Next-gen Xbox Series X game showcase set for July 23

Microsoft finally confirms its big next-gen Xbox Series X games showcase for late July, complete with actual Halo: Infinite gameplay footage.

The big first-party next-gen Xbox games extravaganza is set for July 23 at 9AM PST/12PM EST, Microsoft today announced. The event will be the big proving point for the world's most powerful console and its monstrous 12TFLOP Navi RDNA 2 GPU. Microsoft has spent lots of marketing dollars hyping up the Xbox Series X, and now it's time to prove what the console is capable of. Expect massive gameplay showcases and first-party reveals during the event, including full-on announcements of in-development titles as well as tech demos of the Xbox Series X's capabilities.

Microsoft has been incredibly transparent with the Xbox Series X's technology, cooling, software architectures, and overall functionality. But until now we haven't really seen any games running on the system. Later this month we'll not only see next-gen gameplay, but Halo: Infinite gameplay running on its new Slipspace Engine that's been specifically optimized for the Series X.

We'll also see showcases on how these games will run on PC (remember, every first-party Xbox game is also coming to PC as well as the full Xbox One family).

Here's a list of games we should see at the event:

• Halo: Infinite gameplay
• Rumored Fable project (Playground Games)
• Next-gen Forza game
• Hellblade II: Senua's Saga
• New Obsidian RPG
• Reveal of The Initiative's new project

We might also get teasers of new projects from inXile, Double Fine, and Undead Labs.

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This event should be pretty exciting given the massive gains that studios like The Coalition have already made in their games. Gears 5 currently runs at Ultra equivalent PC settings with perf matching an NVIDIA RTX 2080 GPU, complete with 4K visuals, higher frame rates, and global raytraced illumination effects. The devs even got Gears 4 Ultimate to hit native 4K resolution without actually optimizing the game for the console.

Remember the Xbox Series X has two ways to massively boost performance.

Both of these methods are part of the Optimized for Xbox Series X upgrade strategy:

• Native boost mode - Any game put into the Xbox SX will be boosted. Native boosts can raise FPS, natively boost resolution to full 4K, improve anti-aliasing, and drastically improve load times via the PCIe 4.0 SSD and Velocity Architecture. Devs don't have to touch their games and no updates are needed.
• Optimized next-gen patches - These are upgrades that're specifically designed to leverage the full power of the Xbox Series X. Developers roll out patches that enhance their games on XSX, complete with ultra-fast loading times, ray traced visuals, improved visual quality and up to 120FPS frame rates.

All of the games shown at the event should push the Xbox Series X to new heights. First-party games always play better than third-party, and these devs are always instrumental in the console's early development process. Expect the following to be shown at the event:

• Native 4K resolution games at 60FPS
• Games running at 120FPS
• Ray-traced visuals and other effects
• Ultra-fast loading times thanks to the 3.5GB/sec PCIe 4.0 SSD tech
• Showcases of all types of genres, from open-world to racing and shooter games
• Games possibly running at upscaled 8K resolution
• Reveals of how Variable Rate Shading and Variable Refresh Rates work with the console
• Ray-traced 3D audio

Don't expect to see any hardware announcements at this show. The rumored Xbox Lockhart, the cheaper next-gen Xbox Series S, should be unveiled during an August event.