Phil Spencer Teases Multiple Games That Weren't Shown In This Year's Xbox Showcase

Given an upcoming 2023 XGS game wasn't at the showcase (the console version of Age of Empires 4), I honestly think there'll be another Xbox event later this year. Gamescom is probably focused on Starfield so maybe something for November?

The one thing that has left me most disappointed during this whole period, is the lack of any information regarding Gears of War. I had so hoped to at least see something!

My wish list had been:

1. A reveal of Gears 6, with a release window in 2024.

2. The release of the much rumoured Marcus Fenix Trilogy remaster this Fall.

3. Confirmation that work had begun on Gears Tactics 2.

Wasn't too much to ask, was it...?

@Fiendish-Beaver I'd be super happy to just get the 2) option in the not-so-distant future

Crossing my Fi Fred that Clockwork Revolution and South of Midnight are closer than my first impression if 2025.

Also hoping some of these titles show early (March?) 2024.

Not first party, but hope they get to reveal Shin Megami Tensei 3/4/4a/5 for Xbox in Tokyo Game Show this September as they did last year with Persona.

@Fiendish-Beaver Few months back the voice actor for his kid said he’s not even been contacted regarding Gears 6 and doubled down by saying this wasn’t just him saying that. Makes me wonder what they’re doing.

Doom or whatever id is cooking and Gears are safe and probably some very impressive games will be revealed some day this year or the next. The worrying item here is Halo, is it alive? it is alright?

@Kaloudz Kaloudz is secretly just Phil Spencer doing on-the-ground research on Xbox fandom. He knows all the workings behind the scenes.

@Tharsman Shin Megami Tensai would be a epic W for me. Love those games !

@Fiendish-Beaver I was also hoping for gears of war remastered collection. Hopefully sooner rather than later 👍👍

@Fiendish-Beaver While I would love 1 and 3 for sure (I don't care about a remaster trilogy, but cool if people do), them releasing Gears 6 is a must. It literally is given how Gears 5 ends, but the lack of any hint of it is annoying. It's easily my favorite Xbox series of all time, so it is disappointing to continue year after year without anything about it. Even just acknowledging that they are working on it would be nice.

I'd love another Gears Tactics as well as I loved that game, but obviously Gears 6 is priority #1 for me.

I think Microsoft smashed it with this showcase. It wasn't perfect, personally as much as I love Atlus - there was a bit too much from them and also I thought Avowed looked disappointing.
But besides that it really showed the pay off is coming. New IPs, old IPs, also more opportunity with what they obviously chose not to show (gears for example).
They must have been super happy with the reaction to the Sony showcase!

@Tharsman now that Nintendo has had SMTV for so long I'd like to see it ported over to the other consoles. It is a great game and everyone who likes jrpgs/the series should be able to play it. And Atlus should have the opportunity to sell more copies of the game.

We’ll see Phil we’ll see.

@Cashews there was a leak a while back that it’s coming, same way we already knew P3Re was in the works, the question is when and where will it be announced.

Halo wars 3 would be nice too and what happened to Indiana jones

But the main question is if they didn't acquire Bethesda what else would we have seen at the recent showcase that could be coming out towards the fourth quarter, holiday season besides maybe a 6th version of gears 6?

I absolutely agree with you, @KilloWertz. 1 & 3 are my priorities too. I only want a remaster of the original trilogy because I'd like to earn the Insane run achievements all over again. 😂

Truthfully, I was hoping that the trilogy would tide me over until the release of 6. Maybe there is still hope of each of my wishes being granted at the next Xbox Showcase. I'm not sure when that'll be. Maybe after the Summer. One can only hope...

Man, that's really disappointing to read, @FatalBubbles. Maybe they've gone with him being dead as canon...?

So if games was ready to be shown last year, why not have gameplay ready for this year?

Do you have any idea when the next Xbox Showcase might be, @FraserG? Can you recall when they had the one after last years June showing? Just wondering whether they may follow a similar schedule this year.

@Neverwild Games could of been revealed much earlier, even show off some 'early' game-play prototyping etc but you as a Consumer would not understand what you are looking at and be extremely 'critical'.

Games are often 'playable' in what can only be described as being in its most 'basic' form. Basic Polygons with perhaps no texture or detail. Its like wireframe games that look like they were made in the 80's but still a 'playable' slice of the game. Its still years away from being anything recognisable as a 'Modern' game, with all the assets and artwork replacing those basic polygon models.

That's the difference between 'consumer' and an insider. They get to play games in what can only be described as the basic 'game-play' loop before it gets all the graphics layered on top.

