Recapping the 2015 Microsoft E3 Press Conference

Microsoft held their 2015 E3 Press Briefing earlier today and unlike some past years it wasn’t an eventful one for those with interest in sports games. Electronic Arts, which has its own conference later today, made an appearance but the focus was mostly on EA Access – which definitely deserves more recognition and hopefully awareness will rise because of it. 

The service will be free to those on Xbox One for the next week, Titanfall is being added to the “Vault”, and Dragon Age: Inquisition will be added later this summer.

The biggest announcement at the presser was probably backwards compatibility for Xbox One, which is available to those in the preview program now, and will roll out to all this summer. On the surface that sounds great. Think about the possibilities! Series that have died off could be resurrected like NCAA Football 14 and College Hoops 2K8. Loved sports games from the past, with unique features, like NBA 2K11 could get a second life.

Unfortunately there are only select titles that will become backwards compatible. Licensing issues, and even the O’Bannon settlement in the case of NCAA Football, may prevent those sports games from being among them. Here’s a list of the initial games available – none of which are sports games. Microsoft claims that by fall there will be 100 Xbox 360 games playable on Xbox One.

Other news included a release date for Forza 6 of September 15, and a new wireless “Elite” controller for Xbox One. The controller offers swappable parts for customization purposes, four new paddles under the grips, a textured rolling pad instead of a D-Pad, trigger locks, and the ability to adjust thumbstick sensitivity.

Of course the big news people were hoping for was an unveil of Joe Montana Football 16. The game did not make an appearance, and it was never very realistic to expect it to do so. It still may have a presence at E3 however…just in a different capacity.