Microsoft Xbox at E3 2017: all of the latest news, trailers, and announcements

Rejoice, for E3 is over for another year, and we can all take a breath. The world’s biggest video games trade show brings such a flurry of news that it’s hard to stop and take it in before you’re whisked to the next keynote, the next conference, or the next big reveal.

It’s only now, with E3 over, that we can really take time to look back at some of the most impressive, intriguing, or downright bizarre games to get announced or outlined further at the show. Below you’ll find some of the trailers that are worth rewatching — or that you might have missed — from the last week.

Crackdown 3 — an open-world crimefighting game in which you can leap over small apartment buildings in a single bound — isn’t the most graphically gobsmacking game on the Xbox One, nor is it the most technically refined. Melee attacks are a little floaty; the physics, unpredictable; and the sound of its rampant destruction hits the eardrums like a dump truck crushing another dump truck. But the game is scrappy and charming and unlike anything else on the show floor of E3 2017. A half-hour demo of super agents fighting supervillians was as enjoyable (if not more so) than many hours spent with Microsoft’s fancier, big-budget exclusives.

In a hands-on portion of the demo, I bunny-hopped across a neon-lit future metropolis, collecting green orbs to upgrade my strength and agility, and grabbing overpowered weaponry. After a couple minutes of exploration, I bombarded foot soldiers with a volley of rockets, then vacuumed their corpses (and all nearby loose objects) with a projectile black hole. The story or goal wasn’t clear from the short session, but I wasn’t really looking for either as I skipped from one rooftop to the next, sending baddies ragdolling into the air and down to the pavement hundreds of feet below.

Dave McCarthy is the Head of Xbox Operations and General Manager of Xbox Services, meaning he’s been deeply involved in the lead up to the reveal of Xbox One X. We had a chance to sit down with McCarthy at Microsoft’s E3 event space in downtown Los Angeles and talk about a range of topics, from how the company plans to explain native 4K to potential customers, how Minecraft has influenced Sea of Thieves, and why the company’s press event had fewer big budget first-party games and timed downloadable content (DLC) exclusives.

Let’s start with the DLC.

Microsoft’s big reveal this week of the Xbox One X, the high end of its Xbox line and a competitor to Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro, has set the stage for a new conversation about the future of the console industry. This debate isn’t simply about comparing the two devices, deeming one superior, and predicting which will win out. It’s also about the very nature and purpose of a game console in 2017.

We heard a lot about the Xbox One X being “the most powerful console” ever created, and Microsoft dropped frame rate and memory metrics and the phrase “4K” to hammer home the point that it’s built a more capable piece of hardware. But absent from the conversation was Windows 10, arguably Microsoft’s one key advantage that Sony will never be able to replicate.

Microsoft’s press conference at this year’s E3 was always going to be the early highlight of the show. Going in, we knew the company was planning on unveiling the final consumer version of Project Scorpio alongside a slate of new games and other announcements. Right away, Microsoft gave us a name, Xbox One X, alongside pricing ($499) and a release date (November 7th).

That alone was enough to satisfy a torrent of news headlines and first reactions, and Microsoft followed it up by packing quite a bit of news into its two-hour presentation. Some of it bodes well for the Xbox’s ongoing comeback, while other announcements seem to further put the platform at risk as it struggles to keep pace with Sony and the more successful PlayStation 4 consoles. It’s far too early to declare which company “won” E3 this year. But we can certainly break down Microsoft’s biggest announcements by whether they help or hurt its platform. Let’s start with the positives.

Microsoft unveiled its new Xbox One X console earlier this week, promising “true 4K” gaming on “the world’s most powerful games console.” While many are debating what those promises truly mean and whether we’ll see the majority of games in Native 4K or checkerboard rendering, Microsoft’s Xbox chief Phil Spencer believes the Xbox One X is “a true 4K console.” In an interview with Eurogamer, Spencer explains the Xbox One X name, a lack of first-party game announcements, and the all-important $100 price gap between the Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro.

“I look at [PS4] Pro as more of a competitor to [Xbox One] S than I do to Xbox One X,” claims Spencer. “This is a true 4K console. If you just look at the specs of what this box is, it's in a different league than any other console that's out there.” Spencer points out 40 percent more GPU speed, more RAM, and the speed of storage as the advantages of the Xbox One X over the PS4 Pro, but he also knocks Sony’s methods for getting to 4K resolutions with some of its games. “When I think about techniques to somehow manufacture a 4K screen like what some other consoles try to do, this is different than that.” Spencer also says he expects the majority of consoles that Microsoft sells next year will be Xbox One S.

Sony’s E3 keynote wasn’t too big on major reveals, largely focusing on known quantities like God of War and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. There was one announcement, however, that really did shock me despite not even making it into our roundup of the event: Monster Hunter World, a new game coming next year for PS4, Xbox One, and later PC.

I don’t blame my colleague Chaim for omitting it — Monster Hunter has never quite broken through in the West, and its presence in Sony’s keynote probably left a lot of viewers nonplussed. But trust me, Monster Hunter World is huge news. Here’s why.

