I can’t be the only one who feels this way. Despite having a few really promising releases, the 2023 Xbox Showcase was a little underwhelming as it most mostly filled with DLCs, indie games, and uninteresting titles.
I understand beauty is determined in the eye of the beholder, but are people really excited about 85% of the games showed at the showcase?
The 2023 Xbox Showcase has come and gone, and I am really disappointed with how it turned out as a lot of the reveals were for indie games, DLCs to old games, and some very bland boring titles that will fall by the wayside. And, seeing how there was at least 10 extremely interesting games shown at the PlayStation Showcase, I think we can see why Microsoft has been buying up legendary game studios than making their own legendary games.
Okay, that last line was a not-so-subtle dig at Microsoft and their monopolistic business practices of late, yet am I the only person who finds place-of-honor reveals for games like Jusant, Kunitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Towerborne, Clockwork Revolution, etc. at the official 2023 Xbox Showcase a little underwhelming?
Yes? No? I sure hope so as this has been a recuring trend for Microsoft and Xbox.
When you think back to May of this year, you should remember that the 2023 PlayStation Showcase saw new trailers and featured places of honor for games like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater Remake, Assassins’ Creed Mirage, Final Fantasy XVI, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Street Fighter 6, Phantom Blade 0, and released the first teaser images of “Project Q”, the new PS Vita-like streaming console.
Of course, there was the indie games, smaller titles, DLCs, and mobile games announced as well, but that list of new, “Triple A” quality games is very impressive.
Aside from the Starfield, Fable, Star Wars Outlaw, and Forza Motorsport trailers, there was nothing major or “Triple A” quality shown at the event.
And, to be honest, I’m not even sure I can include Fable in that list as the game still has no release date, the only trailers shown were cinematics, and its been at least 3 years since any major developments have been unveiled for the game (excluding the showcase trailer, obviously).
I’m sure some people will argue with me about major title release and “Triple A” title quality games, but no one can deny that Xbox has been lagging behind PlayStation in terms of game quality from their studios, influence in the gaming world, and reputation as a massive game and console publisher to the general public.
Hell, even Xbox’s “new console” unveiling was pitiful in comparison to Project Q’s as the new Xbox console model is…an Xbox Series S with 1 TB of data and painted “carbon black”.
Seriously, that’s the improvement. You can now get a carbon black model of the Xbox Series S with 1 TB of data…even though the S model is technically an older console.
Perhaps I’m taking these criticisms a little too far, but I just don’t see how Xbox can justify any statement that says their showcase was even comparable to the Sony one, let alone being better.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Microsoft) (Xbox Games Showcase Extended 2023 Trailer-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gifk9Tnh0Q)
