Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase: All the news, trailers, and announcements

Starfield, Bethesda’s ambitious new role-playing game, appears to be an amalgam of The Elder Scrolls and ambitious spacefaring games like Elite Dangerous and the Star Citizen project. In a presentation livestreamed on Sunday, game director Todd Howard lifted the cover off the highly anticipated game to reveal flyable, customizable starships as well as 100 star systems and more than 1,000 different worlds to explore.

The lengthy trailer, shown during a joint presentation with other Xbox Game Studios projects, and timed to coincide with the Summer Games Fest, also established the game’s storyline. In the year 2330, Starfield’s players are allied with Constellation, described as “the last group of space explorers,” who are on a quest to recover lost artifacts of alien origin. The cast comprises a multigenerational, multicultural crew, and the story could also ponder or attempt to prove the existence of true divinity.

Microsoft hosted its Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase on Sunday, curating more than 90 minutes’ worth of news, trailers, and announcements from Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, and third-party studios. That’s including Activision Blizzard, which Microsoft intends to acquire in a $68.7 billion deal.

The entire showcase focused on games that will be playable within the next year (with one major exception), Microsoft said. Missed the show? Here are all the announcements coming out of Microsoft’s big event.

If there’s one thing Harvey Smith wants you to take away from Redfall’s gameplay trailer shown at Sunday’s Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, it’s that Arkane Studios Austin’s next game is not a Left 4 Dead-like.

“It should, unless I’m mistaken, it should put all the Left 4 Dead comparisons to rest,” Smith, the studio’s director, said in an interview on Monday.

A lineup of the games coming to Game Pass in the next 12 months was shared at the Xbox & Bethesda Showcase on Sunday. The list is packed with great titles, including a mix of classics, as well as games that have yet to be released: From League of Legends to Persona 5 Royal. Here’s what to expect on the video game subscription service during the coming year.

Here’s the list of games, shown for 2022:

Kojima Productions is working on a new project with Xbox Game Studios, head of Xbox Phil Spencer and Hideo Kojima announced Sunday at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase. Kojima’s next game is still something of a mystery, however. He and Microsoft only announced plans to collaborate on a new game, but did not reveal a title or show gameplay of the project.

Kojima described the project as a “completely new game” and one that Kojima himself “has always wanted to make.” And it sounds like Kojima Productions’ new game will utilize Microsoft’s cloud gaming technology for ... whatever it is that Kojima plans to make.

Finally, fans will be able to play more of the Persona games on non-PlayStation platforms. The beloved role-playing game franchise is heading to Xbox consoles, Atlus announced at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase on Sunday.

Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal are all coming to Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and Windows PC. Royal will arrive Oct. 21, with the other two games launching sometime in 2023. All three games will be coming to Xbox Game Pass.

Diablo 4 will be released sometime in 2023, Blizzard Entertainment announced Sunday during the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase. The new trailer for the action-RPG revealed the Necromancer, the game’s fifth and final class, who can summon undead minions to do their bidding. Diablo 4 will also come to current-gen consoles — PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X — in addition to the previous generation of consoles. The announcement came hours after Blizzard opened up pre-registration for Diablo 4’s beta period on the game’s website.

In addition to the Necromancer, the trailer showed a good deal of gameplay, including the large-scale co-op events that can happen in the open world. In the open world, players can interact with other players they’re not in a party with. And the game offers cross-play, cross-progression across PC and consoles, and couch co-op.

Video games’ next foray into a magic-meets-gunpowder setting is Flintlock: the Siege of Dawn, an open-world RPG adventure coming to Xbox One and Xbox Series X in 2023. Flintlock will also be available day-one via Xbox Game Pass.

Flintlock gives off heavy Greedfall or New World vibes with its combination of melee, magic, and muskets. Protagonist Nor and her companion, Enki, will “embark on an epic journey of vengeance, gunpowder, and magic in humanity’s last stand.”

Obsidian Entertainment revealed its next project, a stylized 2D role-playing game built around branching narratives called Pentiment, on Sunday at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase. Helmed by game director Josh Sawyer (Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas), Pentiment is slated to arrive on Xbox and Windows PC later this year, and will be available through Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service.

