Poll: How Would You Grade January's Xbox Developer Direct?

I gave it a B mostly because… no date for Forza??? I am not a racing car game fan but still, this is a tent pole game for Xbox games studios, if this game is supposed to launch by July we should already have the date set in stone.

Currently re-playing Skyrim so a bit vulnerable to the ESO info, was left curious as to how “limited time” is it that they are going to make previous expansions available free for.

Red Fall info about world building, storytelling and solo play was all I need (and the date of course.) looking forward for it.

Don’t care for Minecraft legends but I’m sure it will be popular in Japan.

HI-Fi Rush looks amazing.

They can do this again.

People giving it an F - what were you expecting that you thought this Direct was a massive fail? Are these just Ponies out in force?
I really liked it - not too much face time, deep dives into the games, shadow dropped bonus game that looks fun and (most importantly) release dates for (almost) everything.

Loved it! Only disappointment was no Forza release date. Shadow drop of High-Fi Rush was a huge surprise and looks fun.

Redfall and Forza both look excellent! Bring them on!

B, Hi-Fi Rush is a nice surprise. Redfall gets a release date however no release date for Forza Motorsport OR 2nd batch gamepass announcements.

B. Forza looks good. Shame no solid date but still a 2023 release. Hi-fi rush stole the show, it looks great and is available today.

Redfall still looks meh to me.

A good “B” from me but more importantly
I think they have found their very special format for shows.
Now you have that Xbox, don’t change it.
It is your format your identity and it worked extremely well.

From the wording honestly expected a reel with new game pass titles, that was a letdown.
Otherwise it was fine, maybe even good if that new tango game turns out to be good. Redfall still looks horrible though.

I thought the presentation of the show was dull. I was surprised by my interest for Minecraft. Redfall and Forza were obviously going to look good - but I still found the presentation of those a bit uninspired. It was more "look at our games", rather than creating a real excitement. My opinion of course, some people might prefer games aren't overhyped but it just didn't do it for me.

TBH the thing I'm pumped for is Hi-fi Rush. GT7 VR stole the Forza 8 thunder for me, ESO I'm just kind of out of tune with, I'm not a Minecraft person but I'll try it, and Redfall never really was for me, but Hi-fi Rush grabbed my attention fast.

The format, presentation and editing was very solid and thank god for no over-excited obnoxious presenters.
Redfall and FM improved their image for me quite a bit. HiFi Rush and Minecraft weren't for me, but they looked cool. ESO also seems to be worth a try I guess. I am hoping this is a staple of Xbox from now on and we have one of these every 2-3 month.

@Tharsman If the launch was July they would have said it now I think. I believe it is aiming more towards Fall. The big question is where Starfield lands for launch date. It is probably the closest Xbox has to a gargantuan blockbuster console-seller.

I'd give it a 7 (C grade). Generally very good, HiFi Rush looked like a breath of fresh air, shadow drop was icing on the cake! And Redfall continues to impress. The lack of date for Forza though is unacceptable, I don't know if I sound demanding here but I was expecting all games shown to get a release date, Forza not getting one was a huge letdown. Maybe being a little more demanding here, but I also expected a Ghostwire console launch trailer, I thought they could've slipped that in somewhere very briefly. I left feeling satisfied though, they did a decent job.

Redfall, I really liked.
Forza will be true next generation have always said that and sticking with my August / September 2023 release prediction.
Hi-if rush, what a great surprise, hope the game is really good.

C for me. Forza stole the show, the minecraft game looks like it'll be a fun romp with the kids for a while, the other 3 didn't do anything for me personally but I thought it was decent overall!

I'd give it a C, the structure was well done and Hi-Fi Rush was an interesting surprise though no release date for Forza Motorsport and the upcoming Game Pass lineup is still very unknown.

B - Redfall and Hi-Fi rush were definitly the highlights of the show. Minecraft Legends looks a lot better than I expected. Forza Motorsport looks good but unfortuantly still no release date for it.

People giving it an F are either people expecting Starfield even though it's getting its own show or Sony fanboys from PushSquare have invaded this page.

Agree with most people, a B sounds just about right. Forza and Redfall look great, and Hi-Fi Rush was a nice surprise. Overall very pleased with this showcase.

B. It was pretty much as described. Details from those developers. The only reason I'm not giving it an A because I was expecting ghostwire

Has to be an A for the show and format. Whilst there was some cringe, overall it felt genuine and upbeat, slickly editted and about the right legnth.
Redfall looks a lot more interesting than Id previously thought, and its with us in may, so thats a real positive.
I was hoping motorsport would be out earlier, but it would appear it will be late 2023. But worth the wait from what we saw...
Not to intrested in the other titles 😁 so B for content..

@Chaudy I’m sure Game Pass will get its own video or press release.

Given we got the Goleneye info drop this morning, don’t even rule out info coming later today or tomorrow even.

