Microsoft E3 2015 Preview

E3 2015 is about a month away and Entertainment Fuse will be once again previewing all the big companies that will have press conferences at Los Angeles. First up is Microsoft and we'll see what the house of Xbox will have up their sleeve at this year's E3. Will it be just games or we'll see VR and HoloLens make brief appearances?

Out of the first-party lineup, Halo 5: Guardians is a definitive no brainer, but under what capacity is the question. 343 Industries has a lot of making up to do since the botched release of The Master Chief Collection and ODST coming to it later this month hopefully is a start of giving fans something for supporting the franchise through this setback. We experienced what the multiplayer is like with the Halo 5 beta a few months ago, so this E3 should be the big showcase of the campaign and more about the storyline involving Master Chief and Spartan Locke. If it's just a trailer, then that will be disappointing, so 343 needs to make a good impression next month hoping to get fans back that lost their faith in them after The Master Chief Collection.
Besides Halo, Microsoft has a stacked lineup from their studios for the coming months to show off. Forza Motosrsport 6 should be shown off at least in trailer form, but Turn 10 needs to explain what's exactly new with it and what they learned from Forza 5 to be applied to this new sequel. Crackdown's return was announced last E3 and hopefully it is still slated for a 2015 release, but this is likely going to be delayed to 2016. The Fable Legends beta has been going on for a while, so Lionhead has to have info about it's final release date. One game that is likely not making an appearance at E3 again is Remedy's Quantum Break since that was recently delayed to 2016.

We'll likely also see the latest with Platinum Games's Scalebound, what's next for the juggernaut that is Minecraft now that Mojang is with Microsoft, whether or not the Phantom Dust reboot has a new developer, another classic Ken Lobb wants to bring back if he's back again at the presser, and an official announcement of Killer Instinct's third season since Street Fighter V is console exclusive to the Playstation 4. A new slab of ID@Xbox games is slated to be announced in a new montage and maybe some of the ones we seen last year will have release dates for this summer and fall. Phil Spencer did state recently that a ton of new IP will make their debuts next month, so hopefully that will be the case and make a great first impression. Finally there's of course Gears of War and I think it should close Microsoft's press conference with both a teaser of the new one by Black Tusk Studios and the original's Ultimate Edition being official after all the rumors, which like many would prefer a "Marcus Fenix Collection."
In terms of third-party games, I'm hoping to see less of them at Microsoft's presser since a ton of them are already having their own press conferences (multiple showings of games at these pressers is a E3 trend that should end) and Mircosoft themselves focusing more on their existing and new IPs along with potential VR/HoloLens stuff. Despite that said, I won't be surprised Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 leads off the show like Advanced Warfare did last year, but the tide might be turning for that franchise and Xbox's relationship since Black Ops 3 reveal previews were ran on PS4 last month. We'll see if the exclusive map deal is still intact for this year. The recently announced Assassin's Creed Syndicate should also make an appearance in some form which also could lead into another bundle deal this holiday season.

There is a lot of hype going into Microsoft's E3 press conference with existing and new IPs. Can Microsoft's new IPs make a good impression with fans? That is going to be my #1 question going into June for Phil Spencer and crew. Halo and Gears are no brainers and they will be exciting to see, but those franchises can not do it alone these days. Some VR and HoloLens stuff is still a possibility, but since this gonna be shown on TV again (likely Spike), maybe Microsoft sees that both those ideas might not be ready for the TV spotlight just yet. Anything else you would like to see Microsoft show off at this year's E3? Let us know in the comments below.