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Microsoft’s Xbox E3 2017: The Liveblog

Alex Walker Avatar
Alex Walker

It’s finally time. If you’ve wanted to know how powerful and how much Project Scorpio can be, or you just want to see some cool games, Microsoft’s conference is a good place to be. Let’s get our liveblogging boots on.

5:45 AM: It’s a misty, but not quite proper winter morning in Sydney. Mist always makes for a nice photographic backdrop, and it adds a bit of allure and mystery to the morning.

Appropriate for Project Scorpio, then. Grab a coffee, grab your breakfast. 0700 AEST is the starting time (or 0500 AWST for Perth).

5:50 AM: So first predictions for the morning – What will Microsoft actually call Project Scorpio?

My money would be a suffix or something around the original Xbox One name, in the same vein as the PS4 Pro but with a little more style. Xbox One X or something like that, perhaps. It’s special, but it’s still the Xbox One.

6:00 AM: While we’re at it, what did everyone think of EA’s conference? It delivered on the occasional cringe and Battlefront 2 looked mint, which is more or less what I expected. Didn’t think I’d get Prison Break: The Co-op Game though.

6:15 AM: Right, I think it’s time for some coffee on my end.

A small note: after the 90 minute (unless it runs overtime) conference, Microsoft will be streaming new gameplay of Sea of Thieves through Mixer:

If you want to watch the streams, by the way, you can do that below.

[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/06/microsofts-e3-2017-conference-stream-will-be-right-here/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/06/xboxbrief-410×231.jpg” title=”Watch Microsoft’s Xbox E3 2017 Conference Here” excerpt=”Sneaking in before Sony, but after EA’s pre-show, uh, show, is big ol’ Redmond. Those Xbox guys. Or just Microsoft. It’ll have a few announcements to get through at E3 this year and you’ll be able to see them all, right here.”]

6:30 AM: Xbox are handing out fairly gaudy t-shirts as part of the press conference, with slogans like “I just witnessed the most powerful console ever”.

Naturally, the internet has taken that and ran with it. Ethan’s covered it beautifully below:

[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/06/project-scorpio-hasnt-even-been-unveiled-yet-and-its-already-a-meme/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/jmeley2l3atfpjbd2n1b.jpg” title=”Project Scorpio Hasn’t Even Been Unveiled And It’s Already A Meme” excerpt=”Speaking of t-shirts, Microsoft is handing out its own ahead of the press briefing later this afternoon. They read “I witnessed the most powerful console ever” and naturally the Internet is having a field day.”]

And then come back here for the real Project Scorpio memes, obviously. But I hear a noise from the kitchen: my five shots of coffee are ready.

6:35 AM: When I said five shots of coffee, I wasn’t kidding.

In that red cup, I can fit four shots of “short coffee”. The fifth then comes as part of a flat white, with the milk frother turned up to Milkshake Mode. Consider it the official Kotaku Australia(TM) E3-approved routine.

Or morning routine, in my case.

6:43 AM: So let’s catch up with the biggest rumour so far – and possible leak – being Scorpio’s price. Geoff Keighley, who is busy hosting a live show ahead of Microsoft’s console, was fairly confident the console would be $US499 this morning:

In Australian prices that would make the console $662 after conversion, so you’d be looking at around $700 in practical terms. Really pricing it well and beyond people who were considering an Xbox One S.

6:45 AM: Quick stat check: there are just over 31,000 viewers watching the Xbox stream through Twitch right now, over 44,000 on YouTube, and just over 24,000 on Mixer.

Not a bad result for Mixer.

6:55 AM: Five minutes to go now.

Small shower thought, even though I’m showered and in the office: if I was Xbox, how good a move would it be to leak $US499 as the price only to announce $US399 in the middle of the conference?

Here’s a shot of the conference, from Cam at Gizmodo:

6:59 AM: One minute to go. Odds on a delay of a few minutes?

7:00 AM: Nope, right on time.

7:01 AM: Lots of flow lines, futuristic technology. I’m fairly sure The One Ring just appeared. And so did Halo, and Forza:

The actor seems a little underwhelmed by 4K, if we’re being cheeky.

7:03 AM: Only one USB port on the front:

7:04 AM: CALLED IT. (Scroll up if you don’t believe me.)

7:06 AM: Lots of specs:

People really clapping for that 4K Blu-Ray players. Righto, then.

The Xbox One X will support all Xbox One accessories and games. No surprise there. Promising faster load times and better AA on Xbox One X for existing Xbox titles. It’ll have supersampling as well, where games are rendered at 4K but output at 1080p. For those who don’t have a 4K TV, basically.

7:09 AM: The Xbox One X will be the smallest console as well. But it’s gameplay time now – and this looks a lot like Forza:

And as you’d expect, an actual car is involved.

7:15 AM: So, Forza 7 is a pretty looking game. Running at 60fps in “true” or “native 4K”. The game drops on October 3.

But Phil Spencer is back. What’s he got this time?

7:17 AM: It’s time for a big montage. 42 games are being shown off this conference, with 22 games with “console exclusivity”.

7:18 AM: It’s 4A Games’ turn. It’s time for a new Metro game?

There’s an underground sequence with some jump scares and lots of angsty, over-sized feral animals eating shit. Including the player (although not in this demo):

Metro: Exodus is the official name, by the way.

And now it’s time for, probably, Assassin’s Creed: Origins:



7:27 AM: Time for Origins running at 4K, with a bit of fake Oracle assassination to boot. First shot of Ubi adjusting their logo too.

Seems like Origins will use an eagle, much in the same way you can use the drone in Ghost Recon: Wildlands, for scouting.

7:30 AM: The UI looks pretty slick:

And the sound has *completely* turned to shit for me on the stream. That’s fun. Time to switch to YouTube.

