The Xbox and Activision love-in formally begins this year with the Xbox and Call of Duty showcases – now back-to-back

Xbox has just confirmed its summer showcase, and it sure does look like it'll be following it up with a Call of Duty Direct immediately afterwards.

As announced over on the Xbox Wire blog, Xbox will be hosting its yearly summer games showcase on June 9, 10am PT/ 1pm ET/ 6pm BST. As the post notes, "like our double-feature last year with Starfield Direct, immediately following the Showcase we’ll be airing a special deep-dive into the next instalment of a beloved franchise." The post is currently referring to this second presentation as a "REDACTED" Direct, except, it's almost definitely Call of Duty. For one, Gematsu made a nifty gif showing the Activision logo very neatly laid over one portion of the screen that is redacted.

And notably, The Verge says that according to sources that spoke with them, this Direct is in fact Call of Duty, so if you wanted to bet some money on it, you'd likely be placing a pretty safe bet. No word on what this particular Call of Duty title will be called, though a new Black Ops title wouldn't be particularly surprising. The blog post goes on to say that this "will also be our first Showcase featuring games from our portfolio of studios across Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda and Xbox Game Studios, in addition to titles from our third-party partners."

Interestingly, it's just called the Xbox Games Showcase this year. In previous years it's been referred to as the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, but with Microsoft having so many big names under its belt now like Activision and Blizzard, I imagine some brand focusing is going on here. With Todd Howard recently confirming that Starfield's first big expansion Shattered Space is coming this fall, I wouldn't be too surprised if we saw some of that there either. Other than that, there'll likely be some surprises, and very potentially a new Gears of War game.