Xbox Looking Forward to a 2017 that Pushes Engagement to New Heights
King Xbox himself, Phil Spencer, took time out from being the sexiest man in gaming to write a post on Xbox Wire outlining a bumper year ahead.
Phil started by praising Halo Wars 2.
…the game feels like a return to what made the first Halo Wars great…
This is extremely welcome news. Being the direct sequel to Halo Wars we aren’t sure where the series left the greatness, but we’re glad it’s back.
Phil went on to wax poetic about this year’s exclusives. Addressing the breadth of titles he said.
In fact, we are committed to delivering even more exclusive games for both Xbox One and Windows 10 this year than we launched in 2016.
Microsoft are in an outstanding position to deliver on this promise. If anyone can recall a similar post on Xbox Wire this time last year, Xbox committed to launching 12 exclusives* in 2016:
Gears of War 4, Quantum Break, Halo Wars 2, Crackdown 3, Fable Legends Open Beta, ReCore, Sea of Thieves, Gigantic, Killer Instinct: Season 3, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition, Cobalt
At least 4 of these games where delayed into 2017 (cancellation pending), so even before we address the fact that 2016’s exclusives include a remaster, a definitive edition of an exclusive launched in 2014, and an open beta (subsequently cancelled) Microsoft could easily fulfill Phil’s command to smash 2016 simply by releasing the games originally intended to be released in 2016.
Phil then takes the time to touch on two of the exclusives, noting that Crackdown 3 and State of Decay 2 are brilliant games.
…both State of Decay 2 and Crackdown 3 are looking and playing great.
One must assume these games are so mind blowing that they must be kept under lock and key in Phil’s protection, for fear of causing mass absenteeism and bringing the economy to a halt. Even President Trump would struggle to make America great again when the alternative is Crackdown 3 (cancellation pending).
As 2017 is looking crazy for Xbox, Phil also spends a bit of time updating us on Phantom Dust and Vodoo Vince, games from 2004 and 2003.
Fans of the original Xbox game Phantom Dust can look forward to the re-release of the original classic with Xbox Play Anywhere support and cross-play, as well as improvements to game balance and frame rate. And Voodoo Vince: Remastered is coming to Xbox One, Windows 10 and Steam…
Here’s to a brilliant year for the Xbox One, and more stats like “engagement” and “number of times a gamer heard the word Xbox" going through the roof!
Other sites would break the above news into fourteen separate articles for you to click through ads to get to, so keep it locked to Silent Protagonist for all the coverage on Microsoft’s best ever year.
*by exclusives they mean “not on PS4, ner, ner, ner”.
