2022 Xbox and Bethesda Showcase
With this years June event looming ever closer, let’s take a look back at E3 reveals and showcases of years past.
E3 is..was? One of my favorite events of the year. It was my equivalent of the Super Bowl or a holiday family gathering. Countless years of having friends over, multiple TVs set up, cheering along with announcements, and an overall optimism for the future as we were shown the upcoming futures of our favorite studios With those days seemingly over and digital showcases taking their place over a more extended time frame, it's time to look back at old E3 showcases. We're going to keep this series focused on Xbox, or else it'd blow up into a huge, never-ending thing. Let's begin with the 2022 Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase.
Looking back on 2022, Xbox was in a weird space, and this showcase specifically leaves me feeling indifferent. Now more than ever, it felt like all eyes were on the team in Redmond and the upcoming projects Starfield and Redfall; would they be able to hit the mainstream success that Xbox has been lacking for years? Would Xbox be able to show they can manage their teams and have a constant flow of content with the number of studios they now have? Short answer? Kind of.
Once the show started and Redfall was the first thing shown, the rest of the 90 minutes became an anxious waiting game for Starfield at the end. Not to take away from other titles revealed: Forza Motorsport, Hollowknight Silksong, and High on Life all had successful showings. Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 5, Grounded, and Microsoft Flight Simulator all had fun expansion reveals showing continuing support and growth for old titles. To be fair, they did announce at the beginning that they would be focusing on games set to release within the next 12 months (which we all know how that ended), so games that we've known about for 3–4+ years now still weren't given any acknowledgment. Focusing on the next year of releases is something I'd love to see continue in future press events. It takes away the negative online story of Xbox not having games and announcing stuff way ahead of schedule; they just need to make sure they're in a stable enough position to keep that promise going.
Xbox absolutely nailed partnerships this year as well. Kojima got some time to officially announce his cloud based project for the Xbox ecosystem, Persona, which was making its first proper debut with Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal all coming to Xbox via Gamepass. To top it off, Xbox dove headfirst into grabbing more of the PC crowd and incorporating it into Gamepass by announcing a partnership with Riot Games, unlocking all current and future League of Legends and Valorant champions as well as skins and champions for Wild Rift and Teamfight Tactics. This was about the biggest move they could've pulled to show their commitment to expanding the Xbox brand and ecosystem, and honestly, it leaves a lot of questions about what's to come from this partnership. Does it expand beyond what they announced? Do other PC games open their doors to the possibility of Game Pass?
Outside of the usual indies and Pentiment being revealed, this will be the only Xbox fall release, thankfully to critical acclaim and adoration. Outside of smaller titles and announcements for Game Pass, that's about where the major reveals end, sadly. The rest of the time was padded with the usual showing of indies and titles hitting Game Pass on Day 1 or joining the service later on. Todd Howard ended the show with a hands-on deep dive into the world(s), exploration, and ship customizations of Starfield. Even after this deep dive into the game, a large majority of the fanbase, including myself, were left wanting more. When you spend weeks beforehand advertising a big dive into what's supposed to be your next big thing and that reveal falls short of expectations, it ends up leaving a damper on the entire showcase. Followed up by the title being pushed back another year, it left a Starfield sized hole in the entirety of 2022 that many would agree was one of Xbox's worst and lost a lot of goodwill with its fans.
2022's showcase wasn't something I found myself jumping out of my seat for reveals or talking about for weeks on end, but it was a solid showing nonetheless. At its core, it started showing how the company would be handling itself and releases in the future as it spends another year crawling out of a negative online headspace. Now more than ever, Xbox has been hearing feedback online, and I fully expect them to take this year's showing as something they need to hit a home run on.