Microsoft has confirmed the date and time of its annual Xbox showcase in June, but it sounds like it might be a disappointingly low-key one.
Nintendo’s announcement of the Switch 2 launch date on June 5 may have swallowed up all the attention over the past few weeks, but it’s only the opening salvo in a months long parade of similar showcases, from various different companies.
Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest, aka not quite E3, is set to air a day after the console’s launch on June 6, and now Microsoft has announced its annual summer showcase will take place within the same week.
As announced by Microsoft, the Xbox Games Showcase 2025 will be livestreamed on Sunday June 8 at 6pm UK time, or 10am PT/1pm ET in the US, across YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook.
There are no details on how long the showcase will be, but it will be followed by a Direct dedicated to The Outer Worlds 2. Microsoft has done a similar double feature over the past couple of years, with Starfield and Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6, respectively, but The Outer Worlds 2 doesn’t feel quite as anticipated as those.
Its billing implies The Outer Worlds 2 will be Microsoft’s big game for the second half of 2025. Ninja Gaiden 4 is also slated to launch later this year, but as developer Obsidian Entertainment are owned by Microsoft, The Outer Worlds 2 perhaps makes more sense as the central focus.
This suggests many already announced Xbox games will not be released until next year at the earliest. Fable has already been delayed to 2026, but State Of Decay 3, Everwild, Perfect Dark, and Gears Of War: E-Day are all currently without a release date.
Many of these games may well be featured in the showcase but by not getting the 30-minute spotlight at the end, it implies none of them are out this year.
As is to be expected from a showcase, there’s a strong chance of some surprise announcements. A remastered Gears Of War collection has been rumoured for years, while we could also see an official reveal for the in-development Xbox handheld.
Rumourmonger eXtas1s also suggests that Hollow Knight: Silksong will befeatured, but it was already at the Nintendo Direct – for about five seconds – so that’s not necessarily anything to get excited about.
In what might be another hint towards a quieter release slate, this year’s showcase will be a digital-only presentation. ‘We will not have a theatre experience for fans and media this year,’ Microsoft said (via The Verge’s Tom Warren).
Xbox FanFest, an in-person event which typically coincides with the showcase in Los Angeles, has also been pushed back to a later date.
Regardless, coupled with the Switch 2’s launch, June looks set to be a big month for game announcements, given Nintendo and Sony are also likely to have equivalent events.
Nintendo’s normal late June slot seems a given, since the Switch 2 will only just have launched at that point, while current rumours suggest that Sony is trying to decide the scale of their preview show.
Insider Jeff Grubb has previously said that PlayStation is ‘debating’ whether to make their usual summer event a proper showcase or a smaller State Of Play presentation. He suggested this week that they’ve likely now decided, but there’s no indication of which way they went.
Despite being published by Xbox, The Outer Worlds 2 is set to launch on PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S in 2025.
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