The Inside Xbox event for May 7 brought more than a dozen new gameplay demonstrations, including several world premieres. All of them showcased the first-ever look at gameplay on the upcoming Xbox Series X console.
In case you missed the show, we’ve recapped all that happened in the swift, 30-minute presentation, which served as the kickoff event of Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest. Here’s what was revealed, and what it means for the next generation.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
We already knew Ubisoft would be making the Valhalla gameplay world premiere during the show, and as the biggest game of the stream, it served as the closer to send people away wanting more. You can catch that reveal above and see how the Viking tale will take players away from their Nordic homeland and into England — where they may not be so welcome. How do you think it looks on next-gen hardware?
Dirt 5
We already knew about Ubisoft’s big reveal, but the Inside Xbox show debuted other big games we’d not yet heard about. One of the biggest was Dirt 5, from storied racing outfit Codemasters. The studio was just this week teasing multiple projects in the works, and now we’ve seen the first one in all its muddy glory.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
The sequel to a game nearly as old as Xbox itself made its gameplay reveal during the show. The first-person bloodsucking RPG has the backing of countless fans of the original cult classic from 2004, and today they and other viewers got the first look at a twisted trailer featuring the world’s worst Christmas decorations.
Everything Else
In total, 13 games were shown off, including three that will hit Xbox Game Pass at launch, and nine that will utilize Smart Delivery. That means players can buy the game once and play it on all Microsoft platforms for no additional charge.
Here’s the rest of that slate.
Bright Memory Infinite kicked off the show with a first-person action-shooter hybrid that brought wall-running and stylish executions into the next generation. Scorn, the long-in-development horror title from Ebb Software, introduced its Giger-like art but didn’t show gameplay. Chorus showed off its space flight and combat game with a heavy dose of sci-fi bass, but only showed minimal gameplay.
Call of the Sea felt like the mystery of Firewatch and the orchestral strings of BioShock in a single trailer, while The Ascent brought totally different vibes as a cyberpunk co-op Diablo-like. In one of the coolest reveals of the day, Bloober Team (Layers of Fear, Observer) revealed its latest horror title, The Medium, featuring music that unmistakably belongs to longtime Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka.
Anime fans will want to keep an eye on the next project from publisher Bandai-Namco, Scarlet Nexus, while Left 4 Dead fans may have a newcomer in Second Extinction, which looks like the classic zombie shooter only it takes place on snowy mountains – and there are dinosaurs.
It was only recently that the Yakuza series came to Xbox at all, but today it was revealed the next game, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, will be an Xbox Series X launch game.
Xbox Game Pass
Three of the 13 games shown today will be hitting Game Pass on their launch days: Scorn, Call of the Sea, and The Medium.
Smart Delivery
Nearly all of the games shown today — nine in total — will allow players the chance to upgrade to the next generation for free with Xbox Smart Delivery, while EA briefly interjected to reveal Madden NFL 21 will offer players a similar free upgrade if they buy Madden NFL 21 on Xbox One by December 31, 2020, and upgrade to Xbox Series X by March 31, 2021. The nine Smart Delivery-enabled games are:
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
- Call of the Sea
- Chorus
- Dirt 5
- Scarlet Nexus
- Second Extinction
- The Ascent
- Vampire: The Masquerade -Bloodlines 2
- Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Xbox promises more news no less than monthly as we head toward the Series X launch this fall. This is a schedule the company calls Xbox 20/20. The Xbox Game Studios showcase will take place in July, which means we can look forward to something else on the way for June.
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