Yesterday Xbox held their 2023 Xbox Games Showcase + Starfield Direct. I’m primarily a PlayStation and Nintendo Switch gamer, with the occasional PC gaming (on my outdated PC). Still, I get excited to see what Xbox has to offer because (1) many Xbox exclusive Indies end up on the Nintendo Switch at some point, (2) most of these games will also be playable on PC, and (3) I want all gaming to be great.
Recently, Xbox has had some big wins with Game Pass (aka “The best deal in gaming”) and working on giving gamers the opportunity to play anywhere with their push for Cloud gaming. The problem lately has been with the Xbox exclusive games. The latest disaster being the underwhelming release of Redfall.
In past Xbox showcases, we’ve seen some pretty big announcements. The problem was that too many of these games were so far away, and many have yet to release. Leading up to yesterday’s showcase I was hoping to see more games that are coming out very soon.
Below you can find the full Xbox Showcase + Starfield Direct:
I didn’t have a chance to watch the showcase until very late last night, so I have only included a list of the Top Five games I’m most excited about.
TOP FIVE
1 | Fable
The showcase started off strong with a much anticipated game from the Xbox community, the new Fable.
Two years ago, we saw a quick teaser for this game that did not show much other than a fairy flying around before being eaten by a frog. This time we got to see and hear Richard Ayoade’s (from The IT Crowd) portrayal of Vegetable Enthusiast DAVE.
Within this universe, the Fable fantasy characters and creatures are small Honey I Shrunk the Kids-sized beings, while the modern humans are normal-sized, or extremely giant in the eyes of the fantasy characters. I’ve always heard great things about Fable, and I even read one of the comics back in the day.
There was no date announcement, but I believe that Fable is coming to Xbox Series X|S in 2024.
2 | South of Midnight
I was instantly intrigued by the half-skeleton blues guitarist in this trailer, along with his music. The trailer also had some sweet stop motion animation to it (will that be translated to the gameplay?). There’s sort of a dark, bayou world of creatures mixed with the modern hero magic wielder. No gameplay was revealed but I will be watching for some more from South of Midnight.
South of Midnight also did not receive a release date in the presentation, but is coming to Xbox, PC and Game Pass.
3 | Star Wars: Outlaws
I think it is safe to say that I will play pretty much any game that takes place in the Star Wars Universe. Star Wars Outlaws seems to focus on a brand new story and characters. The studio behind this game, Massive Entertainment (A Ubisoft Studio), previously worked on The Division 1 & 2. I don’t know how something like The Division will translate to Star Wars, but I’m curious to find out.
We’ll get more news today during the Ubisoft Forward event on this game, but for now we can expect it to release in 2024.
4 | 33 Immortals
33 Immortals is an co-op action-ropuelike for up to 33 players. When Sarah Bond mentioned co-op I was thinking she meant couch co-op, but 33 people is an insane amount to fit onto one couch. I included this game on the list because I’m mostly curious to see how this 33-player pick-up and raid system works.
33 Immortals is coming to Xbox Series X|S, PC and Game Pass in 2024.
Side Quest: If you watched the showcase you will notice that the first four games on my Top Five list
were the first four games shown in the showcase. Overall, we saw a total of about 25 games, but these
first four really caught my attention. There were a few others throughout the presentation that really
caught my eye, but I only have room for one more. I will say that there was also a big percentage of
games that look cool, but I know they probably aren’t for me — games like Towerborne, Metaphor
ReFantazio, Cities Skylines II, and the Persona games.
5 | Jusant
At first look, Jusant looked to be a game primarily based on the “climbing parts” of games like the Uncharted series or the Star Wars Jedi series. Jusant is a meditative action-puzzle climbing game. There’s something inviting about these villages carved out into the sides of mountains. I would love to play this game to really learn more about this world. I’m also a fan of puzzle climbing in games.
Jusant is coming to Xbox in Early 2024.
Honorable Mention
Some other games that caught my attention were Still Wakes the Deep, Dungeons of Hinterberg, and Clockwork Revolution. I did not watch the full Starfield Direct yet, but I will later today — there’s just so many showcases going on. As much as Bethesda RPGs like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls have never been my kind of games I still enjoy learning about Starfield, which seems to be like those games, in space, with a lot more going on.
Overall, Xbox had a pretty good showing yesterday. I will say again that I think it’s very cool that each of the big three platforms is doing their own thing right now.
Nintendo Switch is all about those first-party Nintendo exclusive games and indies, but you won’t get many of those big, visually stunning AAA titles on there.
PlayStation leans heavily into first-party exclusive single player adventures. Many of which fall straight into my wheelhouse (Ratchet & Clank, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Marvel’s Spider-Man, God of War, and many more).
Xbox is focusing on the Game Pass subscription model that allows you to play all kinds of games, including their first-party games on release date. They have also been hard at work on creating a seamless Cloud gaming experience. I’m excited for the future of Xbox, and for the launch of Starfield.
VIDEO GAME BOOK CLUB 