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Predicting E3 2018: Microsoft

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Published: June 4, 2018 2:00 PM

Microsoft has had its fair share of ups and downs these past few E3s. When it comes to their presentations, there’s not really a good gauge for what will be there and how it’ll all turn out. We do know some things that will be at the conference, though, so that’s a good place to start. Here’s what to expect (maybe!) from Microsoft’s presentation this year:

The Obvious - It’d be more surprising if these didn’t show up

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Minecraft

The cultural milestone that is Minecraft is still going strong many years since its release. Even after Microsoft acquired developer Mojang in 2015, Minecraft released on the Wii U, Nintendo Switch, and even the New 3DS. In 2016, well before the Switch or New 3DS versions, Minecraft hit over 100 million copies sold. Nine months later, that number jumped to 122 million. Earlier this year in January? 144 million copies sold. This makes it the second best-selling game of all time, and it's shown zero signs of stopping years after release. It’s almost a guarantee that we’ll see the game in some form or another this year, so don’t be surprised if they make mention of it during the conference.

Sea of Thieves

Rare’s newest entry Sea of Thieves released to both decent critical acclaim and a fair amount of criticism, often centered around the lack of content and a few bugs here and there. Rare plans to iron those out and there’s a long roadmap of DLC for the game, so expect to see discussion on what’s coming next for Microsoft’s newest IP.

Gears of War series

It’s been a year and a half since the last Gears of War game hit store shelves. As the beginning of a new saga for the series, it makes sense that there should be a follow-up to Gears of War 4 at least being announced soon. Even if it doesn’t come this year, at least expect the series to get some sort of mention at E3.

Forza Horizon 4

This one is pretty simple to deduce. The Forza series alternates between a main game and a Forza Horizon entry every year since the first Horizon’s release in 2012. Forza Horizon 2 released in 2014, and 3 in 2016. There’s no doubt that 4 is going to continue the trend and get an announcement at E3 this year.

Backwards compatibility news

Since they first announced backwards compatibility on Xbox One, Microsoft has been smartly pushing it with some big releases announced at E3. This year should be no different, as there’s still a huge pool of games that they can dip into. With Microsoft being the only game in town when it comes to backwards compatibility right now, there’s no way they don’t capitalize on that.

 

The Maybes - High risk, possibly high reward

Halo 6

It’s been three years since 343 Industries released Halo 5: Guardians. Despite some vocal fan criticism about several parts of the game, it still sold over 5 million copies and got favorable reviews overall. It’s about time for a new game to be announced in the ongoing franchise, but at the moment it seems like something Gears of War-related is more likely. It’s not impossible for both to show up, though!

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Halo: Master Chief Collection on PC

Since launch in 2014, 343 has also been working tirelessly to fix the Halo: Master Chief Collection. The collection of games has suffered from a disastrous amount of bugs and network issues. 343 has been extremely transparent about how they plan to fix its issues. In another release they claim that they’ve heard the requests for a PC port “loud and clear." At the time they had nothing official to announce, but maybe E3 could be a bit of a surprise!

State of Decay 2

This new exclusive released just this month, so it’s not terribly likely that it’ll get anything other than a mention of how well its doing. They might reveal DLC or something, but it seems a bit too early to announce something like that. I could be wrong though! I just think if it shows up it’ll be under the lens of how well it’s selling.

 

The Don’t Hold Your Breaths - Better grab your good luck charm

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Alan Wake 2

This, sadly, has next to no chance of appearing this year. The original released in 2010 and a sidegame released two years later. Since then, there’s not been a peep of an announcement for the title. In fact, all we've seen about a possible Alan Wake 2 is a video showing off an old prototype of the game. Director Sam Lake said it's not indicative of any game, it was just the video used to pitch to publishers. In the meantime, Remedy released Quantum Break. They're now working on a mysterious multiplatform project only known as Codename “P7”. It’s likely we’ll see that in some form at E3 instead. For those of us still hanging from that cliff after the ending Alan Wake, we just have to keep hanging.

Sunset Overdrive 2

With Insomniac hard at work on Marvel’s Spider-Man as a PS4 exclusive, it’s highly unlikely we’ll be seeing a follow-up here. Sunset Overdrive was a fun launch title for the console, but with it approaching 4.5 years old without a peep of a sequel, I think it’s safe to assume this one isn’t going to happen.

What do you think of our predictions? Are there any that you agree or disagree with? Most importantly, do you think there are any Microsoft games that we might have missed?

Check out our E3 2018 Coverage Hub for all of the latest E3 info.

Connor Foss
| Staff Writer

Former TechRaptor Staff Writer, who also does translation work between English and Spanish. You can usually find me playing horror games or Zelda!