When E3 gets underway next month, expect to hear a lot about Microsoft’s partnership with Bethesda Games as the company touts its Xbox Series X and Xbox Series X games. And hopefully that means more details about the highly anticipated Starfield game that’s expected to be exclusive to the Xbox and PCs.
Microsoft officially confirmed its E3 2021 plans, highlighted by a June 13 streaming event dubbed the “Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase.” It’s the first official event set by one of the Big 3 console makers — along with Microsoft, that group includes Sony and Nintendo — and it’s fueling speculation about what Bethesda might have to say about Starfield now that it’s been acquired by Microsoft.
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The digital event's announcement names no specific games, with Aaron Greenberg, general manager of Xbox Games Marketing promising a “90-minute show packed with everything you want to know about the epic gaming lineup coming out of this partnership.” There’s no games mentioned in the Microsoft E3 announcement, but Starfield figures to be part of the proceedings.
Starfield is a space-faring sci-fi game that was first teased in 2018. There’s not a lot of information out there about the game, but leaked images have suggested it will combine space exploration with the kind of open-world adventure format found in other Bethesda games like Skyrim and Fallout 4.
Recent leaks have suggested a reveal of Starfield could happen soon — as in “June 13” kind of soon. The game itself may not ship until next year, when it will likely be an exclusive for the Xbox and PC.
Whether we learn anything about the sci-fi RPG – or the equally-anticipated The Elder Scrolls 6 – remains to be seen, but given Microsoft's sizable slate of previously announced games, the show shouldn't suffer for a lack of content.
A quarter of the E3 event's official logo is consumed by Master Chief, so juicy details on the long-delayed Halo Infinite are all but guaranteed. Toss in fresh Fable, Perfect Dark, and Hellblade entries, new projects from Rare and Obsidian Entertainment and whatever else Xbox's dozen or so other studios are cooking up, and heads could be spinning long before a Starfield T-shirt-sporting Todd Howard even hits the stage.
Microsoft’s E3 event begins at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT.
