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Microsoft announced that it will be hosting an Xbox event at Tokyo Game Show, with full presentation details confirmed today by CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer. The Tokyo Game Show 2024 will take place from September 26 to 29, with livestream events broadcast in multiple languages, specifically with audio descriptions in English and Japanese.
Blizzard is reportedly once again "incubating" a shooter based on its seminal sci-fi strategy series StarCraft.
The next Blizzard games to hit Xbox Game Pass are two real-time strategy (RTS) classics. Xbox announced during its Tokyo Game Show 2024 presentation that StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft 2: Campaign Collection will be available on PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate very soon.
When I noticed that Phil Spencer was wearing a StarCraft T-shirt during Xbox's Tokyo Game Show presentation, for the briefest moment I got excited. I am a naive child. StarCraft 2 is now more than 14 years old, and Blizzard has been largely ignoring its RTS legacy—let's try to forget about Warcraft 3: Reforged—for a long time. Could that be about to change, I wondered? No. Apparently not.
In amidst all the mechs, anime, Phil Spencer speaking Japanese, and whatever the hell Slitterhead was, Xbox's Tokyo Game Show presentation also showed off a few tantalising seconds of a new expansion for Age of Mythology: Retold—its Age of Empires: Definitive Edition-ification of the god-battling RTS from 2002.
What is it? History-spanning 4X grand strategy game or: Phil Spencer's Civilization
While Sony has announced its PlayStation 5 Pro mid-generation console refresh, Microsoft is betting on a wholly different strategy for Xbox. According to rumors, there will be no mid-generation console refresh akin to Xbox One X, which launched one year after the PS4 Pro and delivered top console performance.
It's no secret that Xbox has been struggling lately, even more so after the Activision acquisition, a deal that cost $69 billion to buy the company. This makes it the largest acquisition in gaming but not necessarily the smartest. It's been even more challenging for Xbox, as the overall gaming market has stagnated significantly, primarily due to events like the pandemic, which made the industry even more volatile than it already was. One of the significant factors in the industry now is how inaccessible games are to many people, with blockbuster games costing $70 to purchase as the average gamer. Sarah Bond, the Vice President of Xbox has said that they are now looking into other areas aside from the "traditional gaming business" and aiming to reach into "untapped areas." By discussing her next moves, she's hinted at new Xbox hardware, where Phil Spencer has continuously expressed interest in a handheld device.
Minecraft's non-existent PS5 port became a talking point during the FTC hearings over the Xbox Activision deal, and Xbox boss Phil Spencer claimed at the time that Sony was "reluctant" to provide development kits for the new platform. It seems Microsoft has its hands on the necessary development tools now, though, as Minecraft is finally hitting PS5 on October 22.