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Microsoft’s E3 2019 Press Conference

While I still don’t have an Xbox One, Microsoft has had some pretty good press conferences in the past few years. I went into this press conference pretty excited, especially since with Sony not having an E3 conference this year, a lot of multiplatform games should be shown at Microsoft’s show.

They started out with a new trailer for The Outer Worlds, which looks like it could be entertaining.

Next up was a game called Bleeding Edge, which doesn’t seem like my sort of thing.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps looks pretty cool, and will be out February 11. I still want to play the first one, too.

Minecraft Dungeons was revealed for September 2020, some sort of Minecraft RPG from the looks of it.

After talking a little bit about Xbox and the press conference, they showed another trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. After learning more about this game, I’ve become more interested in it, although I’m still not completely convinced.

The next trailer caught my attention right away, because it was clearly a horror game and seemed pretty creepy. Apparently it’s a Blair Witch game. I know pretty much nothing about the Blair Witch franchise, but the game did look interesting, so I’ll be keeping my eye on that.

(Also, apparently it’s from Bloober Team, the developers behind Layers of Fear and Observer.)

Then it was time for a game lots of people are looking forward to: Cyberpunk 2077. The trailer was cool, but it hasn’t really grabbed me yet. Maybe I’m not enough of a cyberpunk fan. Anyway, it’s coming out on April 16.

They showed an indie game that looks like it could be good called Spiritfarer, a new Battletoads game, and an unusual RPG with a hand-drawn style called RPG Time: The Legend of Wright. They followed this with a montage of indie games coming to Xbox One.

This led into their Xbox Game Pass segment, including the news that Xbox Game Pass is coming to PC, with the open beta starting now. Moving on, they showed Flight Simulator, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, and Wasteland 3, none of which interest me (although the Wasteland 3 trailer was entertaining).

Now, we knew they’d be showing Psychonauts 2 at E3, but I wasn’t expecting the next announcement: Double Fine has joined Xbox Game Studios. I’m not sure what Microsoft acquiring Double Fine will mean for their future games, but the Psychonauts 2 trailer was cool and has me pretty excited for the game.

I’ve never gotten into the Lego games, but they announced Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. After that was a new Dragon Ball Z game, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot.

The next game is one that looks like it could be pretty interesting. Called 12 Minutes, it follows a man stuck in a time loop. Time travel stories can be hit or miss, but the short teaser left me intrigued. I’d like to learn more about how it plays, but right now it has my attention.

After another indie game called Way to the Woods, they moved on to Gears 5 with an extremely surreal trailer. And… is it really called “Gears 5”? Not “Gears of War 5”? A trailer for a mode called “Escape” was also shown.

They got back to Gears eventually, after first showing a new Xbox One controller, Dying Light 2, and Forza Horizon 4: Lego Speed Champions, which I definitely didn’t expect. But then they were back to Gears with Gears POP!, which had a cute trailer that didn’t quite carry over to the gameplay.

I have no interest in State of Decay 2: Heartland or CrossfireX… or in the game shown in between, but I know a lot of people have been dying for Phantasy Star Online 2 to come west, so that was cool to see.

And then…

Tales of Arise!!!

Okay, it would have been a super cool surprise, but I saw the leaks a couple days ago and knew it was coming. I’m still really excited for the next Tales game. They’ve finally moved away from the art style used for the past several titles, giving it an almost Xenoblade-like look.

I’m tentatively interested in Borderlands 3, and while I’d heard rumors of the new Borderlands 2 DLC coming out, I didn’t realize it was going to be free. Yes, not only did Borderlands 3 get a new trailer, but “Commander Lilith & The Fight for Sanctuary” is available now as free Borderlands 2 DLC.

Along with Tales of Arise, the other game I saw leaked ahead of time was Elden Ring, the collaboration between FromSoftware and George R.R. Martin. I’m not actually a fan of A Song of Fire and Ice or Game of Thrones, so I’m not jumping for joy over the collaboration like a lot of people are, but the trailer was cool.

Finally, they teased the next Xbox console, codenamed Project Scarlett. It will launch holiday 2020, with one launch title already announced… Halo Infinite (which is still coming to Xbox One and PC as well)!

When we first saw Halo Infinite, it looked pretty different from any past Halo game. The new trailer still looks different, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll be radically different now. I never did play Halo 5, since I don’t have an Xbox One, but I’m interested to see where Halo Infinite is going.

And that was Microsoft’s E3 2019 press conference!

Some good announcements in there, maybe not quite as many exciting surprises as I’d hoped for, but Tales of Arise, Psychonauts 2, 12 Minutes, Blair Witch, Elden Ring, and Halo Infinite all made it worth watching for me. What did you think of Microsoft’s E3 show?