Earlier this month, rumors sprang up that Microsoft would be revealing the next Xbox on May 21. It turns out that those rumors were right on the money.
Microsoft announced via its Facebook page and Major Nelson’s blog that the next Xbox will be unveiled on May 21 at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST The event will take place at Microsoft’s Redmond Campus so this is decidedly a press only event. Those wanting to watch it from home will be able to do so on Spike TV, GameTrailers, Xbox.com and Xbox Live.
Major Nelson says the event will reveal Microsoft’s “vision for Xbox” and give gamers a “real taste of the future.” It looks like we won’t be seeing very many games, however, as Major Nelson says that Microsoft will be “showcasing [its] full lineup of blockbuster games” at E3 in June.
Based on this information, we can make some educated guesses as to how this is all going to go down. Microsoft will use the May 21 event to focus solely on the hardware, including the rumored Kinect 2.0.
What you probably won’t see is Microsoft addressing the rumors of an always online console, or rumors of the next Xbox blocking used games. Those are very touchy subjects and even mentioning them at a large event would generate a lot of negative publicity.
As for games, we’re probably not going to see very much at the unveiling. If anything, we’ll get what we got at Sony’s PS4 event – a lot of pretty tech demos and some vague announcements from third-party publishers. The real announcements will be saved for E3.
Still, it’s exciting to think that we’re only a month away from both next generation consoles finally being outed to the public. Microsoft sure has taken its sweet time so the wait had better be worth it.