With just one week until this year’s edition of The Game Awards, Xbox has started to circulate promotional material teasing “important announcements.” Yet, come Dec. 7, what should we actually be prepared to expect from the gaming giant and will it capture interest as part of a busy show?
Alongside the awards ceremony itself, Geoff Keighley’s brainchild has become synonymous with major announcements in the world of gaming. Take last year, for example, where amongst many updates Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, Death Stranding 2, and Hades 2 were all unveiled to the public for the first time. 2023 promises more of the same and the man himself has said as much. “I don’t want to quote a number, because then it is going to reverberate around the internet,” said Keighley, “but it’s probably similar to past years in terms of the length of the show and content.”
So what should we expect from Xbox? It is, after all, making its grand return to the show after a very minimal showing in 2022. Perhaps the most obvious place to start would be an answer to the PlayStation 5’s mid-generation refresh. The ‘I cannot believe they didn’t call it the PlayStation 5 Slim’ was officially announced on Oct. 10 and has enjoyed a soft rollout across November.
News of an Xbox competitor first broke back in September when a number of leaked documents paid mention to a ‘Project Brooklin’. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer took to Twitter in an attempt to quell the fires, but it was surely only a matter of time before we saw a cheaper console hit the market. The Holiday season would be the perfect time to do so.
Aside from the refined Series X, Xbox could also take the spotlight to share updates on hotly anticipated projects. Ninja Theory’s Hellblade 2 was announced alongside the Series X itself back in 2019 and a release date reveal is widely expected. Bethesda could well feature with updates to deliver for Starfield DLC or even Elder Scrolls 6. We may also see a full trailer for the upcoming Fallout Amazon series after a first look provided by Vanity Fair.
All of this and we still haven’t mentioned the likelihood of Obsidian Entertainment rocking up with a The Outer Worlds 2 update. Unlike its predecessor, this entry shall be exclusive to Xbox and PC and hasn’t been spoken about on a stage since its teaser trailer back at E3 2021. Then, of course, there is the elusive Fable reboot which introduced us to Dave the Vegetable Enthusiast at June’s Xbox Games Showcase.
Perhaps most intriguing, however, is the possibility of an announcement concerning something we legitimately don’t know about. After Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, could a first title be on the way so soon? At this point, we’re in pure theory-crafting territory.
