Hello everyone! I will be ranking the 6 showcases that Xbox have released! The pre-2020 E3 Presentations won't be counted here, as they are more audience based. I will be ranking them based on production quality and announcements. Basing them on how well their games were would be unfair and silly.
#6: 2021 Xbox Extended Showcase
Honestly, it feels a little wrong to rank the extended showcases with the other showcases. They're not really meant to be an exciting showcase, more of an in-depth look at games, however since I am ranking them (mainly because I'd only have 4 showcases to rank otherwise) I will rank these the lowest, but only because they are the slowest of the 6. I feel like the 2021 extended showcase is weaker than the 2022 one, mainly because the pacing is a little too slow at points. It also had less games I was interested in. Overall, it just wasn't meant to be up there with the others.
#5: 2022 Xbox Extended Showcase
This isn't that much of an improvement, but it does have a nice development talk about the Ukraine war so I feel like this showcase does get a boost just because of that. Otherwise, you don't have to return to this one.
#4: 2020 Xbox Showcase
This was an alright showcase, it just had too many CGI trailers. Fable, Avowed, and Everwild are nice announcements, but they didn't give us anything to grasp on. Overall, the weakest of the mainline showcases.
#3: January 2023 Developer Direct
This was an excellent first developer direct. The production alone was commendable and it was really well paced. The other showcases had more exciting announcements but this was a great start for developer directs.
#2: 2022 Xbox Showcase
The 12 months made this showcase kind of lacking in surprises, but it was still enjoyable. It was well paced and had pretty to show, but I'd be silly to call it #1.
#1: 2021 Xbox Showcase
This was a nice and surprising showcase with plenty of reveals. It still had too many CGI trailers but it managed to balance it out better. Overall it's the best only because the others didn't surprise me as much as this one did.
#6: 2021 Xbox Extended Showcase
Honestly, it feels a little wrong to rank the extended showcases with the other showcases. They're not really meant to be an exciting showcase, more of an in-depth look at games, however since I am ranking them (mainly because I'd only have 4 showcases to rank otherwise) I will rank these the lowest, but only because they are the slowest of the 6. I feel like the 2021 extended showcase is weaker than the 2022 one, mainly because the pacing is a little too slow at points. It also had less games I was interested in. Overall, it just wasn't meant to be up there with the others.
#5: 2022 Xbox Extended Showcase
This isn't that much of an improvement, but it does have a nice development talk about the Ukraine war so I feel like this showcase does get a boost just because of that. Otherwise, you don't have to return to this one.
#4: 2020 Xbox Showcase
This was an alright showcase, it just had too many CGI trailers. Fable, Avowed, and Everwild are nice announcements, but they didn't give us anything to grasp on. Overall, the weakest of the mainline showcases.
#3: January 2023 Developer Direct
This was an excellent first developer direct. The production alone was commendable and it was really well paced. The other showcases had more exciting announcements but this was a great start for developer directs.
#2: 2022 Xbox Showcase
The 12 months made this showcase kind of lacking in surprises, but it was still enjoyable. It was well paced and had pretty to show, but I'd be silly to call it #1.
#1: 2021 Xbox Showcase
This was a nice and surprising showcase with plenty of reveals. It still had too many CGI trailers but it managed to balance it out better. Overall it's the best only because the others didn't surprise me as much as this one did.
