I will try to be brief but I think there is a series of things I see that while the chance of all of them coming true are tiny some or many will come true in some way. This is speculation I am not saying this will happen so please don't waste posts putting it will never happen. I am saying I would like it to happen and some of it or most of it is based on leaks and how I see it going down. So what would or could be some moments we see at a July show event. It is obvious there is quite a lot that Microsoft has still to announce.
I will talk about the event and what will be announced from the first party to third party game announcements. I will talk about
all of the 20/20 content not just the
July event but I will frame it around the July event. This article is meant to lay out all possible mic drop moments and speculation of
everything that may come so while I am touching briefly on things and this could be like 3 articles itself I will still just barely cover things but hopefully you find this speculation fun, informative and entertaining. I will write this in
short paragraphs with headers so you can look through and find what interests you the most without reading walls of text. I went back and edited this took me quite some time so please do comment and keep the thread going a little longer.
Console Launch
I will try to not just make obvious predictions but to get to what I think will open and is what we are most waiting for. The biggest mic drop moment is that I predict that Xbox will announce Lockhart but it will not launch with Series X. I am not sure if it will be a full reveal but I do expect it will be priced at $299 and as low as $250 when it is shown in August and given a price and maybe a launch date after Series X. if Sony decides to make the digital model $400. Xbox Series X will be announced at $500. However, they will make All Access a huge thing and a new way to pay for and own an Xbox. All Access will be a program for $30 a month you pay $400 for a Series X and get 6 months of Gamepass Ultimate. The same kind of thing will be announced for what will be called the Series S and it will cost $20 and cost $200. Series S what Lockhart will be called will launch sometime in early 2021 or Spring 2021.
New XGS studio acquisitions, Partnerships & Gamepass info
Xbox Game Studios will announce 3 new studios and two are being created from the ground up. One will be a Japanese studio in partnership with Sega that publishes smaller or mid-size Japanese studios and the first 3 to commit to publishing under this new effort will turn into projects from Mistwalker, White Owl games, and Grounding. Sega will also commit to bringing more games to Gamepass as well as Gamepass PC and support for Xcloud here and in Japan. They will announce that Sega will partner with Microsoft to help promote Xbox in Japan and help in localization and crafting games for the console in Japan. Xbox and Sega will also celebrate the 60 years in gaming by bringing select games starting with the Dreamcast to Xbox and Gamepass with a handful of titles going back to systems like the Master System and Genesis. Japan will get a specially branded Sega console as part of the different models available for the Xbox Series console in Japan. Europe and the U.S will get a bundle with Yakuza dragon celebrating 60 years of Sega and a custom console designed to celebrate Sega 60 year anniversary and Yakuza as a day one launch on Series X. Sega will also have a mic drop moment of announcing they will be making new exclusive games for the Xbox starting with bringing Panzer Dragoon remake to consoles and a New Panzer Dragoon ready by 2022 or sooner.
CD Projekt Red will announce that Cyberpunk 2077 will come day 1 to Gamepass and launch with Series X. CD will also announce a project to bring many GOG games the classic PC games they have ported or remastered into GOG will appear on Xbox and Gamepass. With a commitment from Microsoft and CD Projekt for some of these titles to get near remaster quality and features like 4K and HDR and other enhancements, as well as other gameplay improvements CD and Microsoft are working on. They will announce that as part of the Gamecore OS initiative that GOG Galaxy will be a launcher on Xbox and allow you to bring much of your PC games on Xbox as well as a link your account and allow you to do one sign-in access to Steam, Epic Game Store, and Discord through a Windows 10 lite mode or UWP app that is part of the new Gamecore OS built into Xbox Series consoles and come after launch. CD will announce that they also have something else they are working on with Microsoft at a later date.
Microsoft will tout their relationship with not only CD Projekt Red but Poland for tech, computing and gaming going forward and that Xbox Game Studios will announce that Techland will be joining XGS as the 17th Studio to join and Dying Light 2 will also be launching day one at Xbox and as part of the launch day line up and in Gamepass. This is my go big pick it is probably more likely that the game dev from Poland that is bought is Farm 51. The Astronauts or even Bloober but I think they are the least likely of the 3.
XCloud details and launch information
Xbox will detail and show what is left to show off how Xcloud works its features. They will not announce when it leaves beta but they will talk about and announce the dates for XCloud on PC and more games and people that will enter into the iPhone XCloud beta. Xbox will announce that XCloud is part of Gamepass Ultimate and that they will also offer other separate plans and pricing will be revealed at a later date but that they are happy to announce that through All Access if you sign up for 2 years of Gamepass Ultimate after the first year you can upgrade for free to Xbox Series S.
