Xbox E3 Press Conference 2016: All The News As It Happened

The Microsoft E3 press briefing will be kicking off at approximately 2:30am AEST. Like last year, we’ll be blogging all the announcements as they happen, live from Los Angeles. So stay up late or set your alarm clocks!

Once again. we’ll be updating this page with announcements, photos and commentary as the press conference unfolds. Keep updating the page to get new entries. In the meantime, tell us what you’re hoping to see in the comments section below!

1:20

Good morning gamers! (It’s technically morning in Australia, right?) The Xbox E3 press conference will be kicking off in a little over an hour. Not long to go now!

1:40


The crowd is slowly making its way into the Galen Centre. Setup and displays are nearly identical to last year (if it ain’t broke, right?)

Microsoft is going to be hard pressed topping E3 2015: last year we were given Hololens, a slew of new games and backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 to name just a few highlights. Here’s hoping for some tasty new hardware news…

1:59

Still waiting for all the plebs to take their seats.

2:25

Annnd still waiting. Just a heads up – WiFi at this event is depressingly flaky. If we go mysteriously quiet, that’s the reason why.

2:31

And we start with a bang! A sizzle reel for the Xbox One Slim! Pricing will start at US$299.

2:35

And now it’s straight to Gears Of War 4. The game will be among the first to offer Xbox Play Anywhere: every purchase of the game will include both Xbox One and Windows 10 versions.

We’re now watching footage from the campaign with a firefight in the middle of a raging storm. Looks very Gears. Footage ended with a reveal of an old and grizzled Marcus Fenix. Oh, and there’ll also be a Gears 4 Xbox One controller.

2:45

Now we’re onto Killer Instinct: General Raam from Gears of War will be a new, playable character.

2:50

Forza Horizon 3! The car porn is very rude. The game takes place in Australia and will include four-player campaign co-op mode for the first time. The game will be out September 27.

2:55

Remember Recore? It’s a robot-themed action game with a bunch of platforming. The demo didn’t offer much new but the design sure looks interesting.

3:00

We were just shown a pretty meaty gameplay demo of Final Fantasy 15 with the party taking on a giant stone golem thingy. It looks ridiculously cinematic.

3:01

Tom Clancy’s The Division is getting an expansion.

3:05

Now we’re watching the same Battlefield 1 trailer that dropped the other day. Of all the FPS games coming out, I’m most excited about this one. WW1 combat is where it’s at!

3:07

Now we’re getting some Xbox Live info: community creation via Clubs will allow gamers to find people on Xbox Live who share their interests. There’ll also be a Looking For Group option to connect you to multiplayer games more easily. Finally, Arena is a new tool aimed at competitive gamers. Not bad at all.

3:10

Minecraft is a big deal. Microsoft owns Minecraft. You can now play the game across all platforms with other gamers at the same time. A city texture pack is coming which lets you change the look and behaviour of anything in the game.

3:15

Do you care about customisable Xbox controllers in super bright colours of your choice? Because those are coming.

Chris Charla is on stage talking up Inside. Apparently, it’s “a masterpiece” and “one of the best video games I’ve ever played.” Now we’re looking at a crapload of great looking indie stuff for ID@Xbox. Oh, and the moody puzzle platformer Limbo is now free to play. We Happy Few looks creepy as all get out. The beta is coming to Xbox One on July 26.

3:20

There’s going to be a standalone Gwent card game from The Witcher. Digital card games are just weird.

3:28

Tekken fisticuffs! Namco fighters have always felt more at home on the PlayStation but give me a Hori stick and I’m down. Tekken 7 will be coming to Xbox One with an all-new story mode. Xbox Live Gold members will also be getting free downloads of Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

3:35

We just saw a demo for Dead Rising 4. Looks to be more of the same but with a Christmas theme. This isn’t a bad thing.

3:45

Giant monster smackdown game Scalebound looks pretty fun. I really want to punch the protagonist in the face though. He wears designer headphones into battle. ‘Nuff said.

3:50

Sea Of Thieves is the new pirate-themed MMORPG from Rare. You can go sailing, nab treasure, attack ships and drink rum. Natch.

3:51

State Of Decay is getting a sequel. Zombies will never die.

3:53

Halo Wars 2 will be landing February 21 2017. There will be a week-long beta from today. (June 13 – 19.)

3:55

We’re now getting more info on Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox One S. Crucially the S will have an integrated PSU and won’t be roughly the sane size as a grand piano. Hurrah!

4:00

And it’s time for the grand reveal! Project Scorpio is coming next year. High-fidelity VR, six teraflops of computing power, 8 CPU cores, true 4K gaming. No hardware pics, sadly.


And that’s a wrap! All in all it was a pretty decent lineup of tech and software announcememts. Games were a bit thin on the ground compared to last year (which was expected) but the new consoles and major Xbox Live tweaks are pretty damn exciting; especially for PC gamers who own Xbox Ones. Tell us what you thought in the comments!

Gizmodo attended E3 at the invitation of Microsoft.


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