X019, Microsoft's annual celebration for all things Xbox, kicks off in a few minutes. Taking place in London, X019 will see the announcements of brand-new "surprises," according to an Xbox blog post. It appears at least one of those surprises has leaked early, as an ad on Twitch recently revealed that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is coming to Xbox Game Pass.
The key component of X019 will be a special edition of Inside Xbox that will be livestreamed, so you can watch live to see all of the announcements as they happen. The Inside Xbox X019 livestream begins today, November 14. That's likely when most of the major reveals will occur, though X019 continues through to November 16--all of which will be streamed on Mixer. Exact start times are listed below.
X019 Inside Xbox Start Times
- 12 PM PT
- 3 PM ET
- 8 PM GMT
- 7 AM AET (November 15)
What To Expect From X019
In that aforementioned blog post, there's mention that X019 will see the world premiere of hands-on gameplay for "the biggest and best new games." There will also be panels featuring the "best creative minds from [Microsoft's] Xbox Game Studio teams." It's nothing concrete, but X019 may see the new gameplay reveals for several games scheduled for 2020 and beyond, as well as teases for the games being made by some of the studios Microsoft acquired back in 2018.
Two hours into the stream, the Xbox Wireless Controller - DPM X019 Exclusive controller will go on sale. Only 1,000 controllers have been made, so if you want one, you may want to bookmark its product page in the Microsoft Store. The controller retails for $100 USD.
There hasn't been much teased about the announcements expected at X019. If the event plays out anything like last year's X018, then X019 will see new footage of upcoming games, release date reveals, and announcements of DLC or expansions for existing titles. X018 also saw Microsoft announcing additional studio acquisitions. The major highlights of last year's event were the reveal of Crackdown 3's release date, the announcement of 16 new games coming to Game Pass (some of which still haven't come out yet), and Microsoft's acquisition of InXile Entertainment (the studio behind Wasteland) and Obsidian Entertainment (the studio behind the recently-released The Outer Worlds).
Given the approach of next-gen consoles--both Microsoft's Project Scarlett and Sony's PS5 are scheduled to release during the holiday season in 2020--it's possible that Microsoft will announce additional details about what it has planned for the next generation. With Sony confirming its next-gen console will be called PlayStation 5, as unsurprising as that is, maybe Microsoft will use X019 to announce the official name of Project Scarlett.