next to explain the deeper functionality SmartGlass will have with the console. The service can be used to compare stats against a friend’s during a game, buy game addons and browse achievements. It can also give you live hints and tips as you progress through a game. Users can also search for a multiplayer game while playing a singleplayer one. The example shown was a search for a multiplayer match in Killer Instinct, while playing Ryse in single player. When a match was found Ryse was swiftly minimized and the multiplayer match in Killer Instinct started.
The 100 friend limit on the Xbox Live friends list is now gone, and real currency will be used instead of Microsoft points. Current gold subscriptions will also carry over to the new console.
After the Killer Instinct fight, ‘Game DVR’ was showcased which is a new tech that can save gameplay videos that can in turn be edited in ‘Upload Studio’, personalized, then uploaded to the cloud for friends to see. A new partnership with Twitch was also announced allowing users to livestream at any moment during a game.
Crimson Dragon had a reveal trailer next, which is a Kinect-powered dragon flying game from the creator of Panzer Dragoon.
Capcom Vancouver took the stage next to announce Dead Rising 3, exclusive for Xbox One. New protagonist Nick Ramos is a mechanic who is trying to escape a city three days after a zombie outbreak. There are no loading times throughout the free-roam city, the crafting system from Dead Rising 2 is back and Capcom confirmed hundreds of weapons are in the game. Cars are also available to be used to drive around the city. Smartglass was also featured in the demo, which showed Ramos calling in an artillery strike to clear a large number of zombies.
CD Projekt RED then confirmed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be coming to Xbox One and showed off new gameplay footage. The speaker for the studio claimed it would feature over 100 hours of play in its non-linear story, and DX11 graphics in its open world. Kinect voice commands can be used for casting spells and switching weapons, while SmartGlass can be used as an inventory management system.
DICE was up next and confirmed Battlefield 4 will run at 60FPS on the Xbox One. The Second Assault map pack will also be available first on the Microsoft console. A gameplay demo was shown featuring the 60FPS gameplay and next-gen visuals of Frostbite 3 engine.
A trailer was revealed for Below by Capybara Games which is a top-down adventure in a “mysterious world” filled with secrets. This was followed by a short teaser trailer for the game Black Tusk studio is working on.
A trailer for a new Halo game was then shown, and while it featured Master Chief in the armor he wore in Halo 4, the game was not referred to as Halo 5, instead just as Halo. Bonnie Ross confirmed the game will run at 60FPS making it the first Halo game to do so.
Phil Spencer announced the Xbox One will be released this November in 21 markets, at $499 U.S., €499 in Europe £429 for the U.K.
Titanfall had its first trailer revealed at the end of the show along with a live demo showcasing the games multiplayer which featured gameplay from both the pilots perspective and from inside a “Titan” mech.