Phil Spencer seems to be taking advantage of Sony and the PS5’s absence from E3 2020 in that the Xbox Team will make an appearance at the trade show with new games and content to boot later this year in early June.
It’s unclear if more information regarding the Xbox Series X will pop up at E3 2020, but what is for certain is that the green brand will not skip out on the upcoming event according to the following tweet by Spencer:
Our team is hard at work on E3, we look forward to sharing with all who love to play what’s ahead for us. Our artform has consistently been propelled by the cross-section of creativity and technical progress. 2020 is a milestone year in that journey for Team Xbox. #XboxE3 #E32020
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 14, 2020
Given that 2020 is “a milestone year” for the Xbox Team, I’m guessing we might see some stuff on the Xbox Series X specs? But take that with a grain of salt given that Spencer didn’t mention anything related to the aforesaid.
Speaking of E3 2020, the ESA (a group backing the trade show) is trying to give E3 a facelift during a time many people call the “identity crisis” phase.
According to publication site gamesindustry.biz late last year, we learn that this focus is to garner more people, likely the young according to the lingo, and bolster numbers given that E3 is lagging behind other games events:
“In the ESA’s proposal, marketing activations involving celebrities and influencers would become a key feature of the E3 showfloor. The pitch deck included an example of the Los Angeles Lakers playing a basketball video game in front of fans, and mentioned official relationships with talent agencies like CAA and UTA.”
According to social justice activist and analyst Daniel Ahmad, E3 has been lagging behind its counterparts last year:
Biggest gaming exhibitions / trade shows of by number of entries:
Gamescom 2019: 373k
ChinaJoy 2019: 365k
Brazil Games Show 2018: 325k
Taipei Game Show 2019: 320k
Paris Games Week 2018: 316k
Tokyo Game Show 2019: 262k
G-Star Korea 2018: 235k
…..
E3 2019: 66k— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) September 16, 2019
Given that the ESA wants to promote stuff to people while waiting or standing around by using famous entities such as the Los Angeles Lakers playing basketball games in front of fans or having the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) or the United Talent Agency (UTA) doing stuff near attendees only means that the company wants to “attract” more people.
I do wonder if the Xbox Team will take advantage of the ESA’s celebrity and youth initiative, or will things play out the same for the company? Anyway, we’ll see what goes down when E3 2020 kicks-off on June 9th.