Although I liked what I saw, I was somewhat disappointed and rated the overall presentation a C.

I mentioned elsewhere I thought Switch Directs worked well for Nintendo because they used them in part to promote indie titles, which in turn helped to attract more indie developers to the console. And I had hoped Microsoft would adopt a similar approach given their failure to bring about a modern successor to XNA.

B - minecraft part was boring to start. and spent too long saying FM is realistic.

FM does look very nice.

redfall looks good, but i feel like ive played it already in other games. ie work to an underboss to reclaim an area. but will be trying

B+ for me. Nice to get a date for Minecraft Legends and Redfall. Just gotten into ESO and I'm loving it so more ESO content is welcome for me.

Between a B and C. Redfall has a release date which is good. Looks good. Other than that, Minecraft does nothing for me. Same with ESO. No date for Forza. Not a whole lot to take away from this. Also, was hoping for a Stalker 2 surprise release date.

B, Really good. Tons of actuall gameplay, release dates(if they also had a release date for Forza, it would be 5/5) and Hi-Fi Rush looks really cool, plus it's out today, so that's a huge suprise.

@Titntin
Wow we have agreed on something today
You are spot on there 😊

@abe_hikura they can’t even talk about Ghostwire until the full year is up, sadly.

No Forza release date, unfortunately that drags down the presentation to a C from me.
The presentation itself was well structured and had great style and the gameplay shown was top-notch.

@Chaudy So we get Persona 3 and 4, Monster Hunter Rise, Goldeneye, Age of Empires 2, Inkulinati and a surprise drop of an Arcane game, Hi-Fi Rush, all in a two week span and you still want a 2nd half GamePass announcement?!?

This month will be one of the best month’s ever for GamePass IMO.

@Dezzy70 agree. The format here was really good. I enjoyed it and it flew by.

@awp69 most are years old games that some will have played already dont forget

A for me and fair play, that was a great show, Forza Motorsport looks stunning and Redfall has shot up my wanted list and topped off with the cool surprise that was Hi Fi Rush. I really liked the format of gameplay and developer commentary and they need to keep to this style of presentation

@Fenbops
One of the presentations I’ve seen in a while including other companies as well.
Hope they stick with this format going forward.
Are they finally getting their act together 😊

Much, much better than I anticipated. Good job, XBOX! A big game day one release every month from april and onwards. And a shadow drop, which might be a first afaik and which looks great!

@awp69 calm down man, you always act like you've got a huge investment in Microsoft shares or something. The first 3 games don't appeal to me, all 3 are rpg games. There is a lack of diversity this month around. Obviously an announcement with a nice variety of games would be appreciated. You don't always have to get your machine gun out at every comment even remotely criticising xbox. Go play some games and chill out.

@OM1993 same as Deathloop, they can't even talk about Ghostwire on xbox until the Sony deal expires. As we know, with Deathloop they elected to just release the game.

Very middle of the road. Aside from no release date for Forza, it was exactly what they told us to expect, which is good and bad. Feels like it just needed a little more, even if it was tiny things - saving the GoldenEye release date + trailer for it, announcing next month's GWG, games coming to Game Pass, maybe hint at something actually interesting coming as a Game Pass Perk. It just needed a bit more juice to make it bigger but not bloated.

Good overall. But, for me, no date for Forza was criminal. Should have been left out altogether.

B, Redfall and Hi-Fi Rush look very good

I stopped watching after the Forza Motorsport section as I had no interest in any of the other games.

The Motorsport spot was good and bad. Everything show was good with the lack of a launch date being the bad.

Fail, Redfall is meh, that HiFi thing is meh, STILL no release date for Forza, really Microsoft? I won’t be surprised if it gets delayed. Redfall even though it’s meh is the only game I’ll probably play from this lot, till Forza eventually gets released.

A - they laid out expectations perfectly and they threw in a great surprise shadow drop to top it off.

Great show!

Mid score, Forza looks dope. Really slick. Everything else looks dull. Id bet this will be Arkanes worst rated game. As it currently stands, nothing stands out that makes me want to upgrade.

@NeutronBomb Fair point. I've only just reminded myself Deathloop was only announced at TGS as the exclusivity deal was about to expire, so the timing there made sense. That didn't even factor in my thinking. I did deduct a grade because of Ghostwire tbf, so in light of that I can raise my score to a B. It's OK to backtrack a bit, yeah? 😅

I'd give it a strong B, If Forza had a release date it easily would be an A.

I am SO disappointed by the lack of an imminent arrival for Forza.
Guessing they are holding it back to sell Xbox bundles at Christmas.

As far as testing the waters go, this was absolutely a strong way to find your footing to start it off. If the next one was like this with only a handful of things to show, it'd be a little disappointing but if they can shove more in there then, with more "SURPRISE!" moments like hi-fi (bar the unfortunate leak right before it) then it can only get better from there.

@Kaloudz Hey, it wouldn’t be Xbox if they didn’t delay the event..