You can show 'game-play', but the consumer doesn't want to see 'pre-alpha' builds, don't want to see rough, unoptimised and maybe could be 'cut' from the game 'sections', they want to see Game-play that's 'close' if not exactly like the Game they get.

Its like them showing a 'film' with Actors going through their lines sat round a table, maybe some shots of green-screen mo-cap work etc - because its still 'years' away from being a 'film' with all the CGi and effects work added.

@Fiendish-Beaver Agreed. I wanted the Gears Collection so bad. That was right there with Diablo 4 for me. Red Dead Redemption, Gears and Diablo are my big 3. Those are generational games for me. So missing Gears 6 or the collection stings. But gives us something to look forward to. I believe the collection is still in the works and not using UE4 but maybe using UE5 to make them truly shine and be there on PC and Xbox for years to come. I am trying to keep the faith. 😊

@Kaloudz Please please please ID reboot Quake. That would be insane. Used to love that series back back in the day. That would give me an every day online shooter. Which i am lacking at the moment.

@Fiendish-Beaver Something for Gamescom seems almost guaranteed but there were also a few years they did something in November:

• 2022 - Gamescom stream in August (acted similar to showcase extended)
• 2021 - Gamescom stream in August, Xbox 20th anniversary event in November
• 2019 - Inside Xbox stream in August and September, X019 event in November
• 2018 - Inside Xbox stream in July, August and September, X018 event in November

gears of war games doesnt really need remastering gears of war , gears 2 and gears 3 already run at 4k 60fps on series X

now they could remake 2 and 3 like the did with gears of war ultimate edition

Thank you for the breakdown, @Grumblevolcano. That's really helpful. 👍

I so hope you are right, @Green-Bandit. Gears is my favourite franchise. I love the characters, the stories, and the challenge of soloing them all on the hardest difficulties. Not content with Insane, I did Inconceivable on both 4 and 5 too. Still not finished my Tactics Insane run yet though. That game is brutal...

Thank you, @FraserG. Let's hope so, and let's hope they do a shadow-drop of the Fenix Trilogy... 😊

@BrilliantBill Halo will be fine, they are most likely already working on a sequel.

@Fiendish-Beaver that’s awesome, do have them all beat on insane then move to multiplayer. But i am right there with you, i love the series, it’s my favorite on Xbox and has been since the first one came out. The collection would be a huge deal for us older fan’s and bring in newer fans and even the PC crowd. It just makes sense to make it, then again just making sense in today’s world will be the exact reason something don’t happen. Somehow making bad or careless decisions is seen as progressive in todays world haha

@Kaloudz same here, i don’t want to build a house and a mall just to try and get a few kills in a shooter. Fortnite and those build a bear battle royal has ruined one of my favorite genre’s in gaming. That was another reason i logged 200 hours into Halo Infinite, cause until i got bored with the same old content and nothing new coming, it was fun to play. Still is actually. Shooters need to get back to arena style. Quake could own the space behind how good I.D is.

@Fiendish-Beaver @moonglow
Here is the article I was referencing, managed to find it.

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2023/04/gears-of-war-voice-actor-hasnt-heard-anything-about-gears-6

I hope that he’s just lying and it’s under way. Gears 5 was great.

One really big missed opportunity this year was no Remasters. Every year Microsoft should at least announce one remaster from it's huge library. It's a relatively easy way to generate buzz, compared to AAAA titles and you can profit from people's nostalgia.

.) Banjo Remaster
.) Conker remaster
.) GEARS remaster
.) Halo 3 remaster
.) Fable remaster
.) Blinx Remaster
.) Quake Remaster

...and so on, a sure banger every year. Do it, Phil!

@Kaloudz I'm genuinely excited for what's to come in the coming months and years for Xbox. I'm so happy that I decided to purchase an Xbox series S for my wife and a series S for myself. We've had our consoles a little over a year now & for me it's the first Xbox I've owned since 2015 and it's my wife's first Xbox ever so we've been enjoying playing through the amazing gamepass catalog. Although last year didn't see enough releases I do believe the turning point is here, I am so happy Microsoft & its acquired studios are finally going to be releasing some amazing titles for Xbox I'm the coming months and years! I'm looking forward to fable, starfield, ever wild, avowed, state of Decay 3 and hopefully a sequel to gears 5 or a soft reboot of the series. Happy gaming ✌️

@Moonglow Certainly could be the case but would sort of make what some people chose pointless. Guess we shall see.

@Fiendish-Beaver Makes sense as something to tide you over, especially since we literally have no idea when Gears 6 will ever come out. It'd be different if we had a general idea of a year, but not even that.

Hopefully they announce it at some point, maybe even later in the year at non-Xbox show like the already mentioned Gamescon. I have no problem with them saving it for then if they actually had to for one reason or another.

