E3 2017: Microsoft Unveils Xbox One X, Bethesda Developing VR Experiences for “Doom,” “Fallout 4”

E3 officially kicked off this weekend with Microsoft and Bethesda both holding massive press conferences for the media and fans alike.

On Sunday afternoon, Microsoft began their press conference with the worst kept secret in gaming — the new Xbox One X, previously known as Project Scorpio. They didn’t spend too much time discussing the hardware itself, but since specs for the console have been on the internet for a while, we learned it will be released Nov. 7 and the initial cost will be $499.

With that out of the way, Microsoft quickly moved to a massive amount of game announcements and the expansion of backward compatibility for the Xbox One to now include original Xbox games.

The crowd was then treated to trailers for a number of games including Forza Motorsport 7, Metro Exodus, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Deep Rock Galactic, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, State of Decay 2, Dragon Ball FighterZ, The Darwin Project, Black Desert, The Last Night, The Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti, Code Vein, Tacoma, Cuphead, Ashen, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, Super Lucky’s Tale, Sea of Theieves, Crackdown 3, Shadow of War, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and BioWare’s Anthem.

In addition to the new titles Xbox chief Phil Spencer unveiled a bunch of games that are getting 4K updates for Xbox One, including Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, Killer Instinct, Halo Wars 2 and Minecraft. 30 additional Xbox titles will be getting free Xbox One X updates this year, including Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, Rocket League and Resident Evil 7.

Bethesda kicked things off Sunday night by treating guests to their own theme park “Bethesdaland” before their big announcement. The event had distinct areas for their flagship titles where you could Dine in Hell with creatures from Doom or relax in the space themed lounge in honor of their recent hit Prey.

Pete Hines, Bethesda’s VP of PR and Marketing, led the presentation by touting the company’s year of successes, including the expansion of their popular mod capabilities to consoles and the development of two of their most popular titles, Doom and Fallout 4, into immersive Virtual Reality experiences.

Hines then went on to announce Skyrim for the Nintendo Switch to a very excited crowd, showing off new capabilities such as using the Link Amiibo to get the characters outfit in game and using the new Nintendo ‘JoyCon’ controllers for motion control.

New game titles announced by Bethesda included a very creepy Evil Within 2 trailer set to a cover of Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World” and Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, with both games released this October.

We also got a new look at Quake: Champions, which Bethesda announced at their event last year, with BJ Blaskowicz of Wolfenstein as a new playable character, as well as a cool trailer for Dishonored 2 expansion Death of the Outsider, which will be available on Sept. 15.

Bethesda wrapped up their presser by announcing a performance by The Chainsmokers, although most attendees seemed more interested in playing games and exploring the amazing theme park that Bethesda had created.

 Jack Traven | Contributing Writer