Xbox Game Studios first-party announcements
XGS will announce what is expected a new Fable from Playground that has photorealistic environments many of them procedural it will be a more graphically realistic game with mature contact but still in the spirit and lineage of Fable and GAAS approach to multiplayer components and content. Ninja Theory shows off Hellblade and teases another unannounced project. The initiative also reveals Perfect Dark reboot that they collaborated with different studios on this including the Coalition and that it is a late 2022 project. It is possible they mention the other game they are working on or that the game they show is not Perfect Dark. At this point, I think that Perfect Dark is the most likely game shown at the July event.
As for the newest studios they bought I think they will mention that they have started work on a new IP but they are not ready to talk about it. Obsidian will tease their new Skyrim like game and announce DLC for Outerworlds and announce something in passing with Grounded. Inixile will show a launch trailer for Wasteland 3 but I do not feel they are ready to show their other AAA game they are working on. The last studio to mention of the recent acquisitions of Microsoft is Compulsion which I think shows an early announcement of their new game which is rumored to be sci fi based and have Bioshock feel, Uncharted like gameplay oand be in the horror game genre according to rumors.
Now let us discuss the core studios Microsoft started off with. Rare shows either a gameplay trailer or some gameplay or maybe a mix of both from Everwild. Coalition announces a Hivebusters DLC campaign and their plans for the release of content for the rest of the year and a trailer and gameplay for Series X enhancements on Gears 5. The mic drop of XGS will be Halo Infinite with a teaser trailer that goes right into at least 5 minutes of gameplay of almost open-world Halo where you will visit different places and explore large sandboxes and environments in different vehicles and setups. A brief trailer for MP which will have a lot of content and most or all of the MP will be free 2 play. The online modes will include a much larger and ambitious Warzone and a new game mode based on Classic Halo. Halo MP itself will be split into regular Halo modes and one based more on Classic Halo play and maps that can be downloaded separately from the new style modes and gameplay. Forge will be offered for both and they can be downloaded separately for old and new Halo. Last, but not least a custom Series X console and the bundle will be announced and it will drop with Series X on November 17, 2020.
The final studio is the latest studio XGS added which is Double Fine. Double Fine shows a gameplay demo or trailer of Psychonauts and gives a release date. Tim Schafer then announces it is working on several projects but would like to tease one very special one which is they will work with teams at Rare to make a new Banjo Kazooie game and Rare is announcing a full 4K remasters of Banjo Kazooie starting with the first game and that becomes another mic drop or "megaton" as Crapgamer used to say.
The final studio announcement is..
A third studio will be announced and it will be another new studio in London and Glasgow, Scotland created by Microsoft with Dan Houser as it's head. Dan Houser is the writer of RDR 2 and co-owner founder of Rockstar. He is from London and I think he could be hired as head of a new studio with the directive to make and research new game types and tech to create narrative-driven genre-breaking games that lead to stand out AA and AAA games. The first studios and people he will work with are Hello Games and Brendan Greene. The New Studio will act as a hub or incubator for new games and composed of devs from Lift London Studio that was repurposed, the Elbow Rocket team that worked on Crackdown 3 MP and have DLala studios be an inhouse incubator studio to be a part of this new studio initiative and be a separate studio housed under them. The mandate will also be a promise to work with other independent and newer studios in London and U.K. Dan Houser will be given the freedom to work on his own creative project and announce it when ready.
Xbox Global Game Publishing
I saved the last XGS studio that I will mention with some detail and that is their Publishing studios It is also a very important studio at Xbox and I predict it will have some huge titles to announce. My first prediction is they will announce a game from Crytek and the most likely game they will announce is a Ryse 2 by 2022 possibly along with that announcement will come an announcement of a full 4K remaster of Ryse and some rework of gameplay and maybe even content out sometime after launch window in 2021. Platinum Games will announce they are working on a new exclusive game for Xbox and it likely will be a spiritual reboot of Phantom Dust with a 10-hour campaign and multiplayer mode and matches out sometime 2021. Other studios with projects that are more far off are Moon studios with their new ARPG and Asobo with a separate project from or as they work on Flight simulator and a new Plague's Tale. Skybox Labs will also announce a new project along with Armature. There will be other surprises I can only think of but these are what I think will be a solid guess of what Publishing will announce.