Coming this November, Pentiment is described as a “narrative adventure” and boasts a medieval painted art style. Here’s the game’s official description

Ark 2, the sequel to the 2017 hit survival game Ark: Survival Evolved, won’t arrive until 2023. That’s a year later than originally expected.

First announced in 2020, Ark 2 will take place on an entirely new planet. Dinosaurs are still around, having traveled with their human masters, according to Sunday’s trailer. It’s unclear what other dangers await players.

A Minecraft spinoff is in development from Microsoft, the company announced Sunday during its Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase. It’s called Minecraft Legends, and it’s expected out in 2023.

Minecraft, the 11-year-old sandbox blockbuster, will look a little different in the upcoming spinoff; it’s expected to be a strategy game — something more akin to StarCraft than the open-endedness of Minecraft’s mainline games. Minecraft Legends still looks like Minecraft, but will have players looking to build and unite worlds through strategy gameplay.

A new gameplay trailer for action-adventure game A Plague Tale: Requiem was shared at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase on Sunday.

It is once again rat time. The trailer shows off more sneaking and backstabbing in a plague-ridden world — and, of course, more lobbing fireballs at swarming, writhing piles of rats. Protagonist Amicia dashes around them, sometimes even using them to take down her enemies. Gameplay appears to be heavily stealth-based, against a mix of realistic and supernatural enemies.

A new, highly anticipated hero is coming to Overwatch: Blizzard Entertainment revealed Sunday that the Junker Queen will be Overwatch 2’s newest playable character when the hero-based shooter launches this October.

In a new trailer for Overwatch 2, we got to see Junker Queen, a tank-class character, in action. She wields a shotgun as her primary weapon, but can also pull out a large, two-handed ax for a close-range melee attack. The trailer also appears to show off two of her abilities: a dash attack that spins multiple axes around her, and Junker Queen recalling a thrown ax using what appears to be a magnetic glove.

The UNSC Pelican from the Halo franchise is coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator. Microsoft made the announcement Sunday during the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase. It’s the first officially licensed fictional aircraft to be added to the realistic simulation game — and Microsoft even showed it flying in outer space. Fans can download the free add-on and fly right now.

Also known as the Dropship 77 - Troop Carrier, or the D77-TC, the Pelican should be very familiar to fans of Master Chief and his ilk. The versatile aircraft is capable of both space and atmospheric flight. It is commonly used for point insertion of both troops and vehicles, but can also serve in a ground support role when properly equipped. Its signature armament is a chin-mounted auto-cannon controlled by the co-pilot.

Overwatch 2 will launch on Oct. 4 as a free-to-play game, Activision Blizzard announced Sunday alongside Microsoft’s Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase. The October launch for the hero-based shooter is being called an “early access” release for the player-versus-player component of Overwatch 2, and will bring at least two new heroes — Sojourn and Junker Queen — to the Overwatch roster.

The sequel to Overwatch will also launch with at least two new maps (one set in Toronto and one in New York City), a new game mode called Push, and a variety of hero reworks that have been in beta testing since early 2022. Overwatch 2 will also usher in the new five-versus-five team composition that’s been in testing and played in the Overwatch League.

The newest installment in the Forza franchise is coming out next year. Microsoft announced the release window of Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport during its 2022 Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase on Sunday, along with a new trailer for the game.

Forza Motorsport was first announced during Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase in 2020, but not much information about the game was actually revealed. Unlike previous mainline entries to the Forza series, the new game won’t have a number in its title — though it would be number eight, if you’re keeping track.

Microsoft’s video game arm is powering up for a big livestream on June 12, 2022, streaming on major video platforms and social media. The Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, which starts at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET., will feature news, trailers, and announcements about recent releases and upcoming games from Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, and other Microsoft video game partners.

Most predictably, the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase will stream on Xbox’s YouTube and Twitch channels, as well as the Xbox ASL Twitch channel. Xbox will stream the showcase on social media as well, via its Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok accounts.