Xbox Scoops 'Best Presentation' At E3 2021, Forza Horizon 5 Wins 'Most Anticipated Game'

It feels weird that Forza has become even more popular than Halo now. Granted Halo has been dormant for half a decade now while during that time Forza has been getting a multitude of new entries and as a result the developers have been able to improve the series steadily over time. Still interesting nonetheless and it's great to see Forza receiving the attention it deserves, especially the Horizon games which are absolutely phenomenal.

It was an amazing show. Bring on next year. goes back to playing Yakuza 0 for the first time

The gaming industry coming together is always great to see and the gamers are always the winners of e3, regardless of your platform. Halo was my number 1 and my misses can't wait for forza! Happy gaming all

There wasn't really much competition, but Microsoft really did have a great show and would've beaten a 'Sony presentation' with it's number of titles and anticipation I'm sure.
I'm really looking forward to Halo, but I'm sure Forza 5 won the Game of the show because sometimes I think (Especially with the last year) people are looking forward to Driving around in the sunshine more than being threatened and killing things.

@LtSarge On top of Halo being away for half a decade. The franchise only had presence with MCC in this time and the MCC wasn't always smooth sailing. To add salt to the injury both Halo 5 (first halo on X1) and Halo 4 were games that were very divisive and honestly kinda average. with Halo 4 having a great campaign but bad multiplayer while Halo 5 did it other way around with having perhaps the worst campaign of all Halo games paired with a MP that many believe was decent.

Meanwhile Forza horizon franchise has been the undisputed (IMO) king of sim-arcade racers since its inception on 360 and it has built a major reputation and brand for itself.

Forza 5 is gonna be epic, Can't wait to play it..

Have said for a while now Playground games and the Forza Horizon series in UK has become the most associated game with the xbox brand.
A well deserved win. Sales have increased with each game released.
I have pre-downloaded FH5 off the store and it’s now in my GAME pins ready for November.

I think what did it for me, and probably these media folks, is the absolute stunning detail of the game and the fact it's been kept quiet and launches in 5 months!
When they had those static shots that looked like actual photos and then the cars shot into view and you realized this is actual gameplay...WOW!
And to think these guys are also working on Fable!

Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 are huge games coming this year on top of Flight Simulator and the presentation was packed with games so I'd say that Microsoft deserves winning this year.

@LtSarge keep in mind that the awards were not based on popular vote, but a panel of editors of gaming sites. That explains why Halo Infinite was chosen the most anticipated Xbox/Bethesda game whereas Forza Horizon was chose the most anticipated overall. They simply wanted to highlight more than one game from Xbox's presentation, so I wouldn't read too much into this.

@Magabro True but if you go to Xbox's YouTube channel and look at the videos, Halo multiplayer reveal only has 400k views while Forza Horizon 5 trailer and gameplay demo have 2.5 and 1.5 million views respectively. Even the Halo multiplayer overview video over at Halo's YouTube channel has 1.6 million. So clearly there are some indications for this being the case.

They put on an awesome show! So many exclusives, some gameplay, some new exclusive titles, and most on Game Pass! But this year all the other shows including Nintendo's were frankly *****!

Forza Horizon 5 looks amazing, in fact I'm looking to pick up a Series X next week for that, Flight Simulator, the Sea of Thieves expansion and play through Yakuza Like A Dragon on Gamepass

How can halo win Microsofts anticipated then lose to forza for most anticipated?

Also this E3 has been the worse I've ever seen and even Microsofts was average at best and nintendos was just about on par with it whilst the others were absolutely dreadful.

I can see why Sony and EA left and I think it's time for E3 to pack it in and say goodbye for good

I mean, hey, I’m looking forward to Forza a lot but I would have expected the new Metroid to win these!

