Xbox plans to get out of its own way for the rest of 2024, with new installments coming for three tentpole franchises of its new subsidiary Activision Blizzard. Meanwhile, several hotly anticipated Xbox games are now planned for next year, a new version of Microsoft Flight Simulator is coming this fall, and a new all-digital model of the Xbox Series X|S will hit stores this holiday season.
Those are some takeaways from this year’s Xbox Games Showcase, which broadcasted Sunday as part of this year’s Summer Games Fest in Los Angeles. Xbox leaders Phil Spencer, Matt Booty, and Sarah Bond were on hand to present just over 75 minutes of trailers and world premieres.
Microsoft officially unveiled three new editions of the Xbox Series X|S hardware, which are scheduled for release this holiday season. This includes a new Series S with a 1TB hard drive ($349.99), an all-digital Series X with a similar upgrade ($449.99), and a limited-edition black Series X with a 2 TB hard drive ($599.99).
Aside from the significantly expanded storage options, there don’t appear to be any other improvements over the launch-edition Series S|X. The only obvious shift is the addition of a Series X model without a disc drive. Previously, any players who preferred digital media over physical had to settle for the Series S, which is significantly less powerful than the Series X. This previously presented some logistical issues for developers who wanted to publish games on Xbox, as their games had to work on both versions of the hardware, but now all-digital players can upgrade to the X.
Bond said Xbox is “hard at work on the next generation,” which serves to confirm leaks from last year that, despite rumors to the contrary, Microsoft plans to continue making physical hardware for the upcoming 10th generation of consoles. Analysts have predicted for years that Xbox and other companies’ cloud gaming efforts would eventually result in an all-virtual console market, but if that’s going to come to pass, it won’t be next gen.
Going into this year’s SGF, it appeared that despite recent controversies such as two separate waves of layoffs, the show was Xbox’s to lose. Its chief competitor Sony was effectively a no-show at SGF, and Nintendo has been quiet this year as it prepares to sunset the Switch. That gave Xbox the spotlight by process of elimination, alongside larger third-party developers such as Capcom, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts.
The Xbox Showcase opened with a first look at Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the latest entry in the series. Scheduled for release on Oct. 25, “Blops” 6’s campaign opens in 1991 during the first Gulf War, and will feature Saddam Hussein as an antagonist.
As reported last month, BO6 will be available on the Xbox Game Pass service on release day, as with all titles published by Xbox’s first-party studios. Every Call of Duty game is usually one of the year’s top-3 best sellers, and takes the No. 1 spot more often than not. Xbox’s gamble is that the inclusion of BO6 will drive more Game Pass subscriptions, which won’t also result in lowered sales.
The Blizzard half of Activision Blizzard unveiled a new trailer for the forthcoming expansion to its long-running MMORPG World of Warcraft, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in November.
Led by returning original creator Chris Metzen, The World Within is the first installment in a planned trilogy that takes players into vast underground cities. It’s scheduled for release Aug. 26.
World of Warcraft’s most recent expansion Dragonflight is widely considered the best the game’s been in years, which countered a general perception that the MMO has been on a decline since the underwhelming Battle for Azeroth in 2018. Despite that reputation, independent population trackers estimate that around 360,000 players still log into WoW on a daily basis. It’s not the same juggernaut that it was in the 2000s, but it is consistent, and a new expansion generally gives WoW a solid audience spike for the next couple of months.
Along the same lines, another Blizzard franchise is on its own redemption arc. Diablo IV‘s last season of content, “Loot Reborn,” came out in May to rave reviews, which overcame its initial poor reception. Its next expansion, Vessel of Hatred, is planned for Oct. 8, and will feature an extension to the campaign and a new character class.
A new edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator is also planned for release on Nov. 19. Made in conjunction with French developer Asobo Studio, MSFS 2024 is focused on allowing players to pursue a simulated career as a working pilot. This includes activities such as operating an airline, air racing, search and rescue, cargo transport, and aerial firefighting.
