This past May, Microsoft hosted its first Xbox Games Showcase, which… didn’t go very well. The show was meant to showcase only third party titles, but Microsoft didn’t do a great job at making this fact known. A lot of fans tuned in to see things like Halo Infinite, only to leave disappointed. And even those in the know found a reason to complain when the heavily advertised highlight of the show – Assassin’s Creed Valhalla‘s gameplay reveal – focused more on cutscenes and set pieces, only sprinkling in a small amount of actual gameplay.
After Sony’s mostly well-received PlayStation 5 reveal, the pressure is on for Microsoft to knock its next show out of the park. Well, that chance is fast approaching now. Microsoft has revealed that the next Xbox Games Showcase will take place on July 23 at 9:00 a.m. PT. There will also be a pre-show starring everyone’s favorite Dorito Pope, Geoff Keighley. This starts an hour before the show, at 8:00 a.m. PT.
Who will flinch first?
The only game that we know for a fact will show up is the aforementioned Halo Infinite. Hopefully, we’ll get more than a trailer – somebody actually playing the game would be great. Of course, fans have also started speculating about what else Microsoft could announce.
The two things that most people hope to see are a release date and a price. Sony hasn’t announced these two points either. It feels like both companies are in a perpetual game of chicken to see who blinks first. Signs point to the PS5 releasing sometime in November, as that’s when Cyberpunk 2077 will release, and that game is supposed to release simultaneously with a next-gen version. If this is true, it is reasonable to assume that the Xbox Series X will also launch somewhere around that time. This would get them into stores before the holiday season and Black Friday, too.
Regardless of what happens, we’ll know more in just a few short weeks. Hopefully, this show will turn out far, far better than Microsoft’s last one.