@LtSarge good point. However, I got curious about whether Forza Horizon 5 is more popular than Halo Infinite or not and made a search in Google Trends. Halo has been consistently more sought in Google for the last year, but if you look at the past 7 days, Forza got slightly ahead, perhaps due to being a new announcement. However, it doesn't come near the amount of interest that Halo Infinite's 2020 trailer sparked.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=halo%20infinite,forza%20horizon%205

@nessisonett I suspect Metroid Prime 4 would have done, the problem for 2D Metroid is there's so many of those types of games these days, as good as it looks

@carlos82 @nessisonett Metroid has never been a huge seller for Nintendo. It does have a rabid fanbase, but I believe that's an aging demographic, since the franchise has been nearly dormant for years now.

@Magabro Ah interesting. Well no matter which one's more popular, it's great to see that there is a lot of interest for these Xbox franchises!

Game Pass won E3!

To be honest, Forza Horizon 5 is the only game I'm interested throughout the E3 2021 showcase. And this is coming from a longtime PlayStation player!

Hunting for a PS5 is already bad enough, I'll need to include the Series X as well? 💀

Most anticipated game: FH5
Most anticipated Xbox game: Halo.

Two great games, same great award! So....FH5 isn't an Xbox game? Dang, so THAT'S what the Switch on Phils shelf was all about. Who knew?

It's incredible though, and I agree, I think FH5's real prize is "biggest surprise of E3" more than "most anticipated." Good award, bad name. I really don't think anyone saw it coming, it didn't get leaked beyond an "I've heard this could be in this works" type of vague not a prediction prediction. After poor Series S got leaked, MS deserved a major surprise this year. Most of us went into the show expecting "Motorsport 8." It's time. 7 is older than FH4, the licensing expires, GT will be on PS5 in 2022, so it was the almost automatic obligatory release with smaller appeal and everyone expected. Dropping FH5 was just a shock, and dropping that it's coming in months was a bigger shock. They actually have their biggest IP dropping a huge release in months, and nobody really predicted it. It's the Xbox equivalent of Nintendo dropping "Mario Odyssey 2 This Holiday"

@Dezzy70 Haha, glad to see you found something in the presentation to make you want to keep your Series!

@Magabro Yeah, Metroid shares a common problem with Halo, really. It's been dormant for so long, nobody under the age of 20 has ever even heard of it, and most over the age of 20 have long forgotten about it. And the entries in between have been critically questionable. And yeah, while Halo was at once at least a top shelf IP for a generation, Metroid never was. Prime 1 is the only game that really sold particularly well, and that was on a console nobody bought.

Emphasis on the rabid fan base. It's like the Pokemon fanbase. The "fans" are split between being excited for the game, or hating every Metroid game that isn't Super. Then again the Halo fanbase may be approaching that too.

@carlos82 @nessisonett 2D metroid isn't going to light any hype fires outside the existing fandom of 2D Metroid, which by their own words is almost 20 years out of mothballs. No 2D game will, not even Ori, really. I'm grateful we're getting this, because I expected we'd never see another 2D Metroid again that wasn't at least just a remake.

Personally I'll never really get the hype of 3D Metroid. The series gameplay is strongest in a 2D setup, it was designed around core elements of 2D gameplay. Taking Metroid 3d felt like trend-chasing gameplay on the GCN. It's not that it was bad, but it wasn't really Metroid. I'm far more hyped for 5 than MP4, but that won't win E3 hype. To me, 3D Metroid, though better implemented has the same pitfalls as trying to take Sonic 3D. The whole design concept of the abilities, environments, and characters is designed around the 2D experience. But the industry believed 2D was permanently dead at that time, and everything tried to change to meet expectations. It wasn't until much later with games like DKCR and LBP that proved 2D games could still thrive in the "AAA" scene. Imagine if Rare got to make more games like DKC!

@NEStalgia
Yes my face lite up after FH5, not much of a shock as the rumours were about.
But the graphics and different environments did a bit.
Not just FH5 but I have 2 years of GPU so hopefully Halo campaign will come up good and also Stalker 2 in April.
Wish UBISOFT day one on game pass as I like far cry and assassins games as well.
Guess you can’t have it all.

While Xbox show was good, I was blown away by Nintendo. Who can stand a 2D Metroid, Advance Wars Remake, and Shin Megami Tensei V at the same time. For me, the winner was Nintendo.