Capcom is bringing a brand new game in its huge-in-Japan Monster Hunter series to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Monster Hunter World is coming out in early 2018, and while we don’t know too much about it we can say it’s by far the most visually impressive Monster Hunter game yet. All other games in the series have been designed around the technical limitations of systems like the PS2, Wii, and 3DS, so the leap to modern hardware marks a huge upgrade.

Capcom is also bringing Monster Hunter XX to Nintendo Switch later this year, making Monster Hunter World somewhat of a surprise. The new game appears to play very differently to others, however, with a more fluid and open approach to hunting. It’s possible that Capcom will keep the traditional games on Switch to make use of local co-op while developing World for more powerful home systems.

From Microsoft’s perspective, the Xbox One X, the new console built to take advantage of the rapid growth of 4K televisions, is a luxury item. Its diminutive shell contains an abundance of RAM, teraflops, and other expensive bits. For that reason, $499 is a logical price for Microsoft to go with, but it isn’t a competitive one.

As my colleague Tom Warren noted in our original story, the Xbox One will cost $100 more than its direct 4K console competitor, the PlayStation 4 Pro. Technically, the Xbox One X delivers native 4K, while the Pro mostly offers something approaching that resolution. But in both cases, it depends on the game. And some PS4 Pro games are in native 4K, though they tend to be smaller indie titles and see what I mean! “Technically” is a messy word — and that spells trouble when it comes to clear, concise marketing.

Microsoft started their E3 2017 press conference with the Xbox One X, previously called Project Scorpio. Before a number of surprise announcements starting with a real world Porsche that’ll feature in Forza Motorsport 7. Followed by PC phenomena PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds launching exclusively on the Xbox One, a release date for animated platformer Cuphead, a three episode prequel to Life is Strange, and a Crackdown 3 trailer starring Terry Crews.

We also got a look at the first gameplay of Assassin’s Creed: Origins, BioWare’s new sci-fi action RPG Anthem, Rare’s open sea pirate game Sea of Thieves, and a very nice looking lighting upgrade for Minecraft.

Microsoft made good on its promise to reveal all the key details about Project Scorpio during its E3 press conference today. We got an official name, a price, and a release date: the Xbox One X, as it’s called, will start at $499 and will start shipping on November 7th. In a demo room following the company’s event, we got a look at the hardware in a side-by-side comparison with Microsoft’s cheaper Xbox One S console.

If you’re looking for a radically redesigned device, you will be disappointed. The new console looks pretty much identical to the developer kits we saw earlier this year, minus the OLED display, physical buttons, and real-time clock. In fact, there’s not all that much you can say about the One X itself other than that it just looks like an Xbox.

Microsoft’s Project Scorpio was one of the most anticipated announcements of E3, and now it has a name and a release date. It’s called the Xbox One X, and you’ll be able to buy it on November 7th, for the disappointingly high price of $499.

But that wasn’t the only thing that happened. We got release dates for some long-awaited games like Crackdown 3, our first look at new series installments like Assassins Creed Origins, and a lot of gameplay footage. There weren’t a lot of big surprises, but all in all, it wasn’t a bad show. You can read all the announcements here, or get the biggest news below.

Turn 10 Studios announced Forza Motorsport 7 today during Microsoft’s E3 press conference, and it’s primed to be the best-looking and most feature-dense entry in the series. The game was tailor-made to take advantage of the new Xbox One X’s added horsepower, which should render the game in 4K resolution and 60 frames per second.

This also the first full Forza Motorsport game to hit PC. (The series has tested the Windows 10 water with Forza Motorsport 6: Apex and Forza Horizon 3.) And if you want the cars, the tracks, the raindrops on the windshield to look their absolute, pixel-perfect best, the Windows 10 version — with the help of some top of the line GPU — will be the best choice.

Microsoft is bringing original Xbox games to the Xbox One. After launching Xbox 360 backwards compatibility at E3 last year, Microsoft is surprising gamers again with original Xbox games. Crimson Skies is one of the first titles planned for the new backwards compatibility, and Xbox chief Phil Spencer promises that original Xbox games will "look better and play better across the Xbox One family."

The original Xbox games support will launch later this year, and it's likely that Microsoft will trial it with Xbox Insiders in the coming months.

Time travelling teen drama Life is Strange is getting a new season, which will serve as a prequel to the original 2015 game. The new arc is called “Before the Storm” and will be spread across three episodes.

The original Life is Strange starred high school student Max, an aspiring photographer who learns she has the power to rewind time. The narrative-focused experience centered around Max’s budding power, which she could use to change events and reshape the future. It was a gripping story that melded elements of TV shows like Veronica Mars and Twin Peaks, with the gameplay of episodic adventures from Telltale Games.

Microsoft revealed its new Xbox One X console on stage at E3 earlier today, and now the company is announcing the price: $499. The new gaming console will debut on November 7th priced at $499, exactly $100 more than its main competition the PlayStation 4 Pro. The Xbox One X is more powerful at 6 teraflops of graphical power vs. the 4.2 teraflops found on the PlayStation 4 Pro, and it also includes an Ultra HD Blu-ray drive.

