With its Xbox Games Showcase 2024, Microsoft has made almost everyone agree. Between surprise announcements, long gameplay presentations to immerse yourself in, new games planned for Xbox Game Pass and a surprising “one more thing”, this conference should easily go down in history. However, certain gray areas have not been clarified by Xbox.
An Xbox calendar for the second half of 2024 almost still unclear
We have already known for a while that this second half of the year will be particularly strong for Xbox and Game Pass. Between Avowed, Age of Mythology: Retold, Towerborne, Ara: History Untold, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the Starfield DLC and Indiana Jones and the Ancient Circle, Xbox players will have plenty to do!
However, the timeline is pretty much still unclear. During the conference, only the dates for Age of Mythology: Retold, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 were confirmed. Note, however, that in the process, Obsidian leaked that of Avowed and then immediately withdrew it. Finally, as surprising as it may seem, that of Ara: History Untold was revealed on the sidelines of the conference, during an episode of the Xbox Podcast.
So we only know that we will be able to rediscover the joys of real-time strategy with Age of Mythology: Retold from September 4, immerse ourselves in a very complete 4X with Ara: History Untold from September 24 and that we will be able to immerse ourselves in in the action of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 starting October 25.
We could also legitimately expect to finally discover some gameplay from ARK 2, to the extent that Studio Wildcard’s new title is still planned for the end of 2024, that it will be available from its launch in Xbox Game Pass and that he has already appeared in an Xbox conference.
The big absentees from the Xbox conference
Last month, we talked about these 4 Xbox games that we hoped to have news about at the conference. After all these years of waiting, State of Decay 3 gave us a great trailer, and better yet, Perfect Dark was revealed with a long, immersive gameplay.
We would obviously have liked to see the other two games, namely Contraband and Everwild. The announcement of the latter dates from the end of 2019 and its last trailer from July 2020. The latest news is that development is still underway, but Xbox players would certainly like to understand what Rare’s new game is about.
For its part, Contraband is a production developed by Avalanche Studios, the fathers of Just Cause and Rage 2, and published by Xbox Game Studios Publishing. The title was only entitled to an announcement trailer in June 2021, and nothing since.
No immediate release of Activision games in Xbox Game Pass
It has already been 8 months since the acquisition of Activision Blizzard King by Microsoft was concluded. Apart from Diablo IV in April, no game from the publisher’s catalog has arrived in Xbox Game Pass. After so much time, we could have hoped that at least a few titles would arrive in the service, like what was done with Bethesda in 2022 just a few days after the takeover was made official.
Although the wait is rather long, things seem to be slowly but surely falling into place. In recent weeks, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 have made their way to the Microsoft Store PC, certainly for integration into PC Game Pass, and therefore Xbox Game Pass.
Note also that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be available upon its release on October 25, directly in the Microsoft service. This will be the first Activision Blizzard game to release upon launch on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.
Games without date and without platform
While the announcement of State of Decay 3 dates back to 2020, the production signed by Undead Labs has not even been revealed with real gameplay. Worse still, while it was clearly mentioned before that the title was planned for Xbox Series X|S, no platform was specified this time.
This is actually not an isolated case. Indeed, no release year or platform was mentioned for Perfect Dark and Gears of War: E-Day. We could then believe that these are titles planned for the next generation of consoles.
These three videos were very reassuring, but ultimately they raise a lot of questions.
Expectations due to leaks and rumors
We obviously can’t blame Microsoft for not showing things that haven’t been made official, but many of us were hoping for at least a teaser of a portable Xbox.
Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, has often shared his attraction to handheld consoles, and rumors clearly indicate that such a machine is currently being developed by Microsoft. Moreover, just after the conference, he half-heartedly confirmed the existence of a portable Xbox.
Likewise, following the huge leak in 2023 in the lawsuit between Microsoft and the FTC over the acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, we were hoping that a new Xbox controller would be revealed.
In fact, last year we discovered a controller with haptic feedback and a brand new design. It was also on this occasion that an Xbox Series Today, we know, the plans have changed and the console absolutely does not look like what we discovered in 2023. It remains to be seen if the controller is still relevant.
