What's Next

At E3 2018, the next generation kicks off – but only in theory.

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We are still outside in the sweltering Los Angeles sunshine when the news starts coming in. Microsoft has changed the venue for its conference this year. Its new digs are much more favourably located – the newly rebadged Microsoft Theatre, nestled next to the Staples Centre just round the corner from E3 itself, was Nintendo’s home until it ditched the press-conference format a few years ago. It’s a move that makes a lot of sense, not least because it gives Microsoft a colossal space on E3’s doorstep in which to host the Xbox Fanfest, as well as press demos. Yet the change hasn’t run too smoothly. Inside, Phil Spencer is paying smug tribute to the largest audience to ever attend an Xbox conference. No, old chap, we’re stuck outside, along with a few hundred others. Well, we were. Edge has given up, and gone to the pub.

That’s unfortunate, because even viewed on an iPad screen in a bar with choppy WiFi and a noisy Hall & Oates soundtrack, this was Microsoft’s best E3 showing of the Xbox One era, the inevitable caveats not withstanding. It had everything we could reasonably ask for from an E3 conference: new first-party announcements, left-field surprises, some big third-party trailers, platform announcements and a hint of what’s over the horizon.