If you skipped out on Microsoft’s E3 press conference, you not only missed out on one of their better presentations, but in some parts, one of their stranger ones. Some of the announcements made were VERY left-field, like for example….
HOLY COW, MICROSOFT JUST BOUGHT FOUR DEVELOPERS And wholly invented a fifth! XBox head Phil Spencer took to the stage and spoke of his renewed efforts to bring more exclusives to XBox, and he wasn’t kidding. The Initiative, Undead Labs, Playground Games, Ninja Theory and Compulsion Games are all now Microsoft’s property, effective immediately.
BATTLETOADS IS COMING BACK There was no footage, just text — and a remixed version of the theme — but the stars of the NES’s hardest game are finally returning, with their boots directly aimed in the direction of Dark Queen’s butt. We’re only assuming she’ll be back. What we can definitely tell you, according to the trailer, is that there will be “body-morphing genre mashups, three-player couch co-op, 4K hand-drawn 2.5D graphics, and broad non-specific feature declarations.”
DEVIL MAY CRY 5 Woohoo! It feels like an eternity since we last saw this series, but Capcom is getting ready to launch its comeback, and they made the announcement during Microsoft’s conference. We can’t wait! Also, Hideaki Itsuno hates speaking English.
GEARS POP The crowd erupted in cheers when the Gears “skull” logo appeared at the beginning of a new trailer — then the audience reaction diailed itself down to a “huh? what? huh?” when familiar Gears characters emerged in Funko Pop form and engaged in cutesy antics. Can’t say I saw that one coming. About a minute later they showed us the actual reveal of Gears 5, so there was no need for rioting.
VAGUE CONFIRMATION OF THE NEXT GENERATION Spencer let it slip that deep within Microsoft they’re hard at work on the next XBox console. We may not see or hear much about it for a long time, but it IS on the horizon and they’re thinkin’ about it.. Now the only question is how confusing the name will be. My guess is that they keep going backwards and call it “XBox Zero.” Then in five to seven years, “XBox Negative One.”
