Microsoft Xbox X019: Age of Empires IV, new Rare and Obsidian games, xCloud on PC, and more

Last year Microsoft resurrected its X0 fan gathering in triumphant fashion, announcing that it had acquired veteran developers InXile and Obsidian. This year, at Xbox X019, we saw the first payoff as Obsidian announced a new game and InXile pinned a release date on Wasteland 3. 

Finally.

That news, plus the first proper trailer for Age of Empires IV, details on Project xCloud’s forthcoming PC launch, a release date for Halo on PC, a new game from Rare, and more as we recap all the announcements at Xbox X019. Microsoft’s event has become very relevant for PC gamers.

Grounded

A survival game, eh? I didn’t expect that to be Obsidian’s first project under Microsoft’s tutelage. Actually, I assumed the Obsidian purchase wouldn’t bear fruit for another few years, and would culminate in an Outer Worlds-style RPG.

But no, early in 2020 we’ll get Grounded. It’s going to be the next “Xbox Game Preview” title at release, a.k.a. in Early Access, and is headed up by Pillars of Eternity’s Josh Sawyer which is always exciting news. Obsidian’s stated goal is to create a story-driven survival game, which isn’t exactly uncharted territory—The Long Dark just added its third chapter last month, and Subnautica had light story elements as well.

Still, Grounded has a pretty damn unique hook. It’s basically Honey I Shrunk the Kids, but playable. You’re tasked with surviving in a normal, everyday suburban backyard—except you’re the size of a bug. Don’t get stepped on. Or do? No kink-shaming here.

Wasteland 3

Let’s pivot straight from one acquisition to the next. It’s been more than three years since Wasteland 3’s crowdfunding campaign, but it’s aaaaalmost ready. InXile’s Brian Fargo brought a new trailer to X019, and also an official release date: May 19, 2020. That’s nearly six months to the day from now, which is just about enough time to finish our 2014 Game of the Year Wasteland 2 if you haven’t already.

Halo: Reach

Another long-awaited release date, 343 originally said the entire Halo: Master Chief Collection would be out on PC by the end of 2019. That uh…well, that’s probably not happening. We will get the first part before the year is out though! Testing is finally wrapping up, and we’ll see Halo: Reach hit both Steam and the Windows 10 Store on December 3. Hopefully the rest isn’t far behind.

Everwild

The Sea of Thieves launch didn’t go as swimmingly as I’d hoped, but the game’s seemingly in a pretty good place these days and I still get plenty excited when I hear Rare’s working on something new. We saw little more than a teaser at X019, but it’s called Everwild, it looks very vaguely Zelda-ish, and you can catch the debut trailer below:

Bleeding Edge

I’m actually surprised how many games Microsoft’s putting out before next year’s console generation handover. In addition to Wasteland 3, Ninja Theory’s Bleeding Edge is…