If you want to read a goofy and incredibly detailed XO prediction post, look no further:
Show starts with a trailer highlighting Forza Horizon's two expansions. The first is a street racing expansion set in a condensed version of London (it seems weird that they would do a Horizon set in the UK and not have London). The second also takes place in the same London map (no new map, but double the map size of previous expansions) and has the player taking on jobs that involve cars like taxi missions, courier missions, and delivery routes. Eventually, the second expansion begins to add a bit of a narrative and slowly morphs into a James Bond inspired "espionage" racing game with the player delivering "classified documents" or something similar with ominous black SUVs chasing them through the streets of London in a mixture of supercars and large storage vehicles with the expansion's light story told through the car's GPS. A bit of cheesy fun in a new direction for Playground.
Phil comes out and waxes poetically about how much he loves games for a bit. He then talks about how good of a year Xbox had, talks about the launch of Forza, and about how exciting it's been to work with the new teams and add new staff. Phil says they're going to lead off with a game that everyone's been waiting for, Crackdown 3.
Crackdown 3 is BLOWN OUT. They start with a multiplayer trailer detailing a few of the main modes that incorporate the destruction. It looks good, but we're all (the posters here) incredibly suspicious. After the trailer, Terry Crews comes out and is intense and yells a bit. They bring out a few more developers and play a short game on stage, cutting between players (a la the Forza Horizon 4 demo at E3). Again, everyone is pretty skeptical and dubious the game is actually being played live on stage. They end the Crackdown 3 segment with a story trailer and it actually looks pretty solid. The trailer ends with a February 8th, 2019 release date, moving the game's release up two weeks.
A short Ori and the Will of the Wisps trailer is shown with a release date of April 23rd. 2019. What more is there to say? The game looks and will be phenomenal.
A Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer is shown, finally unveiling the much-speculated inclusion of Star Wars (I know they've implied it won't happen. I think it makes too much sense to leave it out). At one point, the keyblade will clash with a lightsaber.
Phil is back out and introduces the Xbox Keyboard and Mouse. The combination is $150 and is designed to sit in your lap so you can play comfortably on the couch or in a chair. Phil says this allows Xbox to get more games on the platform. He announces a partnership with Sega with Total War: Three Kingdoms and Endless Space 2 coming to Xbox as Keyboard/Mouse-only games (digital-only), reiterating that they're letting developers do what they want. He said this also allows them to put their own PC offerings on Xbox starting with AoE2 Remastered, releasing in 2019 (no date is given and there is no mention of AoE3: R, AoE4, or Gears Tactics).
Ashley Spencer comes out for some Gamepass announcements. Crackdown 1 and Ori and the Blind Forest are out on Gamepass right now. She also announces a combination Xbox Live Gold/Xbox Gamepass subscription available now for $15/month or $150/year (Saving $5/month or $30/year).
A trailer for Ashen is shown with a reminder it's launching on Gamepass. The release date is reiterated (and will be announced between now and XO18).
A first look at Battletoad's gameplay is shown in the form of a short gameplay trailer. No release date is given other than 2019.
A new trailer is shown for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
A trailer for a new Sea of Thieves expansion is shown. It's called Sea of Thieves: Trouble the Waters and it's a PVP game mode where multiple teams of pirates battle for treasure and to return it to the outpost in a small, "roped-off" portion of the map. The end of the trailer has a teaser for a short campaign (they won't say this, but 2-4 hours), coming in the Spring with at least one established actor/actress voicing a character (Smart money is on Kevin Kline. I don't know why.).
*Night Vision Goggle Startup Sound* Sam Fisher is back! Very short teaser (Michael Ironside voice over with a few in-engine action shots) is shown without platform information (in terms of both current generation versus next generation and exclusive versus multi-platform) or a release date or window.
Gears of War is up next. Rod Fergusson comes out and talks through a short story mission segment, before showing off a trailer for a new and improved Horde Mode. Horde Mode has a bit of a Call of Duty zombies feel (using points to unlock new areas of the map and weapons) and is a celebration of the entire franchise with characters and weapons from the entire series. The maps will have different "moods" including one survival-horror inspired map. There is no mention of Gears Tactics or Gears Pop (I personally think that Gears Tactics is a 2020 title and Microsoft won't want to muddle their message). Again, not much to say here. The game looks and will be phenomenal.
Phil is back on stage and starting to wrap up the show. He reiterates that Xbox is the best place to play, that they're investing in their existing franchises, and looking for new teams as well. He announces the acquisition of three new studios, Obsidian, Playful, and, in a surprise announcement, Supermassive Games. He says he looks forward to sharing more of what they've been working on at E3 (meaning each team will show a game at E3 2019, with Supermassive showing off The Dark Picture Anthology and Obsidian and Playful showing off unannounced projects).
Phil then says he looks forward to what all the Microsoft Studios will do, both in this generation and the next as representatives from each studio come on stage. Phil says that bringing back XO was the next step in Xbox becoming the industry-leader in the video game space. The stage is full at this point. He says that they're excited to show us what they've been working on in both the hardware and software space. He thanks the crowd.
A video plays with leadership from the new and existing studios talking about how exciting of a time it is for Xbox. They eventually transition into them talking about having seen prototypes and hardware specifications for the next Xbox and they talk it up, things like it allows them to push the limits, do new things, and that the next Xbox will be a monster.
The video ends and fades to the Microsoft Studios logo, but then the Ninja Theory logo is shown. It's Ninja Theory's new game. It's set in modern times and the antagonist seems to be a religious cult. The project looks similar in size and scope to Hellblade. It's a fairly short trailer, but we do see obvious gameplay clips cut in. The trailer ends with an unexpected, but exciting, release date, 2019.
