Those looking for new announcements will be pleased with today's Xbox E3 2018 press conference. Phil Spencer, who serves as the Executive President of Gaming at Microsoft, announced on Twitter that the company is set to premiere 15 games during the conference. These announcements come at a good time as the company recently had to delay Crackdown 3 to 2019, and will need new titles to get fans excited with.
Microsoft has released two notable exclusives so far in 2019 (Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2), but neither of those games matched the critical and commercial success that their main rival Sony had with God of War. With the aforementioned Crackdown 3 delay, the rest of their 2018 is as sparse as can be as they only have one first-party game currently announced that might release later this year (Ori and the Will of the Wisps).
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After wrapping up Microsoft's final E3 2018 press conference rehearsal last night, Spencer was feeling confident about what they'll show gamers later today, saying on Twitter: "Feeling great about the show. Excited to world premiere 15 games tomorrow and much, much more."
Eyes will be on Xbox to see if they can make some important moves in order to regain their footing in the gaming market. The company has struggled this generation, but have made some strong steps in recent years despite not having a lot of first-party games to show for it. Rumored titles to be currently in development include Forza Horizon 4, the next Halo game, which would certainly get existing owners excited, and there are reportedly three separate Gears of War games being worked on that could show up during the show. All three of the titles have their own spin on the franchise, as one is supposedly Gears of War 5, another is a battle royale spin-off, and the final is a Halo Wars-esque real-time strategy game.
In addition to these big sequels in series that have defined the Xbox One so far, Microsoft might also look into their catalog of franchises for some surprising revivals. It's known that Forza Horizon developer Playground Games is working on an action role-playing game, so it could wind up being the next step in the Fable series. Developer Rare also has some beloved franchises, such as Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, and Viva Piñata that could see their first entry on Microsoft's latest console. These types of new releases could give Microsoft some additional goodwill going into the next console generation.
More: Every Video Game Trailer From E3 2018
Source: Phil Spencer