The $100 price different will still be a point of discussion for gamers interested in both Microsoft and Sony's consoles. Sony is planning to hold its own E3 press conference tomorrow night at 6PM PT / 9PM ET, and its possible the company could announce its own PS4 Pro price cut to counter Microsoft's more powerful console. Either way, games will be the key to the success of both the Xbox One X and the existing Xbox One S, and Microsoft has focused heavily on those at E3 today.

Crackdown 3 went MIA following its last gameplay demo at Gamescom 2015. Naturally, its E3 2017 trailer is making up for lost time. The footage is dense with explosives, heavy weapons, and robots, all rendered in the series’s neon art style.

Terry Crews also makes a guest appearance. Because why not.

In 2014, developers Tim and Adrien Soret released a short playable teaser called The Last Night, which transported the style and vibe of cyberpunk adventures like Blade Runner into a 2D, pixel art game. Now the pair have shown off what the final version of the game will look like —  and it’s absolutely gorgeous. The creators describe the setting as a “two-dimensional cyberpunk open world,” with four unique districts to explore. Meanwhile, the gameplay itself, which is billed as a “cinematic platformer,” looks reminiscent of classics like Another World.

The Last Night will be coming to both Xbox One and PC in 2018.

Did Metro 2033 and its sequel Metro: Last Light not sate your thirst for shooting mutant animals in an eerily beautiful post-apocalyptic future? Well, developer 4A Games is releasing a new installment of the series — Metro Exodus — in 2018 for Windows and the Xbox One.

Like its predecessors, Metro Exodus is based on the series of novels from Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, in which the last survivors of a nuclear war survive underground in subway networks. In this trailer, that requires some handy work with a knife and crossbow, before your protagonist escapes on a steam engine. We don’t know a lot about the game yet, but the trailer is cinematic and bleakly gorgeous.

At its big E3 keynote today, Microsoft provided a better look at its upcoming Xbox One survival game State of Decay 2. The game, which was first revealed last year, expands on the original Xbox 360 game with an open-world setting and cooperative gameplay that forces you to survive the zombie apocalypse alongside other players. That includes fighting off the typical undead hordes, as well as giant zombies with glowing red eyes. The game will let players build their own shelters, while also dealing with other conditions like hunger and the weather.

Here’s how the developers describe the set-up:

Forza Motorsport 7 was just announced at E3, and we’ve got an exclusive first look at the game, which you can see above. The first Forza for Microsoft’s new Xbox One X will take advantage of the console’s boost in power to run natively in 4K at 60 frames per second. The 5-minute clip shows off what that looks like with a quick race in a Nissan GT-R at Nürburgring.

That clip also shows off something else: Forza Motorsport 7 finally brings dynamic weather to the series. It goes way beyond the simple “rain” and “night” modes introduced in Forza 6 — every time you race, and even during the races (as you can see above), the weather will be different, and the tracks respond in kind. Puddles will build as the rain keeps pounding down, and severe heat in the game’s new featured track — Dubai — will affect how fast your tires wear, and more.

Microsoft and Turn 10 studios have officially pulled the wraps off of Forza Motorsport 7, the first Forza designed to run on Xbox One X, Microsoft’s next-generation console. Last month, I went to Turn 10’s offices to see Forza ahead of its E3 debut. I spent a little under 30 minutes playing the game, and the rest of the trip speaking with the team that brought it to life.

A half hour isn’t enough time to provide a deep dive, but here’s what I can say. It’s the most beautiful Forza Motorsport ever. While it’s playable on Xbox One and will also be released on PC, it was really built for — and alongside the development of — what was then still called Project Scorpio, which means it will run natively at 60 frames per second at 4K resolution.

After months of speculation, Microsoft is unveiling its “Project Scorpio” games console today, and it's officially named Xbox One X. Microsoft's Xbox One X naming comes just days after the company trademarked a mysterious S logo, and started dropping Scorpio hints in its E3 teaser videos. Microsoft is planning to launch the Xbox One X on November 7th worldwide, priced at $499.

All existing Xbox One accessories will work on the new Xbox One X — which we got to see first-hand at E3 today — alongside all existing Xbox 360 backwards compatible titles and Xbox One games. Microsoft is planning to use "super sampling" on the One X to make new games look better even on 1080p TVs.

At E3 2017, Microsoft’s splashy, neon-soaked press conference will have a meaningful impact on the console industry. The company is expected to unveil the final consumer version of its Project Scorpio device, a new and improved Xbox One that should be capable of native 4K gaming and virtual reality support. How it compares to Sony’s existing PlayStation 4 Pro, and what it means for console gaming in the graphics and performance department, will a big point of discussion at E3 this year.

Microsoft’s press conference this year is a day earlier than usual: 5PM ET / 2PM PT on Sunday, June 11th. It’s also going to be a long one.