LOS ANGELES, June 8 — Microsoft’s Xbox is expected to make the most of an Electronic Entertainment Expo at which traditional rival PlayStation is a no-show.
An E3 2019 Media Briefing on June 9 has the potential to cover everything from big name releases like Halo Infinite, Cyberpunk 2077 and Borderlands 3 to big hardware and subscription service announcements like the Xbox Two and Project xCloud.
Xbox E3 2019 Media Briefing, Sunday June 9
Start time: 1pm PDT (4am, Monday June 10 Malaysia Time)
Convert to your time zone: timeanddate.com
Worldwide: 1pm PDT, 4pm EDT, 8pm UTC, 9pm UK, 10pm Central Europe and South Africa, then June 10 1.30am India, 4am Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Beijing, China, 5am Japan, and 6am Sydney, Australia
Live stream sites: mixer.com/xbox, youtube.com/xbox, twitch.tv/xbox, twitter.com/Xbox, facebook.com/xbox, or watch from a participating Microsoft Store
Several core Xbox franchises are likely to form the pillars of a June 9 Media Briefing at E3 2019.
Halo: Combat Evolved helped establish the Xbox in 2001, and Halo Infinite was revealed at E3 2018, a teaser taking major cues from the franchise’s first installments.
Fellow shooter Gears 5, in fact the sixth entry to the Gears of War franchise, is expected late on in 2019, while spin-offs Gears Tactics and Gears Pop were likewise E3 2018 debutants.
Another foundational Xbox title, fantasy adventure Fable, is also expected to make a comeback, the Forza Horizon studio tasked with its development.
However, the next full Forza Motorsport is bucking franchise patterns and will not release this year, being in an early stage of development.
That makes it more likely to debut on the next Xbox console, which could be teased this E3 to get ahead of PlayStation; Xbox did something similar for the Xbox One X at E3 2016, launching late the following year.
It’s also been busy preparing subscription service Xbox Game Pass for PC and has game streaming service Project xCloud in development.
Those two services have the potential for significant overlap, and would benefit from further exposure before YouTube owner Google launches its cloud gaming service Stadia in November.
In 2018, Xbox showed Cyberpunk 2077 from Polish independent CD Projekt RED, one of the entire show’s biggest hits, and the wildly ambitious sci-fi adventure has been promised another outing at E3 2019.
Xbox supported a Borderlands 3 event at the start of May and the September launch could well turn up, especially after a surprise expansion for “Borderlands 2” leaked with a June 9 date; Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Battletoads and skateboarding sim Session should be considered at least as likely for acknowledgement.
That said, Xbox has a number of other bookings lined up after the Media Briefing is done, providing adequate space to show off upcoming releases.
Civilisation game Age of Empires is due for an appearance during the June 10 PC Gaming Show (10am PDT, timeanddate.com conversion), there’s a special Inside Xbox later the same day (3pm PDT), and a five-hour Xbox FanFest Showcase on June 11 (6pm PDT).
Then Gears 5 is booked in for a June 11 E3 Coliseum panel (10am PDT), Xbox itself has a combined hour-long slot on June 12 (3pm PDT), and Microsoft-owned Minecraft (10am PDT) kicks off Coliseum proceedings on June 13. — AFP-Relaxnews
