We're beginning to really see the fruits of all these Xbox acquisitions lately, with games like Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite launching this fall. Xbox seems to have too many games to discuss for just one E3 press conference, so it's hosting a second "extended" showcase for tomorrow.
The show will be hosted by Parris Lilly of Gamertag Radio and Kinda Funny, and the format sounds like it will be deeper dives and more sit-down chats with teams working under the ever-expanding Xbox Game Studios umbrella. Xbox has mentioned studios by name so viewers know what to expect. The list includes:
- 343i
- Double Fine
- Ninja Theory
- Obsidian
- Playground Games
- Rare
- World’s Edge
- "and more dev partners"
In most cases, we know what to expect from each of these teams. 343 is working on Halo Infinite, Double Fine will ship Psychonauts 2 in August, Ninja Theory is working on several projects but most prominent and likely to appear is Hellblade 2. Meanwhile, Playground is working on both Fable and this fall's Forza Horizon 5, while Obsidian has five games in production, rather remarkably, but the team is likely there to talk about June's Shroom and Doom update for Grounded.
Rare is said to have rebooted Everwild behind the scenes and now pictures it as a 2024 title, so it's more likely we'll hear from the team on Sea of Thieves' upcoming A Pirate's Life crossover Tall Tale with Pirates of the Caribbean. World's Edge is the new studio made solely to work on Age of Empires, so we can expect more Age of Empires 4 chatter as well.
Many of these games were not even shown off during the weekend's Xbox-Bethesda E3 Showcase, so it really paints a picture of just how much is cooking in the Xbox kitchen as of late. Also in production are exciting projects like Starfield from Bethesda Game Studios, Redfall from Arkane Austin, unannounced projects at Compulsion and inXile, and Undead Labs' State of Decay 3, among even more. As Xbox is quick to remind everyone, all of these games and many more will arrive on Game Pass on day one.
The Xbox Games Showcase Extended airs on Thursday, June 17 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. You can watch it right here.
