Other than Halo Infinite, Microsoft’s Xbox showcase was underwhelming. It was an hour of mostly CG trailers with very little gameplay and information about their upcoming games for the launch of Xbox Series X. From what I could tell, every game in their showcase is coming to PC anyway. I thought this might be the console generation I finally buy my first Xbox, but Microsoft did nothing to entice me.

Phil Spencer has done a great job of getting Microsoft away from the traditional Xbox diet of first/third-person shooters, racing, and sports games and attempting to diversify the Xbox game library with more than their typical ‘bro’ games Xbox has been known for. Games like Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Everwild are the fruits of that, but they’re still trailing Nintendo and Sony in sheer breadth and genre variety. Granted, Sony’s last PlayStation Showcase wasn’t great either, and Nintendo still hasn’t announced what their Switch plans are for the rest of the year, but there was little from this Xbox Showcase that got my attention. Of course, it would help if we saw any actual gameplay for most of the games they showed.

I often get this sense about Microsoft that they’re trying too hard. They’re always talking about storytelling and immersion, but I rarely, if ever, hear them talk about gameplay and mechanics. It’s all about graphics, fidelity, and 60 FPS for them – and now 4K. Those things are important too, but they don’t make or break a game the way gameplay and mechanics do.

Since Microsoft and Sony have begun to adopt Nintendo’s ‘Direct’ livestream format of showing off their upcoming games, I wish they would take the next step and also copy Nintendo’s Treehouse format of inviting developers to sit down on a couch to play their games and talk about them, so we can see the games for ourselves. Actual gameplay, not flashy CG trailers featuring pop music you know won’t even be in the game. It’s so tiresome.

Surprisingly, given how much of a critic of the series I’ve been in the past, I think Halo Infinite looked great, and was easily the most impressive game Microsoft showed. It looked to have more of an open-world feel to it, and was one of the few games Microsoft showed that featured actual gameplay and made me want to see more of it.

Also, Rare is putting out another game – that once-juggernaut of a development studio isn’t relegated to vapid Kinect mini-games anymore, and is putting out proper games again. Even though we weren’t given a release date for Everwild, and all we got was an animated trailer, it looks interesting.

If Xbox Series X doesn’t do well, this could be the last console we see from Microsoft. It’s hard to imagine them continuing in the console business if Xbox Series X doesn’t do better than Xbox One has done. All consoles usually need a good year to get their feet under them before the really good games start coming out, and I’m willing to give this new machine that chance. Unfortunately, I saw nothing at this showcase that made me feel compelled to own Microsoft’s new black box, especially since all the games they showed seem to be coming to PC. Prove me wrong, Microsoft. I would welcome it.