Today there was a special edition of the Inside Xbox show as part of X018, an event which is “a global celebration of all things Xbox,” and lots of things were announced for the Xbox universe of games. There were a lot of moving parts to the two-hour episode, so here’s a breakdown of what we learned.
Microsoft Studios has acquired both Obsidian Entertainment and inXile Entertainment.
Matt Booty, Head of Microsoft Studios, announced the acquisition of these two major role-playing game studios at the end of the show. While both are known for making games in similar genres, Booty stressed that Microsoft wants to keep them unique. Kotaku first reported on the potential purchase of Obsidian last month.
Crackdown 3 is releasing on February 15, 2019.
It’s coming to Xbox Game Pass on the day it releases. Alongside the campaign it will have a multiplayer mode called Wrecking Zone, which pits two teams of five up against each other in large, completely destructible battle arenas. It will launch with two maps, Blackout Zone and Nova Station, as well as two game modes. Developer Joseph Staten said that everyone involved with the game is “busting arse” working on it.
The original Crackdown is free in Microsoft Store until November 30.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is coming to Xbox Game Pass.
The battle royale combat game where 100 enter and only one leaves is hitting the Game Pass. It’s coming soon, too. It’s going to be available November 12.
Phil Spencer said there would be some improvements to the Windows Store.
Anyone who deals with Xbox Play Anywhere titles knows that there are some complications that could be smoothed out regarding the Windows Store, and Spencer spoke about taking on a “bigger leadership role” to implement some improvements to make it “tailored towards the gamers.”
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is getting a physical edition.
Ninja Theory’s game about the mind and mythology is going to be on store shelves. It’s also coming to Game Pass in December.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is going to have Winnie the Pooh minigames.
This might not be all that surprising, but that dang bear is coming back, and you’re going to play some minigames with (or for) him.
The Final Fantasy XIII series is getting backwards compatibility.
Starting next week, you’ll be able to play Final Fantasy XIII, XIII-2, and Lightning Returns for the Xbox 360 on an Xbox One using the console’s backward compatibility feature.
An entire suite of Final Fantasy games are coming to Xbox One.
Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, and Final Fantasy XII will all come to Xbox One sometime in 2019.
Civilization Revolution is enhanced for Xbox One.
While you can already play Civilization Revolution using Xbox One backward compatibility, but there’s a version that’s enhanced with the Xbox One coming soon.
Sea of Thieves is getting a new game mode.
The Arena is a new way of playing Seas of Thieves that pits crews against each other to see who can get the most treasure and, therefore, the most pirate glory. It will appear in the game sometime in “early 2019.”
Xbox with a hat.
There was an Xbox with a hat.
State of Decay 2 is adding some new weapons, gear, and enemies in the Zed Hunter update.
Weapons include crossbows, new quiet melee weapons, and some equipment. The team also teased a return to Trumbull Valley, the location from the original State of Decay.
Just Cause 4 has Rico doing more stuff… just ’cause.
The familiar grappling hooks and parachutes are making a return, but there are also super storms. Tornadoes roam the open world. The new trailer has some story beats in there, and everything looks neat.
Devil May Cry 5 has a mode called “The Void” for practising.
Players will be able to use The Void as a training space for fine-tuning their Devil May Cry skills. They’ll be able to spawn enemies, change some of the game parameters, and generally just do training mode stuff.
Cats and pandas are coming to Minecraft.
If you like those two animals, it’s going to be a great time for you.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is getting a new challenge tomb.
It is a big lava forge. There are some new weapons, you can play it single player or co-op, and there’s a time attack mode.
Mouse and keyboard support are coming to 14 titles.
Bomber Crew, Warface, Children of Morta, Minion Master, DayZ, Warframe, Strange Brigade, Deep Rock Galactic, Warhammer Vermintide 2, Moonlighter, Wargroove, Vigour, War Thunder, X-Morph: Defence, and Fortnite are all taking advantage of the Xbox One’s new ability to use mouse and keyboard. Those games will implement the new inputs on November 14.
Winter of Arcade, a throwback to Summer of Arcade, is coming to Xbox later this year.
The stream announced that it exists, but not what the games will be.
Forza Horizon 4 has a new expansion coming out later this year.
It takes players to Fortune Island, where they can see lightning storms and the aurora borealis on a big, rocky mountain covered by winding roads. I bet the seasons will mix it up as well.
16 games were announced for Xbox Game Pass.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Ori and the Blind Forest, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Thief of Thieves Season 1, Void Bastards, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, The Good Life, Kingdom: Two Crowns, Aftercharge, Supermarket Shriek, Mutant Year Zero, Pathologic 2, Secret Neighbour, The Good Life, Agents of Mayhem, MXGP 3, and Thomas Was Alone.
Not all of these are available currently, and some are not even released yet, but they were all announced as Game Pass games either currently, in the next few months, or on release.
