Xbox Drops the Ball, Forgets to Make Fans Care about Series X

It seems that the past few years of conferences have not been kind to Xbox. And by Xbox, we mean the dedicated fans that worship the console titan.

While the heads over at Microsoft have been hinting at revolutionary new mediums for Xbox to delve into, the Series X has yet to deliver. Granted, it is early in the “who has the better console” game, and even months before a home console debut.

So when this 20/20 conference went up, there was a fairly decent amount of hype in the air for Microsoft to deliver on. But did they even come close to achieving that goal?

Take a look at the 20/20 event for yourself. Let us know what you think.

System Analysis

There are a few ways to look at the conference. On the one hand, Xbox showed off a lot of new titles that they are trying to debut by the end of this year. Halo is coming. Gears of War is on the way. Hey now… Yakuza looks cool. And yet, the atmosphere and mood of the conference had the weight of abated “who cares?”

The fact of the matter is that there was zero player-controlled gameplay. None at all, and on top of that, a huge lack of big third-party publishers. After rewatching the conference, essentially, we got to see about half an hour of gameplay trailers back to back, awkwardly spliced between Xbox team members (some quarantined) navigating the show with commentary.

Overall, the presentation of the conference was pretty good despite the air of shrill boringness. Low on the cringe levels for most of the event. However, there was not a bit of real gameplay. Even seeing a new Assassin’s Creed trailer, an insanely hyped Viking version, it was just a trailer. No gameplay at all. In fact, 20/20 tried to pass off the “cinematic trailer” as an excuse for not showcasing gameplay.

Future Improvements

Rewatching the event, the whole thing didn’t really show any signs of next-gen brilliance. Where a lot of people tore the Xbox One conference to shreds, the “slice” of the Series X wasn’t much better. The highlights of this stream were the games themselves. That’s it.

One developer's vision gains new life for the Xbox Series X. Unleash dazzling sword combos and shoot your way through a perilous future in Bright Memory: Infinite. #InsideXbox @playismEN @FYQD_Studio https://t.co/lfoXEUvumh pic.twitter.com/LvalQrp2MH

— Xbox (@Xbox) May 7, 2020

Will Sony show better games at their PS5 show? Who knows. We can only hope that they take note of what fans want and showcase actual gameplay next conference. While there are lots of rumors of content heavily-focused on virtual reality, not too much is known about the next Playstation console. Other than a less-than-satisfactory controller, which was later discovered to be rushed out, Playstation and Sony could really mix up the console competition this year by just following what the fans want.

In the name of Gabe Newell, let’s pray that they'll listen.

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