This is the most important showcase in Xbox’s history

polygon.com:

In theory, Microsoft approaches this week’s Summer Game Fest and the annual Xbox showcase on June 9 from a position of fantastic strength: Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard has supercharged the revenues of its gaming division and turned it into a super-publisher the likes of which the game industry has never seen. It now owns an astonishing war chest of hall-of-fame gaming properties that includes Call of Duty, Minecraft, Warcraft, Halo, Fallout, Diablo, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Gears of War, Forza, and much, much more.

Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer and his team are also well poised to make a strong impression in what is shaping up to be a fallow year for the rest of the industry. Sony, having already confessed that PlayStation won’t see any major exclusive releases this year, went early with a short, low-key showcase last week. Nintendo has delayed its successor console to the Switch into 2025; at its own showcase later in June it will be forced to lean on whatever games it’s been able to scrape together for the Switch’s last holiday season. And Summer Game Fest MC Geoff Keighley has moved to temper expectations for his roundup showcase on June 7.

Microsoft has faced similar lulls in its release schedule in the recent past, but on this count it is now simply too big to fail. On the Activision Blizzard side, Microsoft will trumpet its ownership of Call of Duty with a special showcase highlighting this year’s Black Ops 6, and can point to big expansions coming this year to both World of Warcraft and Diablo 4. Bethesda has Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to show, plus a possible Starfield expansion, and a strongly rumored new game in the Doom series. Meanwhile, Xbox Game Studios is reportedly ready to unveil a new Gears of War, as well as show more of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and Obsidian’sfantasy role-playing game Avowed.

That one of these three powerhouse gaming brands also happens to appear on game consoles almost seems like an