In early May, Microsoft laid out its plans for Xbox 20/20, a series of “monthly moments” to reveal details of its next-gen consoles, services and games. May’s 20/20 moment was the episode of Inside Xbox which focused on third-party games. July, meanwhile, was pegged as when we’ll see next-gen games from Microsoft’s own studios.
May’s event had its critics – with Microsoft admitting it had “set some wrong expectations”. But what about June? A day away from the end of the month and with no further mention of Xbox 20/20, it should perhaps come as no surprise to hear Microsoft does not have a big reveal still tucked up its sleeve for tomorrow.
All Microsoft said publicly on its Xbox 20/20 plans for this month was a vague comment from Xbox marketing exec Aaron Greenberg that the “June news will be done differently than [an] Inside Xbox show”.
Microsoft has spent June recapping Xbox Series X details in a series of Xbox Wire blogs. The content has largely been about features we knew about already, such as game optimisation on Xbox Series X, Smart Delivery, and… a round-up of everything else announced so far. The month’s biggest Microsoft “moment” was, arguably, the surprise it was killing streaming service Mixer to work with Facebook Gaming instead. It’s fair to say that was not Microsoft’s intended next-gen marketing beat.
So what happened here?
Xbox Series X Gameplay First Look – Xbox Series X Reaction and Analysis Watch on YouTube
Eurogamer understands June was, months ago, when Microsoft had planned to reveal its second next-gen console: the lower-powered Xbox Series S, codenamed Lockhart. Microsoft is still to officially acknowledge this console exists, although public evidence of it is now getting increasingly difficult for the company to ignore.