Considering that by year 3 of the XBO generation, the XB first party studios had been pretty much decimated, I think they have done a good job of rebuilding pretty much from the ground up.

The studio purchases have been well thought out and I think they made very wise choices.

If they can pull off landing Activision-Blizzard and then pick up Absobo that would be great too. Also, we didn't hear anything about Contraband and Kojima's XB title as part of the showcase. It will be interesting when more comes out on those two games.

As a long time XB gamer and someone who was really disappointed with content after year one of XBO, and then the drought of 2022, I am now starting to feel like XB has their act together and will start putting out games on a consistent basis. FINALLY!

In all honesty, @trev666, this is what I meant. I think the first Gears of War game was classed as a remaster, and that was what I was hoping that they were aiming for with the Trilogy (if it exists at all).

Thank you, @FatalBubbles. I remember the article now that I've read it once again (getting on a bit and memory is not what it once was! 😂). Let's hope this is a double bluff, or his death is being treated as canon and they just don't need him...

@themightyant I agree, keep some stuff back, the event was widely regarded across most media I've seen a great success, a superb variety. I gave it an 8.5 as I wanted more from certain genres etc. Starfield and the scope alone blew me away.

Phil has plans and regardless of the fanboys saying he's useless, we have to remember he saved Xbox when he took over, he seems like a genuine chap and a gamer. I don't care if he's big Corp he comes across nicely and is a great public speaker. Plus his obsession with Vampire Survivors is awesome haha! I think he 1000GS that game or something.

Xbox did a good job, and I'm even more excited for Fable now, that trailer was gold for me. Helps that Richard Ayoade is a national treasure, they just need to get Matt Berry to play a villain now or something! ha-ha!

@Kaloudz yeah i would stink at Quake right now. I might even stink for a while on any shooter, I haven’t played any in a while. That Genre is sad to me at the moment. But i do think something will come along soon, even Halo infinite is looking good now. The whole let’s build a 2 story house and a shopping mall so we can snipe out the window is just not fun to me. I need fast in the face gameplay. Man i can’t wait to see what I.D is working on.

@Kaloudz it will take time to get good with Quake, those fast paced shooters take time and i enjoy them so much. I really hope ID is working on Quake, even tho Hexen would be cool also.

@Kaloudz I completely agree. I would like to take it one step further and i might even be wrong with this take, but this is just me shooting from the hip, me and you talk well with each other so I know you will at least respect my take. I personally think Quake was and is one of the worst managed big name first person shooters in the market place. They had so much market share and gamers time back in its hey day, even with Quake Cons. Then it seemed like the series just dried up and stop being supported, either due to series fatigue with the developers or players, but then Quake Con was just kind of a name for something that never had new products. This has been a long time ago, but i built my first and only PC as a young kid to play competitive quake online. Granted the Xbox came along and started the wave of bringing shooters from the PC to console, Sony can not claim credit for that. It was the Xbox in its early years that started a market for shooters on console. So i moved away from mouse and keyboard and haven’t looked back since Halo on the Xbox OG. Quake has a certain play and feel that to me could have evolved and stayed relevant. Then as you said they broke the series of quake up over launching on different consoles and just had no direction. But still had Quake Cons. That’s strange, but tells me the series has a chance to come back and launch a reboot to the Series Consoles and PC and have a chance to be a big name again. Times change and there was a time up until a year to two ago that only battle royal build a bear shooters were getting the numbers. That fad is slowing (THANKFULLY) and the time is ripe to be that big shooter thats not a battle royal. I seen a few people post to me that say’s they don’t think ID’s next game is Quake, i could be wrong but I think it is or the series just goes off a die’s cause there’s never been a more wide open shooter market waiting to change the game. I am not saying Quake will trump COD or Fortnite but it don’t need to, it needs to come out and grab all those players like myself and you that have wanted this series to make it’s big return. Sorry long rant, it’s been a long rough work day and it felt good to just rant games haha

@Kaloudz i agree buddy, i think they make it a little different like they did Doom and make it fast, brutal and fun. That seems obvious but in the way ID can bring those 3 things together like they did with Doom, it is industry leading. No one codes quite like ID. I called ID the best thing in the Bethesda deal. I knew ID would help others at MS and so far they have. Having them in your in-house talent pool is more valuable than just Quake or Doom. It’s having the best gunplay designers in the industry. So i am more than excited to see what they come up with now that they have MS backing and tools. Quake would be a day 1 for me.

The rumor you can read online is a female lead character and single player story with multiplayer online. That to my knowledge is the only leak on what is “suppose” to be in development.