Xbox Showcases - Is a single showcase enough?

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What should be an Xbox showcase? Is one showcase enough? This is a commonly phrased question in our Xbox community and in the forum.

Xbox has these events primarily every year:

  1. XBox E3 showcase - in 2020, they had two events like this one. ID@Xbox currently shows up here.
  2. XBox fanfest - not a showcase, but sometimes serves as a useful mini-conference for announcements
  3. MineCon – probably among the largest of the lot, and strangely ignored by the Xbox community

Xbox will have 23 studios after the Zenimax acquisition is complete. There are rumours that they expect to grow even more to service AAA games into Gamepass at a regular cadence.

There are huge opportunities here, and an understated opinion that seems to be bubbling up is that one hour and one day for Xbox showcase has to be a thing of the past. This is especiallly, given the fact that there are too many teams vying for attention – whether it is an upcoming game or a cinematic preview of something in early development.

Even Zenimax/Bethesda comes with two events: Bethesda at E3 and QuakeCon.

Xbox has publicly stated that PC is now considered an Xbox platform and games will release day one on PC, Xbox and Xcloud (for Android now, and iOS in the near future). This announcement suggests that PC will have a prominent place in the Xbox roadmap. There are games like Age of Empires 4 which do not make much sense in a purely console showcase at E3. Although, it was shown, the showcase is aimed primarily at console players who look at Age of Empires 4 rather cluelessly.

Does this warrant a separate showcase (or a mini showcase) for PC and Xcloud gaming?

Xbox and the Gamepass team invest in smaller indie studio projects too through initiatives like Chris Charla’s ID@Xbox. These indie projects tend to get lost in the larger event. Also, the gaming media pays lip service to indies and does not largely care about them, at showcase events. Do small indies need their own event at Xbox?

Given this prologue, and the influx of 5 events already, I would like to know your thoughts, about how many events does Xbox need to do in a year, and what is the cadence of doing this?

There is also the question of how do they need to produce the online showcase, this year due to Covid, until a post-covid E3 becomes real. Useful examples of great showcases include the one by Xbox in 2020, the Apple showcase, the Google io showcase, Playstation showcase, the Nintendo showcase, and the Game Awards event. These are good examples of the range of high quality events with very different styles.

Although, the lead question is a good starting point about Xbox needing more than one showcase, this thread has been constituted for the community to think together about Xbox showcases in general.

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Personally, I would prefer to see four showcases a year starting in 2022. Two minor showcases in Q1 (Jan/Feb/Mar) and Q3 (July/Aug/Sept) being around the 40-45 minute mark. Mostly updates, gameplay trailers but will also have an unannounced game reveal in order to get people to want to watch all these shows because you would know that they will reveal something on every show.

The two major showcases being around the 90-120 minute mark. These would be in Q2 (April/May/June) and Q4 (Oct/Nov/Dec). I would probably push for Xbox Games Showcase in May 2022 and stick with that going forward if it was up to me. Just like the exclusives should be spread out, so should be the showcases. Then in late October/early November, X0??.

All shows are digital, well produced high quality at 60FPS. All games shown should be running off the Xbox Series X. NOT PC.

Bethesda SHOULD 100% be implemented into the showcases especially the two major ones. They don’t need to be at every showcase nor does every development studio. Again, everything can be spread out and varied just like when the exclusive games get released. No reason to bunch everything together for some odd reason.

Bethesda can still have their small QuakeCon show as it wouldn’t be bigger than the showcases for Xbox. It would exist for those who want to know more about Bethesda in particular because they’re hardcore fans or perhaps someone new who just wants to know more info about them.

Don’t know what I would call the two minor showcases. I guess it could be called Inside Xbox but at the same time, they could just go with Xbox Games Showcase as the main name and just keep expectations in check to where you’re likely to over deliver on every showcase because of this.

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Big ones: Summer and X0.

Show up at Gamescom, TGA and fill the rest of the year with “State of Inside Xbox Direct”.

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I wouldn’t be surprised if the old ways of centering announcements around E3, PAX, and other similar venues shifts as a result of several factors: COVID and the continued quarantine/travel restrictions, and an Xbox that will continue to grow. As you mentioned, Bethesda offers opportunities like QuakeCon, and when your first party consists of 24+ studios, it’s simply too much for a singular event. The increasing size of Xbox also garners an opportunity to intentionally spread announcements.

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I like more fan focused events sch as Quakecon, Minecraft Live and XO. Not every show needs 10 large announcements.

With E3, Gamescom (focus on PC) and XO (focus on console) they’d have a nice year. With some extra possibilities such as The Game Awards.

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I would like a showcase every 3 months to just highlight what is coming in those next few months to gamepass or new releases. This would be more like a Direct or State of Play. Show more in-depth gameplay for new releases/DLC. Show dev diaries/etc. Show new gamepass games and perks

Keep people talking about Xbox and keep it in the news and on social media. Also, throw more fan engagement in there like the Phil Spencer shelf stuff.

Save the bombs for E3 and only have 1 big E3 event. They also need an event dedicated to PC gaming/mods/etc.

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The only problem with that is that it’s all in the same half of the year, leaving dec-june a freakin wasteland like the desert we are in now. Not a fan.

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I’d love to see big tech focus Jan-March, a major game event each May, big Gamescom presence each year in August, and a big X0 event every year in October. Sprinkle in Direct-styled stuff every month in between. Also wanna see more behind the scenes stuff from devs and from Xbox itself. Could be cool to sprinkle some of those kinda things into the mix too every month.

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