Xbox Series X event on track for July
Update: Microsoft has stated that a planned Xbox Series X online event is taking place in July despite reports suggesting it had been postponed until August.
Marketing lead of Xbox UK, Samuel Bateman, and Aaron Greenberg, general manager for Xbox marketing, have both made it clear that the event will go ahead as planned.
Venturebeat's Jeff Grubb had earlier claimed the Xbox event was being pushed back from June to August so Microsoft could reveal more of its Xbox Series X plans after Sony's PlayStation 5 event, which takes place this Thursday.
Greenberg reckons this month's event in June is going to be a "little different" to a regular Inside Xbox Show. Microsoft had previously said in blog posts that it would be updating fans about games and its new hardware every month.
Microsoft, Sony and various other publishers are being forced to organise their own digital events to promote games and consoles after the collapse of E3, which was fucked into a top hat by the coronavirus pandemic. Plans have been further kicked around the floor following global protests against systemic police brutality and racism.
The world is burning, and video game are not important.
Original story:
The Xbox event planned for June has been pushed all the way back to August, meaning Xbox is unlikely to show off any new games this month.
The news comes from reporter Jeff Grubb, who compiled a "Summer Games Mess" list featuring all of the events arranged to fill the void left in the wake of E3's cancellation this year.
Check out the tweet below.
"Xboxing Day dropped all the way to August," Grubb writes. When prompted about whether or not this means Microsoft is just going to ditch June entirely, Grubb says it mostly boils down to not wanting to "go first" - that is, not wanting to show its hand before Sony shows theirs.
"It might do something else in June," reads the tweet. "It could bring Xboxing Day back into June once Sony goes. But it definitely doesn't want to go first for this part."
The sheer amount of rescheduling occurring at present makes it difficult to take these dates without a pinch of a salt, though. As Grubb points out, it's almost worth labeling the majority of dates - revised or not - as "wild cards," in that they are largely subject to change at any moment.
It's worth clarifying that the first-party event scheduled for July is still set to go ahead - although the wild card argument stands. It has already been confirmed that Halo Infinite will make an appearance at the Xbox event in July, and that Xbox Series X production is already underway.
Meanwhile, the PS5 event originally set to air on June 4 has been rescheduled for June 11. It's just a rumor right now, but there's chatter that a Bloodborne remaster for PS5 and PC may be announced during the showcase.
In other related news, ex-Xbox lead William Stillwell recently said that Microsoft will learn to address the SSD advantage held by PS5.