Xbox news recap: Scorpio reveal coming before E3, Mixed reality coming to Xbox and more

Welcome to our weekly Xbox news recap series, where we go over the top stories of the past week in the world of Xbox. Let’s get started.

Scorpio reveal happening before E3 this year

Scorpio will be getting a reveal before E3 this year, according to Phil Spencer. The news came from the latest episode of IGN’s Unlocked podcast, which Spencer decided to guest star on. On top of talking about this year’s lineup of games and a few other interesting components of Xbox’s strategy, Spencer mentioned that we’ll be getting a look at Scorpio this year before E3 comes along. Since many of us were expecting a news bomb during E3, this is a very weiclcome surprise.

Mixed reality coming to Xbox and Scorpio in 2018

With the success of Playstation VR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift, it’s time for Microsoft to start considering what they’re going to do with this new momentum behind headset gaming. Microsoft spoke on the subject just a bit during GDC, and mentioned that they have a strategy going forward for bringing mixed reality to XBox. They cited the success of games like Pokemon GO as a motivator for their work in mixed reality gaming. While we probably won’t see anything on this for a year or two, it’s good to know it’s on the road map.

Microsoft introduces the Xbox Game Pass

Microsoft has announced the Xbox Game Pass, which is being described by many as “Netflix for games.” The Game Pass is following the model of services like EA/Origin Access: taking a monthly subscription fee for unlimited access to a collection of games. The Game Pass costs $10 a month, and it has about 100 games ready to go, including big titles like Halo 5: Guardians. Game Pass has the potential to make huge ripples throughout the industry, and we’re excited to see where it ends up leading.

Microsoft moves their E3 conference to Sunday

Microsoft has decided to move their E3 conference to Sunday, the last day of the conference. The change in schedule seems to be a precursor to some big announcement that the company has in store, and should actually be a pretty good sign to fans. Microsoft noted that they wanted to give their announcements some “room to breathe.” While this change in schedule is the only hint we really have as far as Microsoft’s E3 plans are concerned, it’s a good start.

Microsoft introduces the Xbox Live Creators Program

Microsoft announced the Xbox Live Creators Program at GDC this year, offering some new tools to prospective Xbox developers. The program’s main purpose is offering developers an easy way to get their titles integrated with Xbox Live, and it should also make a ton of progress towards getting more UWP titles going. This program won’t have a huge impact on gamers right now, but it opens the door for developers in the future to get more done.

UWP will bring more games to Xbox One

The introduction of UWP games has been bringing a lot of Xbox One exclusives to PC, but it hasn’t done much the other way around. One Xbox user brought this concern to the attention of Phil Spencer, and he noted that Microsoft is planning to bring more PC titles to Xbox in the future. He also said that they “Need to work towards AAA games,” suggesting that there may be a road map in place for the evolution of UWP games.

I do think UWP will bring apps and games to XB1, see things like Fallout Shelter, Tablo app etc. Need to work towards AAA games

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) February 21, 2017

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