

There's so much we still don't know about the likes of Avowed, for example, or just what direction Everwild is going in after we last saw it. But if we are going to see some of the new adventures finally pop back up, I feel like we really need to see some gameplay to get a better sense of the new experiences in the pipeline.


Now feels like the perfect time to put some of these games in the spotlight and give the community an update on what Xbox has already confirmed is in the works. But all of these titles were decidedly absent from the showing last year, and it's been a long time since we've seen or heard about any of them. Back in 2020 and even 2019, a slate of interesting new projects were revealed, such as Everwild, Contraband, or the highly anticipated return of Fable from Playground Games. But while Spencer has revealed we can expect new game reveals during the event, what's more exciting for me personally is the hope of finally getting updates on games that have already been announced. Spencer previously acknowledged this year that 2022 was light on games and that 2023 would have a strong line-up. "With the Starfield Direct set to give Bethesda's major space-faring release its own dedicated event, it'll be interesting to see just what Xbox showcases and how much we get to see." "It's not 'necessarily', we didn't deliver". "We didn't deliver, " Spencer said in response to Parris Lilly highlighting the "12-month plan" for Xbox in the 2022 Xbox Games showcase. In fact, Xbox head Phil Spencer even acknowledged this when he spoke of last year's showcase in a recent interview with Kinda Funny, during which he also directly addressed Redfall's disappointing launch. Upon reflection, Xbox was promising quite a lot with that one statement, one it ultimately didn't deliver on in the end. Of the games shown during the event, just over half of them actually released within the 12 month time period. While it's difficult to anticipate pushbacks, two of Xbox's major exclusives – Redfall and Starfield – both went on to be met with delays, and towards the end of the year, it had been quite some time since we'd seen a big first-party exclusive land. At the time, this was very exciting indeed, especially given that games shown just moments before this statement included some highly anticipated titles – not least Hollow Knight: Silksong. While it didn't lack for games or gameplay, the main sticking point was the fact that Xbox stated that for the first time, the "entire show is focused on games you play over the next 12 months". The latter was undoubtedly a memorable way to close the showcase, with our first glimpse of gameplay for Bethesda's new RPG. Last year's Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase was certainly full of future releases, with looks at everything from Pentiment to Forza Motorsport and Starfield.