Third-party games and marketing deals that will be shown
As for 3rd party, the surprises will be Capcom announcing a new game and or possibly bringing Streetfighter 5 to Xbox Series X as an enhanced exclusive console launch title. I also believe it is possible they will announce a first to console exclusive of a Resident Evil style remake of Dead Rising 1 using RE engine timed exclusive to Xbox or less likely but still possible is an Unreal 5 reboot of the franchise. Either way, Capcom will be there. So will EA and they will announce a surprise next-gen game with Xbox like Titanfall and it is another Star Wars game a spiritual reboot to KOTOR also timed or console launch exclusive, not ready until at least 2021 along with one of the sports titles FIFA 21 or Madden 21. Elden Ring will be there from From Software and I think Call of Duty will be on Xbox show with of course Microsoft having the marketing rights but no timed content exclusivity. Ubisoft will show something from Vahalla and the new Rainbow Six Seige. Bandai Namco will show Scarlet Nexus, and a release date for Tales of Arise and something else. That is pretty much it for 3rd party except for a couple of smaller independent developers some montage of the best ID at Xbox games coming soon at launch and beyond. The Mic drop will be Valve and how they will work with Microsoft on a few projects but announce they will bring some new exclusive games to Xbox starting with DOTA and Underlords to console or to Gamepass PC first. I think they will also announce that Valley of the Gods by Campo Santo is coming to Xbox as an exclusive and will be more AAA quality than when first announced.
New accessories & peripheral announcements for Xbox Series and Xbox One consoles
The one aspect of this new-gen that has not been highlighted and talked about is the controllers. PS5 has made a lot of noise about their Dual Sense. While much of what has done to revamp the PS5 controllers what Xbox did is not small and some of it has not been shown or highlighted enough. Two of the features that come to mind that I think Xbox will show in July is features like the work they did with haptic feedback. I saw a video I can not find that was Major Nelson talking to an Xbox design team member that the Haptic feedback has been improved in a similar fashion to Dual sense that is called Force feedback. I found an article in Gamingbolt talking about this and the patents filed. I will leave a link below at the end. Another talking point they have not gone into is the low latency software in the controllers that will also come to the Xbox One controllers and how it makes your game better. They will announce new Xbox Series X headphones and other accessories for Next-gen.
Partnerships for accessories and tech-related to Xcloud will also feature. Microsoft will announce or mention their partnerships with Samsung for Xcloud and or Game pass on TV and how they will collaborate on several things and talk about how Samsung Galaxy line will be the best place to play Xcloud on phones. I think another partnership you may see during the July showing that revolves around XCloud will be Razer. Razer will make an appearance somewhere in the show or later and will announce a new product line in time for Series X launch. A new handheld add-on for phones,a new Xbox branded keyboard & mouse for Series X and new premium Surface style 3D spatial audio headphones for around 250$ - $300. This may also be held back to August show but it is possible it could make it on the July announcements.
Xbox Series and Xbox One UI, Live, and features announcements
Microsoft may either choose to talk about this right after the showcase at the Inside Xbox that follows or just mention it at the showcase and drop it in a Wire article with videos but the team will briefly show the UI that will be in 4K, their improvements to Live, and maybe a refresh of Live Gold that can just be replaced by Ultimate and maybe the return of a Silver tier for Xbox Live. Upload Studio will make a comeback and be backed up by open source communities like Github and benefit from or be geared toward Mixer and streaming easier to customize game clip video. Another feature that I know was being worked on that might show up is mods and it will come to Xbox. I think they may even revive the idea of a user creator store they had with the 360. As in, not just content for mods but other content and even Microsoft approved emulators and more user-created games and minigames in the store. Of course, we will we see things announced for Mixer and how it is tied into streaming, new original content, interactivity, maybe new signings and partnerships with influencers and a tie into what will begin a big marketing push for Halo Infinite which I have one more major reveal I think will be shown with Halo.
One key feature on Xbox One that will get further improvements and games added to it is KB&M. This will be announced along with brief gameplay shown of Age of Empires IV coming out in 2021on PC and Gamepass. It will come to consoles later but among the games listed to come to Gamepass console that uses keyboard and mouse will be Age of Empires 2 HD. Among the list or highlights of new titles using KB&M and coming to console will be Gears Tactics and it will come to this gen and/or only to Series X. Gears Tactics will come to console probably at the launch of Series X but it is possible it releases slightly before or after Series X launch.
The final surprise a glimpse at VR on Xbox Series console?
The show will either end or open with Halo Infinite. If they do end with something else it is The Initiative. I have another theory and it's that they will end with a teaser for VR or Mixed Reality and maybe even a hint to other companion devices and peripherals to be shown or some announced by next year. The VR or mixed reality headset will be a partnership with Samsung or Valve and who knows maybe both but it will be a new model branded for use on Series X and PC but made for Xbox Series consoles. They will tease further with Halo Infinite experience of the Halo universe to come out sometime in 2021 or 2022.
This will be the final mic drop of that show and how Microsoft will show the depth of what they plan for next-gen and how they will expand and their influence in gaming will grow. Xbox will put people on notice that this gen's Xbox is different, better, and bigger next generation.
https://gamingbolt.com/four-new-microsoft-patents-hint-at-improvements-in-xbox-controller 