Funny how the sound dies while I’m watching on Mixer just as Mixer gets a callout during the conference. But now it’s time for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. It’s coming to Xbox One. Brendan Greene steps on stage.

Battlegrounds won’t get Xbox One X enhancements until the game ships, however – and that could be a fair while off. It’ll probably go nuts on Xbox One anyway though, if the Steam launch is anything to be believed.

7:37 AM: And time for something very … low-poly at points. Looks co-op, and it’s called Deep Rock Galactic.

7:39 AM: Zombie time, and by that I mean State of Decay 2:

7:43 AM: And for a completely different tack, someone pulls an axe out of a dead body in the snow:

Looks like another Battle Royale-style game:

The Darwin Project is the name of that … game. Guess Battle Royale games are going to be the flavour on consoles for the next few years. But it’s Minecraft time, and apparently all platforms are being merged now (including VR). Neat.

7:47 AM: Oh, Minecraft is getting a new look this spring apparently. Dynamic lighting seems to be the name of the game now:

Followed up by that is a new Dragon Ball game:

That’s followed by another Japanese games that seems a little Final Fantasy 14-esque.

But it’s actually Black Desert, which isn’t Japanese at all. Korean, I believe.

Another console indie exclusive – and it looks very intriguing:

7:55 AM: It’s an Australian game – The Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti:

And Sea of Thieves finally shows up:

You can swim underwater and pick a fight with sharks, if you’d like. But mostly it’s just to pick up crates in the water so you can swim back to your boat.

All this gameplay footage is reminding me that I get weekly emails from Rare that don’t tell me when the public beta for Sea of Thieves kicks off, and that royally annoys me. You can launch players from your ship, apparently:

8:05 AM: Here’s the full trailer for the only Australian game at Microsoft’s conference so far:

Sea of Thieves meanwhile … is underwhelming a little bit. A lot of the things you do don’t seem quite as fun as I’d wanted them to be. The time to kill on the pistol action is pretty long, too.

This looks cute though. It’s a little fox.

Super Lucky’s Tale, apparently. Looks like a modern collectathon platformer. Not my thing, but there’s plenty of fans for these sorts of games.

8:10 AM: FINALLY. Cuphead appears again. September 29 is the release date.

And now it seems like Crackdown 3 with Terry Crews screaming an awful lot.

8:13 AM: Definitely Crackdown 3. Stylised look this time.’

Lot of games being announced in quick succession. Strange Brigade, Riverbond, Hello Neighbor, Shift, a whole ton at once. Conan Exiles too. It’s the ID@Xbox montage, basically.

Phil Spencer steps up to highlight a game, calling out its aesthetic. It’s a console exclusive, not platform exclusive.

And then Ashen and Life is Strange 2 appear:

Shadow of War follows, and you can apparently get orc leaders to battle each other now:

Orc leaders get fairly chatty and jovial when they’ve been dominated, apparently:

You can choose followers before you go into a siege. Bruce is the name of the Orc shown off in this gameplay trailer as well, hilariously:

Gareth Coker gets on stage and plays some haunting music, which brings us to the Ori and the Blind Forest sequel:

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the official name. Very pretty.

8:30 AM: Spencer returns to the stage to spruik backward compatibility. Around half of users have played a BC game, he repeats.

And original Xbox games are now backward compatible as well:

Crimson Skies is mentioned, but no word on a release.

8:36 AM: The Xbox One X will cost $649 when it launches in Australia later this year.

[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/06/the-xbox-one-x-will-cost-649-in-australia/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/06/2017-06-12_070502-1-410×231.jpg” title=”The Xbox One X Will Cost $649 In Australia” excerpt=”The Xbox One X will cost $649 in Australia when it launches later this year, Kotaku Australia can confirm.”]

It’s time for Bioware’s new IP though: Anthem.

The exosuits are called javelins, apparently. “This is a vast open-world you explore with friends,” the on-stage announcer says. Cue Andromeda flashbacks.

Seems like a blend of Mass Effect and Destiny, really:

It’s another montage, so the conference is probably close to wrapping up. Gone for almost two hours now.

8:45 AM: So that’s it, everything has come to a close now. What’d you think?

It felt like the conference dragged on a little in terms of what was being shown, but Microsoft did good by at least not having too many developer interviews throughout. It was just straight gameplay or cinematics for the most part, and that was nice. (A lot harder if you’re liveblogging and capping photos, but as a gamer that’s the style I prefer.)

A few games stood out, like Anthem and Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Was great to see Artful Escape on stage and I think Battlegrounds on console is a very savvy move. But what are your thoughts on the platform – and what do you think of the price at $649? Let us know.

8:55 AM: Here’s some segments of gameplay as well from the various trailers:

9:00 AM: In case you had any doubt, and you shouldn’t have, here’s even more confirmation on the price from Xbox Australia’s Jeremy Hinton:

9:20 AM: And that’ll be it for the liveblog. We’ll leave you with some peaceful thoughts from Hideo Kojima, whose assistant is enjoying anything but video games apparently:

And to get back to E3, here’s what the Xbox One X looks like up close:


Thanks for staying along. We’ll be back just before 2:00 AEST to do it all again for Bethesda’s conference.

[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/06/catch-bethesdas-e3-live-stream-here-tomorrow/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/06/betheda-410×231.jpg” title=”Catch Bethesda’s E3 Live Stream Here Tomorrow” excerpt=”A few hours after Microsoft’s E3 conference tomorrow, Bethesda will show off its own share of goodies. We can all hope for a new instalment in the Elder Scrolls franchise, but it’s more likely to be a showcase of other products under parent ZeniMax’s umbrella.”]

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