Microsoft has another “big event” planned for August, according to Phil Spencer. In a Youtube interview with iJustine, he said that more information regarding the Xbox Series X would be revealed in the upcoming month.
“I’m encouraged to be able to talk more about it (The Xbox Series X). It should be August.”- Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox.
Another month, another opportunity for Microsoft to increase the hype for its Next- Gen system. Perhaps we will also have some information, or formal reveal of the console codenamed “Lockheart”, which is presumably the rumored lower spec Xbox Series S.
Microsoft is just coming from a tremendous amount of backlash, as a result of the company’s underwhelming July 23rd Games reveal. The backlash is mostly centered on the Halo Infinite gameplay reveal with left many a fan and non-fan disappointed with 343 Industries and Microsoft itself.
It will be interesting to see if 343 can save face, by vastly improving the game’s visual presentation in what could amount to just 30 days of crunch work. Rumors abound of the gameplay footage shown having been an early demo build (the rumor made no sense), but years in development proves otherwise.
A post in the Halowaypoint.com community (apparently made by a developer) confirms what the Neverendingrealm.com has suspected all along; The gameplay footage wasn’t an early build, it is what 343 had to show at the present time, which certainly is a bit troubling.
Part of the statement went like this:
“The build used to run the campaign demo was work-in-progress from several weeks ago with a variety of graphical elements and game systems still being polished.”
On more positive news, in the same statement, the developer claimed that they had listen to both fan complaints and Digital Foundry’s own assessment of the gameplay trailer. Digital Foundry went deep analyzing the poor implementation of lighting and suggesting that Ray Tracing would fix some of the issues (The Xbox Series X should be perfectly able to offer this rendering technique in the game). There were other complains regarding pop up and the overall quality of the materials used.
So, I believe Microsoft will try to fix the hit that the Halo brand suffered over the past two weeks, by showing a better build on August. Time is running against them though.
The second game that I am really expecting to get a more defined showing is the Fable reboot. The game might be on its early stages, but the trailer was one of the bright spots in the presentation as Playground Games has an impeccable track record with the Forza Horizon series. I believe this is the one game that could potentially move Xbox Series X consoles, even to the unconverted gamers that are sitting on the fence.
Certainly, every event at this point is key, as Microsoft needs to build all the good will that it can for its next gen system, and for its big Holiday release of Halo Infinite. As a Halo fan I will keep my expectations at a reasonable level, but let us hope for a big improvement in visual fidelity for Halo Infinite on August.