Microsoft announces Halo Infinite at E3 2018 press conference

During Microsoft’s E3 presentation the company announced the next entry in the Halo franchise, Halo Infinite.

Beyond a short teaser at the start of the show that featured the Master Chief, UNSC soldiers and what looked like dinosaur-like creatures, not much has been revealed about the game except for the fact that it runs on 343 Industries’ new ‘Slipspace’ game engine.

Given that Microsoft doesn’t have many exclusives in the works from its first-party development studios, the company used much of the keynote to highlight marquee third-party games coming to the console.

These major reveals included Fallout 76, a prequel to previous entries in the long-running franchise. Square Enix’s long-awaited Kingdom Hearts 3 is also confirmed to be coming to the Xbox One, marking a first for the once exclusive PlayStation franchise. Further, Eidos Montreal’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider was given an extended gameplay trailer, along with Capcom’s Devil May Cry 5.

Cyberpunk, CD Projekt Red’s long-awaited dystopian title, was also shown off and gives the best look yet at the game.

A few first-party Microsoft-made games did make an appearance this year, including Crackdown 3, a game that’s been delayed multiple times, and Forza Horizon 4, the next entry in Playground Games’ open-world driving franchise that’s set in the U.K. this time around, and a collection of Gears titles.

On the mobile front, Rod Ferguson, the Canadian born head of The Coalition, the Vancouver-based studio behind the Gear of War franchise, announced Gears of War Pop, a mobile-focused, lighthearted take on the Gears franchise.

The studio is also working on a tactical game called Gears Tactics described as The Coalition’s take on the real-time strategy genre, along with Gears of War 5, though little information was revealed about the game apart from a brief cinematic demo.

Microsoft spent time showing off new features set to make their way to Sea of Thieves through the game’s upcoming Forsaken Shores and Cursed Sails expansion. A new War Mode and additional maps are headed to PUBG, along with DLC for Canadian-made sidescroller Cuphead. Battletoads, a cult classic Rare-developed title for the NES, is making a return in 2019.

The Cursed Sails and Forsaken Shores updates are next for #SeaOfThieves and will deliver new features, declare new challenges and demonstrate new threats. At #E32018, we ask what details the Order of Souls can sift from these latest omens… https://t.co/FSAkqC1MeO

— Sea of Thieves (@SeaOfThieves) June 10, 2018

Microsoft also revealed a new first-party studio called The Initiative that’s based out of Santa Monica, California.

Undead Labs, the studio behind State Decay 2, Playground Games, the developer of Forza Horizon 4, Ninja Theory and Montreal-based Compulsion Games, are also now first-party Microsoft studios, bolstering the tech giant’s stable of game creators considerably — a much-needed move by the company.

Towards the end of the show, Phil Spencer, the head of all things Xbox at Microsoft, highlighted a new Zelda-inspired game called Tunic from a Halifax-based development studio called Dicey.

It’s worth noting that along with the fact that most of the third-party games Microsoft showed off during its conference aren’t exclusive to the Xbox One, it’s also unclear how many games are coming in 2018 with few titles given a specific release date. To close out the keynote, Spencer confirmed that the next iteration of Microsoft’s Xbox hardware is currently in the works.

Other announcements include the fact that Fallout 4 is headed to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

Below is a list of all of the games Microsoft showed off during its E3 2018 keynote this year:

• Ori and the Will of the Whisps
• Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
• Halo Infinite
• Fallout 76
• Crackdown 3
• Nier automata: Become as Gods Edition
• Metro Exodus
• Kingdom Hearts III
• Battlefield V
• Forza Horizon 4
• We Happy Few
• Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition
• The Division 2
• Outer Wilds
• After Party
• Kingdom Two Crowns
• The Golf club 2018
• Warhammer vermintide
• Fringe Wars
• Below
• Conqueror’s Blade
• Waking
• Raji An Ancient Epic
• Super Meat Boy Forever
• Planet Alpha
• Islands of Nyne Battle Royale
• Sable
• Harold Halibut
• Bomber Crew
• Children of Morta
• The Wind Road
• WarGroove
• Generation Zero
• Dead Cells
• Ashen
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Session
• Black Desert
• Devil May Cry 5
• Tunic
• Jump Force
• Dying Light 2
• Battletoads
• Just Cause 4
• Gears of War Pop
• Gears Tactics
• Gears of War 5
• Cyberpunk 2077