Reaction - Xbox Showcase 2026
Reacting to Xbox's not E3 2026 presentation
Microsoft and Xbox have been in the news for the last couple of years for all the wrong reasons, with some insiders claiming that even third-party publishers were losing trust in the brand. For whatever reason, and I’m still hoping for an eventual tell-all, Microsoft pulled the plug on the Phil Spencer era and went all in on a new person who has little to no experience with gaming. Asha Sharma has been hitting the PR circles as the new head of Xbox, and arguably the most powerful woman in gaming today. Sharma has made herself out to be the “voice of the people”, sort of tapping into a populist message. However, we got to give Asha a chance, and now I can say that as she made her first major appearance in the gaming world, she seems to be pushing to do what the fans want more than Phil did in the last years of his time.
Interestingly, I came away from this with a similar impression to Xbox’s 2021 show. That year, I remember a lot of people came away loving that event, but I felt sort of meh on it. This year, it seems everyone is giving this an A grade, but I find myself in the minority. That’s not to say I didn’t like it; I enjoyed a lot on here, but I certainly didn’t love it to the level everyone else did.
Return of Xbox, or XBOX, or whatever
The event kicked off big with Gears of War: E-Day, the prequel to the original trilogy. As someone who wasn’t excited about not getting a sixth entry, I wanted to be surprised with a grittier, maybe slightly different gameplay loop. What we got is what looks, for the most part, to be another Gears game. Now, that’s not a diss; I love this series and have lots of great memories. I even defend Gears 4, which I believe gets unfairly attacked. I just feel that if you’re going to continue taking such a long time after the ending of the fifth game and do a prequel instead, you could take a little more of a risk. I’m still going to play this, and I’m sure it’s going to be a good time; I just don’t have that super excited feeling that others do.
Fable continues to get me more excited. The delay sucks, but considering how stacked the second half of the year is getting, and I expect that to be a long game, I welcome it. I do think they need to have a dedicated direct presentation with plenty of gameplay before release. Halo: Campaign Evolved is coming in less than two months, much sooner than I anticipated. The Halo single player campaigns tend to be short anyway (compared to the average game), so I’m not stressing out about it. It looks good, so I can’t wait to actually experience it. We also got the typical live service game updates, which tend to drag out the show, but I understand why they do it, and I’m sure the user base for those games gets a kick out of it. State of Decay 3 showed up, and while I have zero interest in it, I’m happy for the diehard fans that love that series.
Clockwork Revolution was given another trailer, and weirdly I feel a little less hyped for it than I was the first time I saw it. It may just be that they announced it too early and it’s starting to drop off my hype meter, but I'm still very much looking forward to playing it. This is going to be a game that either hooks me, and I fall head over heels for it, or doesn’t click with me, and I just drop it. There was also Spyro 4, which got a pop out of me; even though I have never played a Spyro game, I’m committing to making this my first. The one “HOLY SHIT” announcement for me was Senua, which I’ll talk about more in the next section. Overall, the first-party lineup was solid, but nothing that had me going crazy. I felt last year’s first-party output was better. Outside of that, we got a bunch of updates and DLC expansions.
Cool Stuff, But Not Shocking
This is the main reason I can’t agree with the consensus that this was some all-timer show from Xbox. I thought it did a good job with games and announcements, but when I tune in to these things, especially the summer ones, I need to see megatons. That’s the old E3 mind talking, and maybe I’m still adjusting to that era being over, but it’s still going to affect how I feel at the end of the day. The only real shocker from this event for me was Senua. Before you say it, yes, Persona 6 is up there, but that game was rumored and known about; this literally came out of nowhere. It seems to be a different side of the Hellblade series, trying to go for more combat. Not sure if this is essentially Hellblade 3, but I’m here for it.
Xbox’s show tends to always have one or two small studio games that get my interest, and this year it was easily Magicians: The Devil’s Deal. This game is the game of the whole weekend for me. It has that historical context I’m a sucker for, you’re trying to beat the devil, and it’s something so fresh and new. You can make the argument that too many games are starting to look and feel the same these days, and this one does not. You have a wand, and you have to do spells and illusions to fight your way through, and I can only imagine what they’re hiding with those mechanics that also have to do with traversal. It also has a Bioshock vibe, and anyone that knows my love for that game should know why I’m so pumped to see that.
