Microsoft’s XO event returns this year, and we’re pretty sure there’s going to be some notable announcements to look forward to. For one thing, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer is in attendance, and there have been some interesting teasers already surfacing around the internet.
But it’s important to remember this isn’t E3 2.0; let’s not get ourselves worked up over a whole bunch of pipedream announcements that almost certainly won’t come true. For that reason, we’re going over some of the hype-worthy announcements most likely to drop at XO18.
Hypeworthy Announcements That Will Likely Be at XO18
Crackdown 3 Release Date & Cloud Destruction Multiplayer
Let’s be real, Crackdown 3’s constant delays either side of what was a disappointing showing at last year’s E3 has taken the wheels off its initial hype train in a big way. This is a game that desperately needs to make a good impression at its next presentation, and XO18 seems like the perfect stage.
The strange thing about Crackdown 3 is that we haven’t seen much –if anything at all– about the one feature of the game that originally had fans hugely excited: its Cloud-based destruction technology.
This feature looked set to deliver on streaming aspect of the Xbox One’s design that was much talked about at the console’s launch. Yet when Crackdown 3 was finally showcased in detail, the cloud-destruction that looked like such a game changer was nowhere to be seen.
Developer Sumo Digital was quick to clarify that cloud-destruction was only ever a multiplayer feature. Since then, though, all we’ve seen is the single-player mode, and that in itself went down like a lead balloon.
Presumably, Sumo Digital has been hard at work reshaping great swathes of the game. But when if we do see Crackdown 3 at XO18, we want to see the whole thing, the new-look single-player and multiplayer with cloud-destruction highlighting the game’s full bag of tricks.
Hypeworthy Announcements That Will Likely Be at XO18
Ninja Theory New Game Reveal
One of the biggest takeaways from Microsoft’s E3 2018 was the sheer number of studio acquisitions. A staggering five new internal studios are now working on future titles, and Ninja Theory was certainly one of the more exciting of the bunch.
Ideally, we’d love to see more than one new exclusive announced at XO18, but that does seem unlikely. If it’s just going to be the one, we’d suggest Ninja Theory is the studio best positioned to deliver a game fairly quickly.
After all, it’s been a year since the critically acclaimed Senua’s Sacrifice launched on PS4. Since then the developer has ported the game over to Xbox One, but you’d have to imagine they’re busy working on a new project exclusively for Microsoft.
Quite what that title could be we’ve no idea, though we’d definitely like to see another game with the level of graphical polish and quality of writing as in Senuas Sacrifice.
Hypeworthy Announcements That Will Likely Be at XO18
Obsidian Aquisition
Speaking of studio acquisitions, why stop at just five when you could add even more to your roster? That’s the question we’re hoping Microsoft answers emphatically by swooping in for developer Obsidian Entertainment, as was rumored not long ago.
The makers of the brilliant Pillars of Eternity series, Obsidian Entertainment would add another string to Microsoft’s bow, and send a big statement of intent about the future of the Xbox brand.
It’s these sorts of quality RPG experiences that are missing from the Xbox One lineup. It seems logical that by moving to acquire studios like Obsidian, Microsoft is working toward building a library more likely to attract gamers that might otherwise look elsewhere.
I think this is the sort of announcement that probably makes more sense at an event like XO18, as opposed to scores of new games.
Hypeworthy Announcements That Will Likely Be at XO18
Sea of Thieves & State of Decay 2 Content
Sea of Thieves was rightly given a hard time by critics and players at launch. It was a game that frustrated us, presenting a gorgeous world and a brilliant multiplayer concept, but simply not offering enough content to keep us interested.
Inevitably, the content has since started to trickle in and flesh out the experience. Forsaken Shores, the latest update, only very recently launched, yet we’re hankering for more. What we’d like to see is a solid roadmap that promises us game-changing future modes and content.
Elsewhere, State of Decay 2 is another Xbox One exclusive that could really benefit from an expansion to give players a reason to jump back into that world. Similar to Sea of Thieves, it was an experience that felt as though it laid a solid foundation without ever feeling totally complete.
We know there’s a DLC yet to come, so XO18 feels like the right time to get players excited for what is, in reality, one of very few exclusives for the Xbox One in 2018.
Hypeworthy Announcements That Will Likely Be at XO18
PUBG’s New Map & Content Roadmap
When Microsoft first proudly touted that PUBG would be coming exclusively to Xbox One, it seemed like a huge get. But after its astonishing early popularity, PUBG has somewhat faded in the face of an increasingly competitive battle royale genre.
In combination with what is honestly rather underwhelming performance on Xbox One, the gloss has rather been taken off the exclusivity deal.
Yet PUBG can still be a tour de force in gaming moving forward, so maybe XO18 is where Microsoft and PUBG Corp. combine to showcase what the game has to offer moving forward? For starters, let’s see that new snow map.
Beyond that, though, we’d love to see a glimpse of what the developer has in store down the line. Surely, PUBG is going to have to step up its efforts to incorporate more timed events and special features to compete with the likes of Fortnite and Black Ops 4’s Blackout?
Xbox took to Twitter earlier this week to tout “big PUBG news.” Of course, it’s almost a year since they first announced the timed exclusivity deal with PUBG, which is actually due to end this December. What we might see at XO18, then, is new content coming to PUBG exclusively to Xbox One.
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