This installment of MSFS features Microsoft’s Azure AI, in a continued refinement of the same processes from the last version of the game in 2021. While Xbox hasn’t divulged the details thereof — the only reason we know it’s Azure AI is a blink-and-you’d-miss-it disclaimer in the trailer — the last version of MSFS used cloud streaming and satellite data to update the world beneath you as you flew. That included weather patterns, city construction, and the presence or absence of major landmarks like specific buildings.
With leaks indicating that the 10th-generation Xbox will include dedicated AI cores, it’ll be worth keeping an eye on MSFS 2024 to see the shape of the technology. Microsoft and partners like Inworld AI have been working on ways to incorporate machine learning into video games for months, but MSFS 2024 looks like it’ll be the first public project to reach the market.
Looking ahead
As we saw in April, the Xbox division might have taken serious losses in the second quarter if not for its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Against that backdrop, it’s not surprising that Xbox has chosen to play it safe for the rest of 2024.
World of Warcraft and Black Ops 6 are safe bets with the mainstream gaming audience, Microsoft Flight Simulator has traditionally had its own community of die-hard fans, and Diablo IV is more popular now than it was at launch.
The first major expansion for Starfield, Shattered Space, is still coming this year, alongside a major content patch that was released Sunday night. In addition, there’s a new Assassin’s Creed game scheduled for mid-November; a new entry in the cult-favorite Life is Strange series, Double Exposure, coming on Oct. 29; and the long-awaited survival-action game STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is finally coming out on Sept. 5.
As a result, Xbox is in a position where it can’t release much else without running the risk of flooding the zone. It’s spaced out its first- and third-party releases to an extent where there’ll always be something new to play, alongside 2024’s unusually dense flood of well-received indies, but that’s also pushed much of what fans wanted to see from Xbox Game Studios to 2025.
Xbox is also leaning heavily on Activision Blizzard for the rest of the year, but that was always going to be the case. In an industry that’s increasingly obsessed with “games as a service,” Activision Blizzard controls three of the biggest franchises in that market. The only place it was ever going to be was at the head of the pack.
Other notable news from the Xbox Games Showcase:
- The Showcase closed with the world premiere of Gears of War: E-Day, which appears to be a prequel to the first game in Xbox’s long-running action series. Players once again take the role of Marcus Fenix, a soldier in a human colony that’s under attack by the alien Locust. All that was offered was a cinematic trailer, with no further details.
- Rumors from earlier in the year suggested a new Doom game was on the way. This turned out to be The Dark Age, a prequel in the new storyline that id Software explored in 2020’s Doom Eternal. You once again play as the Doom Slayer, a.k.a. the Doomguy, as he fights the forces of Hell as a soldier in the armies of Argent D’Nur. This time, he’s equipped with a metal shield that has a chainsaw blade around its edge, because why not.
- For the first time in a while, Playground Games offered a new trailer for its reboot of Lionhead Studios’ Fable series. In Albion, an off-kilter fantasy rendition of medieval England, you play as a novice adventurer who can choose to become a grand hero, an arch-villain, or something in between.
- Seattle’s Undead Labs has been quietly working on the next installment of its open world zombie survival series State of Decay since it was acquired by Xbox Game Studios in 2018. After a Kotaku report in 2022 that alleged toxic workplace conditions, the studio’s been quiet enough that many fans and analysts thought it might have been quietly shuttered. However, Undead Labs revealed a new trailer for State of Decay 3 at the Showcase, which focused on its cooperative aspects. No release date was listed.
- Compulsion Games contributed a gameplay trailer for its Southern-fried action-adventure game South of Midnight, which is coming next year. As Hazel, you use newly-discovered magical powers to survive in the aftermath of a hurricane and track down your missing mother.
- Electronic Arts offered a new trailer for the next Dragon Age game, The Veilguard, which is coming out this fall. While little’s been established about Veilguard aside from the return of fan-favorite character Varric, this is widely seen as a make-or-break moment for Canadian developer BioWare (Mass Effect), which has been dogged by failed projects and brain drain for the last decade.
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