Other solid moments were games like Wo-Long 2; I didn’t finish the first game, but it’s cool to see it was successful enough to get a sequel and could potentially become a new franchise. Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is going to take over the final stretch of my Halloween season. I have a small history with the series, so I’m happy to jump in and join the diehard fans in enjoying it. There’s a very strong chance that it could sneak up in my top five if it hits all the best Metroidvania parts I love. Crazy Taxi: World Tour looks like it’s doing what it needs to for the nostalgia of the series, but I’ve never played a Crazy Taxi game, so we’ll see if I jump on this one. Lastly, but definitely not least, Persona 6 did get a pop from me; the fifth game was one of the coolest gaming experiences I ever had, so I’m definitely going to jump into this one, although it seems we have a while til we can get our hands on it.
The main issue with this show was the DLC expansion and live-service announcements, which dragged it down a bit for me. Again, not an attack on any fans of these games; it just feels like they need to rethink how to do these in the future. I do understand why they do them. The main thing that sucked in the show I’ll save to the end…
Only on Xbox
Well, people wanted to see it, and it’s here; Xbox-only console exclusives are back, well… sort of. It seems Microsoft is going to make the biggest AAA single-player-driven games and make them console exclusives. I’m not against this; it was one of the things I felt they could do, and I expect more of these to be announced as we go into the Project Helix era, including games like Halo and Fable. I saw some confusion about Halo: Campaign Evolved and Fable still releasing on PS5, but those games were already announced. Gears of War: E-Day was never officially announced for PlayStation. As for a game like Senua, my guess is that they know that series is sort of niche, so they need as many players as possible for it. While I understand some disappointment and some criticisms that Xbox influencers feel hypocritical about this, I see the writing on the wall. These companies need to give you a reason to buy their increasingly expensive products. I don’t love it; I’m a big believer that platform-agnostic is a better way to go, but I get it.
My one hope is that Activision and Bethesda stay multiplatform, or at least be timed exclusives, but that’s for the top brass to sort out. I will say this. The return of exclusives does make me more interested in Helix, although there will obviously be other factors in that purchasing decision. I’m going to see where this is, in say, two years from now, but this is the new future of the green box.
Hardware
This was an awesome surprise. To help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the brand, Xbox announced a transparent green Xbox Series X with a controller that pays homage to the original Duke and brings back the fully colored buttons I miss. Now, the worst part is that this is going to be expensive, and I will not be able to get the system, although the controller will definitely be in my sights. The thing is, as cool as this was, I couldn’t help but be surprised that my year-long prediction of OEM boxes didn’t come true. I truly thought we would get an ASUS or Lenovo PC Xbox-like box. We also didn’t see any of those leaked Xbox controllers either. Is it possible they were delayed or canceled? Sure, but I was shocked they didn’t make an appearance. I do think the problem is still how expensive these systems are now, and companies are not willing to take the big financial hits they did with consoles in the past, but I know it’s a really tough situation to be in for the decision-makers on that subject.
Slight Rant on Ending
Now we get to a small rant, the “one more thing” of the show. Once again, for the second straight year, Xbox closed out with… Call of Duty. Look, no offense to Call of Duty super fans, but I have a strict guideline on what a perfect close to a show is, even if it makes some fans mad if I call out a beloved series because I don’t consider it closing material, but this is overall my personal opinion and reaction. This isn’t an attack on Call of Duty, which I do dabble with playing, or telling you not to be excited to play it, but you DON’T CLOSE THE SHOW LIKE THIS. To be fair, nothing in this event met my strict parameters. The closest games that would have been better to close with were Persona 6 and Senua, but Persona 6 isn’t first-party, and Senua is admittedly niche. Call of Duty is better off being its own event and not showing up here. So please, Microsoft, I beg you, end your shows better. If Call of Duty ends the show a third straight time next year, I’m going to become the Joker.
B - Good
I know on my socials I sounded a little like a Debbie-downer, but I did, overall, like this show. It had a good amount of games, solid announcements, and a few pops outta me. However, I can’t ignore that I have seen much better gaming events, including from Xbox. I only saw one true surprise, and everything else was predictable for the most part. Ending it with Call of Duty did not help either. I fully understand I’m in the minority here; everyone around me seems to have loved the hell out of this show, and I felt it was good, but not great. I will say this - if Xbox didn’t have many new things to reveal, this is the kind of show that at least makes up for it.