With Sony steering clear of the event this year, E3 2019 could easily belong to Microsoft, provided it plays its cards right. And next week, it’ll reveal the first steps in its plans for the big gaming show. In a new post on its Xbox Wire page, the company revealed that its latest Inside Xbox episode will air on Tuesday, April 16 at 2 PM PDT.
The one-hour long episode will feature a primary focus on what’s happening at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Though it didn’t detail what it has in mind just yet, it did make mention of the Xbox FanFest making a return.
For those that missed it last year, FanFest is a special event where Xbox loyalists get the opportunity to play key releases early. Last year’s was a huge draw for the community, with games like Forza Horizon 4 and Battlefield 5 on hand, among others. So there’s no doubt this year’s could be even bigger, especially with Gears 5 and Battletoads potentially on deck.
The forthcoming Inside Xbox episode will also provide a big boost to the company’s backward compatible program on Xbox One. In its snippet, it has promised we’ll see “a handful of exciting Back Compat announcements.” Though it didn’t reveal what titles were coming, we are pretty close to the anniversary of original Xbox games on the service. So don’t be surprised if we see a few key selections from that particular library.
Other highlights from the soon-to-air episode include details on the Anniversary Update of Sea of Thieves; The Coalition’s Rod Fergusson stopping by (possibly with Gears 5 details); an exclusive look at Rage 2; and first details on the forthcoming beta for Warhammer Chaosbane. Several “surprises” are also being planned.
The show will air on Twitch, Mixer, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. There’s a pretty good chance that Microsoft will once again offer free goodies for those that tune in on its Mixer network.
