June 2, 2022

Later this month Xbox & Bethesda Games will hold another joint showcase and with any luck, it’ll be the E3-esque sized event we’re all hoping it will be.

The show is set to get underway on Sunday, June 12 at 6pm BST (10am PT) and will be streamed on a variety of outlets, in over 30 languages. It’s a worldwide event, and will hopefully include some sizeable reveals and announcements to appease fans the world over.

So far fans have already been promised “amazing titles coming from Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, and our partners around the world”, but that’s still pretty vague, and we doubt anyone will be sharing more info until the event in question. Unless of course somebody leaks something in the days prior.

For now, we’ve got a fair few predictions on what we think we could see from the show. We’ve jotted down 7 major gaming predictions for the event, but we’d also love to hear your theories, so make sure to drop a note in the comments for what you’re thinking.

1. Xbox Comes Out Swinging, But Not How You Think

Xbox has got to show up. That sounds sort of obvious but the fact is that a lot of the ‘big’ titles Xbox Game Studios have previously announced are rumoured to be in a bad state.  Some of the studio’s biggest announcements in the past few years are still absent. Perfect Dark, State of Decay 3, and Everwild have all had development issues since being announced.

So if we don’t see them, who will we see? Thankfully Xbox still has plenty more studios who they can call on. Here are a few quickfire predictions for what we’re expecting:

• Ninja Theory give us a better look at Senua’s Sage: Hellblade 2
• The Coalition make a lot of Gears of War announcements, including:
• A Gears of War Trilogy Remaster in the vein of Halo’s Master Chief Collection
• A Teaser trailer for Gears of War 6
• A sequel for Gears Tactics
• The Coalition announces release dates for Halo Infinite’s Forge and Battle Royale modes
• InXile Entertainment (Creators of the Wasteland series) announce a new game/IP
• Obsidian Entertainment showcases another trailer for The Outer Worlds 2 as well as gameplay for Avowed
• Sea of Thieves tease their next season
• Updates for Grounded, Minecraft and State of Decay 2
• The Fable reboot is missing, but is mentioned in passing

2. Bethesda Saves Microsoft’s Blushes

Since Xbox might not be showcasing some of their long awaited games, we think Microsoft could be looking to Bethesda to pick up the slack. By that we mean those big trailers we always see open and close the show or the ones which stick in your memory.

Despite having delayed the release dates for Starfield and Redfall till 2023, we’re still expecting both games to feature heavily as Bethesda looks to ramp up the excitement. Elsewhere, we might also see release dates announced for Deathloop and Ghostwire: Protocol, both games which have already been released on PS5 as timed exclusives.

Id Software could have a new game announced (seriously, what have they been doing since DOOM Eternal released) and MachineGames might also surprise fans with what we hope will be Wolfenstein III.

Could we see Elder Scrolls 6? Anything is possible, although we suspect Bethesda could want all eyes on Starfield, so we’re expecting this one to skip the show. But Fallout 5? We wouldn’t rule out some sort of title card or teaser trailer that gets everyone talking about where the series could head next.

3. Activision Announcements

Although we’re not sure how much (if anything) Xbox or Microsoft can talk about their Activision Blizzard acquisition, we don’t think the company will be completely absent from Xbox’s show.

Could we see some reveals? Maybe a Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 trailer? Or a teaser for Warzone 2?

We’re predicting we’ll see something from Xbox’s future partner. Maybe those rumours of old Call of Duty titles heading to Xbox Game Pass?

4. Xbox Game Pass Goes Big

Sony’s new revamped PS Plus subscription services have already started to roll out across the world and PlayStation are clearly intent on eating into Microsoft’s Game Pass lunch. As such it makes sense that Microsoft looks to build on the goodwill Game Pass already accumulated over the years. We also think we’ll see Microsoft double down on Xbox PC Game Pass and give players even more reasons to subscribe.

Over the course of the 2021 show, Xbox pulled the curtain back on thirty titles, 27 included with Xbox Game Pass. We’re expecting more in the 2022 Showcase as Xbox attempt to defend its position and remind people why Xbox (and Game Pass) is the best place to play.

5. “Exclusive. World Premier”

Although this is billed as an Xbox & Bethesda showcase, don’t forget that last year we also saw plenty of third-party titles revealed too.

Off the top of our head, the 2021 show included the likes of The Ascent, Back 4 Blood, STALKER 2, A Plague Tale, Far Cry 6 and Battlefield 2042 gameplay. We wouldn’t be at all surprised to see plenty of big hitters like ARK 2 and DLC expansion trailers for games like Dying Light 2.

And as always, every trailer will be preceded with the Xbox guy’s smooth voice saying ‘Exclusive’ and ‘World Premiere’ – or better yet ‘Exclusive… World Premiere’.

6. Steam Deck

Don’t ask us why, and call us crazy, but we think Microsoft is going to announce something in relation to Steam Deck.

Microsoft has consistently done a lot to show they don’t care where you play, just as long as you’re playing their Xbox games, preferably on their Xbox Game Pass subscription. You need only look at the occasional game release on Nintendo Switch to see that (Minecraft / Ori and the Blind Forest).

We wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some first-party games made available to play on Steam Deck, or alternatively some sort of Game Pass integration.

7. Xbox announce a Japanese Publisher/Developer Partnership

Maybe this is just because recently – for the first time in 8 years – Xbox managed to outsell PlayStation for a single week in Japan, but hear us out.

For the longest time, it feels like Xbox has been trying to make inroads to the Japanese games market. Things didn’t work out quite so well with Platinum Games and Scalebound (hell, bring that back – Hideki Kamiya says he wants to!), but we think Xbox could announce some sort of new partnership that will help increase their presence in Japan. Maybe a timed exclusive here or there.

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That’s our predictions for the Xbox & Bethesda Showcase later this month, but let us know in the comments what you think and what you want to see from this year’s show.