Microsoft is set to hold an Xbox Series X games showcase in July, despite reports to the contrary. And we’re expecting a lot more out of its next event than the rather mediocre May 7 event which revealed a load of third-party games but no exclusive titles.
For a moment it looked like Microsoft was going to push the July event back into August, as Jeff Grubb, a games journalist at VentureBeat, posted a picture of his games events schedule claiming that August is when the next Xbox 20/20 July event will happen. Only it turned out he was wrong, as Aaron Greenberg, general manager for Xbox marketing, took to Twitter to reaffirm that the next Xbox digital show is happening in July.
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Such confusion over schedules isn't a huge surprise, as Microsoft was expected to carry out an Xbox Series X showcase in June. But with the chaos kicked up by the coronavirus pandemic and E3 being canceled, the event appeared to be moved to July.
We have not pushed anything back, our plan remains to have our next digital show in July and teams are working hard on that. https://t.co/e09NcRpVcCJune 8, 2020
Samuel Bateman, the marketing lead for Xbox UK also tweeted that the Xbox event will go ahead in July, further refuting Grubb’s schedule.
No it's not. We'll see you in July 👍 https://t.co/VPJjxQ9vrCJune 8, 2020
What to expect at the Xbox July event
In short, a lot more first-party games. Other than a few scant glimpses at Halo Infinite and Hellblade 2, we’ve heard very little about first-party games being developed by Xbox Game Studios, let alone Xbox Series X exclusive games.
However, we are expecting that to change in July. We’d be rather confident at getting a more in-depth look at Halo Infinite, including actual game footage, as well as a breakdown of what to expect from Hellblade 2. We’d also love to get some insight into whether a new Fable game is on the way, but that might be wishful thinking.
We also expect Microsoft to go into more detail on how the games will run on the Xbox Series X, from 4K resolution and ray-tracing to fast frame rates and HDR upscaling for backwards compatible games. Speaking of which, some more information as well as footage of older games running on Xbox Series X hardware is reasonably likely too, as well as how Xbox will handle its Smart Delivery service.
And it wouldn’t be too big a stretch of the imagination to hear a little more about how the Project xCloud game streaming service will work alongside the Xbox Series X, as well as get more information on cross-play with Windows 10 PCs.
Microsoft's Xbox event will lag behind what’s shaping up to be a major games showcase by Sony on June 11, aka this Thursday. Unlike Microsoft’s May 7 event, we’re expecting to see a slew of first-party games from Sony’s PlayStation arm, though we’re not holding our breath to see the final design of the PS5.
Sony’s ‘The Future of Gaming’ event was originally planned for last week, but the company sensibly and sensitively postponed it to avoid distracting from the Black Lives Matters movement protests that are happening across the world in reaction to the killing of George Floyd through police brutality in Minneapolis. Even though we’re keen to see some next-generation games, Tom’s Guide supported such a decision and we stand behind the #BlackLivesMatters.
But get May 11 in your calendar if you’re a PS5 fan as it promises to be a bountiful games showcase. And Xbox fans should do the same, as there's a good chance the PS5 event will also show off games coming to both consoles.
However, with Xbox Series X exclusives likely to take center stage at the July Xbox event, by the time August comes around, we should have a good idea of platform-specific games for both the consoles. And that could pave the way for an exciting showdown between the PS5 and Xbox Series X come the end of the year when the consoles are released.
What to expect at the Xbox July event
