Microsoft is kicking off today a new monthly series of Xbox 20/20 digital events, starting today with an Inside Xbox livestream at 8AM PT. This first event will finally reveal some Xbox Series X gameplay footage, and the Xbox team previously said that only third-party games will be shown today, with Xbox Game Studios titles to be revealed in another digital event in July
Speaking on Twitter yesterday, Xbox head Phil Spencer teased that “all games have never been seen in an Xbox show before,” confirming along the way that Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be a part of today’s show. However, Spencer also said that we should expect to see new games from “studios large and small,” so don’t today won’t be all about AAA games.
OK, ok, yes AC has been on our stage before but not this one! And maybe one other game has been on our stage before but a lot of new games showing up which I find cool.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) May 6, 2020
Today’s Inside Xbox episode will be live-streamed on several platforms including YouTube, Twitch, and Mixer, but we’ve embedded the YouTube video above. The event should not be longer than an hour, but this definitely going to be a rollercoaster.
After Microsoft pretty much botched the Xbox One launch seven years ago, the Xbox Series X is a completely different affair. The company first unveiled its next-gen console in December during The Game Awards ceremony, and the full technical specs have been revealed in March. Now, the software giant will beat Sony at showing the first next-gen games running on the new Xbox console, which is also said to be more powerful than the PlayStation 5. If the Xbox Series X will indeed be the best console to play third-party games, it makes sense for Microsoft to showcase these games first today.
With support for hardware-accelerated raytracing, Variable Rate Shading, 8K graphics and up to 120FPS, the Xbox Series X should be a much more significant generational leap for console gamers. And again, it’s pretty cool that Microsoft will be the first console manufacturer to showcase next-gen games today.