You can watch the video of the entire two hour show on the official Xbox YouTube:
Comments
24 responses to “Everything Xbox Announced During XO18”
I feel like there’s insufficient coverage of the Xbox and it’s hat in this article. I expect some serious investigative journalism here.
I’m sorry to say this guys but this Inside Xbox conference in Mexico City is garbage.
Rare’s Sea of Thieves is trash. Where the hell is Banjo Kazooie Microsoft?!
Why do we want Winnie the Pooh and Big Hero 6 in Disney and SQUARE ENIX’S Kingdom Hearts III haven’t we got enough Disney characters already?
We’ve already got Disney’s Pixar’s Toy Story characters, We’ve already got Mike and Sully from the Monsters Inc and Monsters University movies, We’ve already got Jack Sparrow
played by Johnny Depp from Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and the characters from Disney’s Tangled.
But do we really need Winnie the Pooh and Big Hero 6 added in Kingdom Hearts III?
Come on Microsoft get with the program.
I also want to know where is Banjo Kazooie Microsoft? That’s all I want to know.
The Inside Xbox press conference is the worst ever.
Microsoft you deserve a 1/10 your Inside Xbox conference was nothing but trash and as for your Xbox Game Pass that’s bloody trash too.
Phil Spencer if you’re listening where is Banjo Kazooie?!
Stop showing us some new goddamn Xbox games that are coming in 2019 and give me some goddamn answers!
Where is Banjo Kazooie?!
Damn James chill lol Banjo Kazooie huh. You must be their number one fan. Well it takes all sorts i guess. Still the game pass looks pretty good value for money.
is this Diablo satire?
Trash! Trash! Everything is trash! AAAARGH!!! RAGE!! TRAAAAAAAASSSHHHHHH!!!!!!!
I loled at this
All the whining certainly becoming tiresome.
I bet you’re fun at parties.
What’s this? A SQUARE ENIX game literally about travelling through the magical worlds of Disney is adding more Disney characters? Get with the program Microsoft. This is not what we wanted.
We wanted Banjo-Kazooie in Smash Bros, damnit!
Pretty sure this is a bot account or something.
Ive seen this exact name post random inane things usually on articles relating to nintendo.
Xbox with a hat?!!
Aside from the Xbox with a hat, it seems like a whole lot of nothing to me.
Guess MS didn’t.
No ff8 really that was my favourite one, maybe a remastered version is in the works
That game seems to be completely MIA from all of these releases for modern hardware. I suspect Square have lost the original code in a server crash or during an office move or something. or something.
So… A whole load of nothing…
Again…
And this is why Xbox lags so far behind PlayStation.
Seriously, who gets excited about any of this?
Even their exclusives are boring.
This isn’t a console wars thing, I just see no incentive to buy an Xbox, at all.
If getting an Xbox meant having access to a different and exciting game library I would certainly buy one, but alas.
Being fair, this is a mini event, rather than a ‘big announce’ thing.
As for Xbox’s library, its where I buy everything multi platform, and where I play last gen games, as the experience for both is superior to Playstation. It might be more niche, but is what it is.
Their exclusives are not boring, there simply aren’t enough of them. Also, getting an Xbone does mean having access to a different and exciting game library because it is backwards compatible and all the previous generation games are cheap as chips. Which is great because the 360 won the last generation. I don’t know what the hell they were thinking with this generation that they could get away with almost no exclusives, and obviously it’s bitten them in the ass, but just using the Xbox Controller alone instead of those awful Playstation things is reason enough to choose it. Buy it used and it’s incredible value. And then use the saved money from new to then get a high quality Xbox style controller for the PS4.
I’m really getting the feeling that Microsoft is waiting this generation out and putting their focus on collecting development studios for a strong launch/first twelve months of the neXt-Box.
The next generation launching with gamepass is going to be a wierd one, as I feel like it’ll be the first generation of consoles that the majority of players will never have to buy a game for. How this will affect sales of anything that doesn’t sign up to allow their game to be on the system (with the exception of the core gaming franchises), will start to be much bigger news in the next few years, I think.
General timelines would agree with you. Minimum two years for a game to come out from Inxile or Obsidian puts it around new console release. Same with all the other studio pickups.
The Xbox has been very disappointing this year, and this changes nothing. I’ve bought a 3-4 games for the PS4 this year and have another 2 preordered for next. The Xbox? I bought Soul Calibur because I already have two controllers, but I could have bought that for PS4 as well
Well I actually packed up my xbox one and put it in my cupboard now. I have bought more games on my Ps4 then I have on xbox one. Hell last game I bought for xb1 was Injustice 2 (when it was released)
Can I have your xbonex?
This Sea of thieves update is quite literally the opposite of what I wanted in it.
Give us some gosh darn story. It is easy to implement and can and will increase players enjoyment.
Do you have any idea how frustrating it was to see camps on the island and have no idea what happened? Why is that there? Who knows. So annoying.
I had been tossing up whether to switch to PS4 pro or upgrade the XB1… nothing here gives me reason to do the upgrade….
I was going to wait for the PS5 – but i think that’s too far away.