This was great for what it was. Never got too long and boring for any segment. It'd be nice if they had a fixed calendar without necessarily revealing which studio will appear. Keep the hype train going with real gameplay

Redfall looks like The Division with vampires. I'm good with that.

@Titntin Agreed, A for the format, that was a fun show to watch. The games i would give a B even tho the only one i see myself playing for a long time would be Redfall, Minecraft isn’t my thing and racing games, i am more of a Mario Kart, Motorstorm, Horizon kind of guy. Elders scrolls online isn’t for me. But if they keep this type of show format for the bigger titles to come, i think they have something here. E3 is going to be big this year. Xbox will be ready to compete there in my opinion.

I rated it a B.

Minecraft and Forza motorsport don't interest me so that's a huge chunk of the show that I skipped. Redfall on the other hand looked amazing and I can't wait for that, going to be busy in May with zelda as well. The game from tango also looked really good and will be playing that over the upcoming weekend. Only disappointment is that no big games for me until May from xbox.

A- for me. It was amazing for what it was. But any gaming event is more entertaining with more reveals, even with this event not advertising that. Also, no date for Forza was upsetting. But what was shown from all the titles was great.

I’m surprised they didn’t reveal GoldenEye in the Direct. Seems weird to just drop a random announcement for that right before so it gets overshadowed. Anyway, it was great and I’m looking forward to most of the titles.

Stoked to try Hi-Fi Rush this weekend!

I liked the format but in my opinion they really need a firm release date for every game shown or don't show it at developer direct yet. That's what E3 is for, the bigger, looser announcements

Another shooter. Yay.

@OM1993 of course lol. Ghostwire is OK BTW. I went thru it a bit on ps5 (borrowed it from a mate) decided to wait and do the whole thing on series x.

Hi there fellow gamers;
This is how you should do a gaming showcase. I give it an B+.
Devs talking passionately about their games, showing and explaning how the game works and plays and giving us a release date (except for Forza) 😜
But yeah, presentation wise, the pacing, the style, saying their gonna talk about 4 games and then we see 5 with a surprise by debuting a brand new game from another game studio.
And even though I´m not a Minecraft nor Elder Scrools Online fan, I still watched the whole show simply because it´s always cool to learn more about videogames.
Great presentation Microsoft.
More like this one, please and thank you.
Cheers, stay safe folks and happy gaming to us all

The 4 promised games was a B, adding in Hi Fi Rush and saying it's out now, this was an A+.

Sterile, overly corpo-speak, stuffed with buzz words, but worst of all...boring.

A solid B+ - would of been an A if Forza had a release date as it is still expected this half a year as I don't believe its been 'delayed'.

Other than that, it delivered exactly what was promised and apart from the 'extra' surprise game of Hi-fi Rush leaking quite a while before, it was still a nice surprise to hear its releasing today.

I didn't expect 'more' because MS categorically stated they wouldn't be showing 'more' even though they added a 5th game. With AoE2 anf Goldeneye already announced and other devs handling their own PR (Atomic Heart for example), I really didn't expect more and didn't feel short changed either.

Therefore a Solid B+ - almost an A but its a good start to the year...

It was ok, nothing to complain about. I am excited for redfall now, though.

Very good presentation. Hi-Fi Rush looked great and so did Redfall. I graded it a solid B.

I came for Redfall curious and now I’m definitely all in, looks awesome and has cool stranger things vibes. Love a shadow drop, not my thing but looks cool. Overall really happy. B for me personally

It was a bit up it’s own arse. C.

My only interest was forza looks amazing but no date to look forward to

Hi fi rush is m'y kind of game so really happy to see this out today, Forza looks amazing but no release date is a bummer, red fall looks good, Minecraft Legend I don't care about it and same thing for elder scroll online so it's s a C for me.

This gets a B from me. I hope Xbox keeps making more and eventually reaches the same level as Nintendo's direct, but this is a pretty decent start.
Most of the games aren't for me, but Hi-Fi Rush was definitely my highlight and that game alone bumped it up a whole letter grade.

Q) So, all things considered, what grade would you give the Xbox Developer Direct?

A) Oooh; a B or a C grade. Whilst very little of the developer direct's content appealed to me, I did like the presentation and the in-depth focus on just five games. It was really interesting hearing the developers talk and show off each game.

Sadly, we didn't get definitive release dates for every game featured (which I feel is what Microsoft must aim for at the moment given the amount of announced games they have) but we did so for most of them.

Initially gave it a C but realised the headache I had didn't help, so changed to a B. Solid enough with expectations set appropriately. I would have probably put game pass announcement at the end too.

Redfall is coming out on my birthday so that's a nice surprise.

Honestly horrible because of the situation xbox is in with games. That hi rush game is not what they need... at all.

Hey since we don’t have NCAA college football y’all need to bring that out on gamepass the last college football

NCAA College Footballl