Microsoft @E3: Everything You Need to Know

Microsoft kicked off things with the biggest franchise in its Xbox arsenal. Halo 5: Guardians had a barrage of announcements attached to it: we got to see some four-player co-op, and find out about the 24-player Warzone.

We got release date confirmations: Rise of the Tomb Raider's out November 10th, but two months before Forza Motorsport 6 hits retail on September 15th. And before either of those we're getting a remastered version (plus multiplayer beta) of the first Gears game in Gears of War: Ultimate Edition which is out August 25, and 30 Rare classics have been bundled together in the Rare Collection, which is out August 4th.

There's a few things announced for next year as well: Keiji Inafune's newest and Xbox One exclusive ReCore, and Dark Souls III, which is coming to PS4 and PC as well, is out early next year. Rare is also working on a new sea-faring title, Sea of Thieves. Dean Hall came on stage to announce his new title Ion (though we're still unsure what it is). Biggest though is Gears of War 4, which got its gameplay debut to conclude Microsoft's conference.

Yet that wasn't the biggest news of the show: Microsoft announced backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 titles on Xbox One (not all, but a growing list set for launch this winter), a
new pro controller, entitled the Elite, with switchable buttons (huge benefit for fighting fans) is due for release in the near future.

Xbox One's getting some nice extras for multiform games - its getting an exclusive beta this December for The Division, and you'll be able to port mods from the PC version of Fallout 4 onto Xbox One to play on console.