Microsoft to hold monthly Xbox 20/20 streams for Xbox Series X, revealing first party games in July

This Thursday, 7th May at 4PM UK time, Microsoft are set to give us our first real look at next-gen games heading to the Xbox Series X when it launches at the end of this year. However, that’s just the beginning, with the company planning to host monthly streams from now on, focussing on Xbox Series X and everything around it. These will be called Xbox 20/20, rebranding the Inside Xbox streams.

The first of these streams, which was announced last week, will feature the first gameplay from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, as well as gameplay, trailers and sneak peaks from other third party publishers and developers. All of these games will be Xbox Series X Optimised, so they’ll take advantage of the SSD, ray tracing, and raw power of the Series X, but many will also be cross-gen games with versions capable of running on the Xbox One.

Microsoft already revealed their Smart Delivery feature, which allows games to bridge the generational gap, letting you download the specific version of the game that’s optimised best for your console. This can be free for consumers, with both Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla confirmed to take advantage of this fact, and Microsoft will confirm more of these on Thursday.

But what about Microsoft’s own games? What about Halo Infinite and Hellblade II? Well, these games won’t appear in this month’s stream, but will instead be held back until the July stream, with a mixture of how teams are optimising their already announced or released games for Xbox Series X, as well as some new game announcements. Of course, Microsoft have already stated that their first party teams will not be creating outright next-gen exclusives for at least the first year, so all of these will also be coming to Xbox One consoles.

It’s not just Xbox Series X though, with Xbox 20/20 streams gobbling up everything else that Inside Xbox has done in the past as well. Expect them to also cover Xbox Game Pass updates and things like the roll out of Project xCloud.

With no E3 and no dedicated press conference, it sounds like Microsoft have adapted quite neatly to life in lockdown and how to get their message out to consumers. They’re certainly on the front foot right now, while PlayStation fans are still patiently waiting to hear how Sony are going to handle their own console reveal.

Source: Xbox

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