Xbox developer Microsoft released world premieres of gameplay trailers for upcoming titles including “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla,” “Madden 21,” racing game “DIRT: 5” and “Yakuza: Like a Dragon.”
Xbox revealed a couple of standout features for each of the new games being developed for the upcoming Series X console, including one called smart delivery, which will let users buy a game and use that one copy between both their old and next-gen Xbox consoles.
Not every trailer showed complete first-person gameplay, and some were clearly a mix of cinematic effects and actual player movements — but Xbox promised each trailer did include play from each of the upcoming new titles.
“We have hundreds of games coming to Xbox Series X in 2021,” Xbox head of partnerships Sarah Bond said during the company’s monthly Inside Xbox livestream, adding that developers are currently “creating games that are going to define the generation. Every major publisher worldwide is developing for Xbox.”
More than 12 games were showed off during the hour-long event, and each developer interviewed by Xbox during the stream highlighted the Xbox Series X’s low load times. Lengthy waits to load into a game or between scenes takes players out of the immersion, an experience non-VR developers have long been looking to perfect.
While it provided updates on some of the most anticipated games from other publishers today, Xbox didn’t address anything coming from its own development lab, Xbox Games Studios. A new installment in the “Halo” series called “Halo Infinite” and developed for the Xbox Series X was expected to drop this holiday, but Microsoft said it will address that and other Xbox Games Studios projects in a separate live event in July.
“Assassin’s Creed Valhalla” creative director Ashraf Ismail joined the presentation to discuss the new game that will launch in 2021 and ferry players into an immersive Viking world during the invasions of England. Gameplay from the new title was revealed during the stream and featured both dual-wielding weapons and the traditional “hidden blade” wrist daggers that Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed” built its foundation on.
“This was an absolutely brutal, pivotal moment in history,” said Ismail. “Players can expect to fully live the Viking fantasy in a meticulously crafted ‘Assassin’s Creed’ world. We’ve reinvented the combat to be visceral and brutal, with tons of enemy variety.”
Meanwhile, Xbox marketing manager Aaron Greenberg revealed that a rendering of the new console, which has been criticized for being too large, now lives in his kitchen like a fridge.
Check out the trailers below.
“Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla”
“Madden NFL 21” (via IGN)
“Dirt 5”
“Yakuza: Like A Dragon” (via Gamespot)