It’s starting to get busy during this showcase season, with games being announced, gameplay trailers shown and upcoming in-game events to anticipate, and with the PlayStation Showcase and Summer Game Fest been and gone, it’s now Xbox’s turn with their Xbox Showcase. Whilst the PlayStation Showcase was largely considered to be anti-climatic and a bit of a let down, the Summer Game Fest delivered a considerable amount, so the Xbox Showcase will have a lot to live up to. Here’s five predictions of what we expect to be shown off.
Related: Summer Game Fest: ‘Mortal Kombat 1’ Finally Has A Gameplay Trailer – And It Is A Brutal Watch
Fable
Fable is infamous for over-promising at showcases, and whilst there’s no guarantee we’ll see anything of it at the Xbox Showcase, rumours point towards something being said or displayed. With the Xbox social media team stoking the fires last week, it really wouldn’t be a huge surprise to finally see some gameplay from the upcoming reboot, as well as some information about its setting, story and characters hopefully. Fable was always sold on the promise of lasting and difficult decisions, but it rarely delivered on that promise. With technology being as powerful as it is today, maybe now we’ll finally get a hard-hitting, multi-choice world to make the Fable name proud?
Gears of War
It’s been four years since we last had a Gears of War release with the fifth main instalment, so it stands to reason the biggest even of Xbox’s year might just be the perfect place to announce it. Whilst Starfield will be taking the lion’s share of the limelight, it’ll stand to reason that something Gears related will be mentioned. Whether it’s Gears of War 6, or the long-rumoured and hopefully real ‘Marcus Fenix Collection’ we don’t know, but it has been far too long and far too quiet regarding Gears content for us not to see something this year..
Hellblade 2
It’s been six years since the first game arrived on our consoles, and four years since the sequel was announced. Not a huge amount since then has been released, so we don’t know a great deal about it, but we’re hoping it’ll make some sort of appearance in some regard. Supposedly featuring some of ‘the most realistic combat and movement in video games’, the developer Ninja Theory is setting up quite the reveal and high standards to meet. Whether we see gameplay or just a release date at the Xbox Showcase is anyone’s guess, but it’ll be a surprise if we get nothing, and a worrying one for its development at that.
Indiana Jones
Two years ago Machine Games teased an unexpected Indiana Jones game, and since then, nothing. No press releases, development videos or even the odd social media post. Nothing. Whilst that can be a bad sign, we can take it that they’re just hard at work at delivering what should hopefully be an incredibly faithful representation of the infamous archaeologist. With his fifth film hitting cinemas later this month, it seems a no brainer to piggyback on the buzz from that for the game, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Forza Motorsport 8
This time last year at the 2022 Xbox Showcase, it was announced that the latest instalment would aim for a ‘Spring 2023’ release date. Of course that’s been and gone now with no news or announcements as to when we can expect the next game, so it’d stand to reason we’ll see something. Gameplay and a release date should be a given, or at least some update as to when we can expect to get back behind the wheel and race around our favourite faithfully recreated tracks around the world.
Starfield
This isn’t a prediction, this is a guarantee. Starfield is going to be the flagship part of the Xbox Showcase, with it’s own segment that has been heavily marketed. With all the issues Xbox and Microsoft are currently going through regarding the Activision Blizzard merger and the poor performance of Redfall it cannot be understated just how important Starfield will be to not only make sales of the console, but also repair the reputation and good will of the company. Expect a huge amount of gameplay, in-depth discussions around the choice and dialogue systems in place, and hopefully further explanation of the interplanetary travel and how it’ll work.
This is a huge Xbox Showcase for the brand and the company, so we’ll have to wait and see just how well it goes and how big they go with their announcements. Will fans be happy come closing? Who knows. Let us know what you expect to see at the Xbox Showcase in the comments!
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