Microsoft has revealed 13 games coming to its Xbox Series X console when the machine launches this winter. In an hour-long presentation, streamed live on Thursday, the company announced that well-known titles such as the recently announced Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, as well as Madden NFL 21 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, will all be on Xbox Series X.
Also featured was Paradox Interactive’s vampire adventure, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. Codemasters presented its racer DiRT 5 complete with impressive lighting and mud splatter effects, and an option to run it in 4K at 60 frames-per-second or in a lower resolution at 120fps. Namco Bandai showed a new anime-style sci-fi thriller named Scarlet Nexus, about a group of psychic law enforcers.
The rest of the games were from independent studios: futuristic first-person action shooter called Bright Memory Infinite, which is already coming to PC; supernatural horror game The Medium from Blair Witch creator Bloober Team (with music by Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka); a 1930s puzzle adventure named Call of the Sea from Swedish indie publisher Raw Fury; space combat shooter Chorus from Deep Silver; cyberpunk action-RPG The Ascent from Curve Digital; Second Extinction, a three-player co-op dinosaur shooter from Systemic Reaction; and finally, Scorn, a first-person horror adventure set in a sinister Giger-esque dream world developed by Serbian team, Ebb.
The games will support the key technical features of the Xbox Series X such as 120-frames-per-second animation, real-time ray tracing and super-fast loading times. Nine of the titles, including Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, will support Microsoft’s new Smart Delivery technology, which will allow players to buy one version of the game that will then run on either Xbox One or in an optimised format on Xbox Series X.
Speaking during the livestream, Ashraf Ismail, creative director on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla said, “Assassin’s Creed has always been committed to new technologies to push the experiences. To have incredibly fast loading times means we can create a game that’s much more immersive. Norway and England are living worlds and to push their potential has been wonderful.”
Microsoft has also confirmed that all 15 of its first-party studios are working on Xbox One X projects, but did not show footage during the stream. During the stream, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Studios, announced that gameplay would be revealed from July, including Halo Infinite.
An exact launch date for the next generation console is yet to be confirmed beyond “Holiday 2020”. A price is also yet to be revealed.
With major gaming events cancelled around the world, the company has announced that it will be running a series of monthly online news livestreams titled Xbox 20/20, showing trailers and developer interviews.
A blogpost published to Microsoft’s Xbox Wire site said: “Hundreds of titles are already in development for Xbox Series X thanks to our amazing partner community.
“We’ll be sharing a lot more in the coming months in our Xbox 20/20 series, not only from those partners but from Xbox Game Studios as well.”
