Microsoft's Xbox One recently unveiled its future plans for the Xbox Game Pass, the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, as well as what the company plans to bring to this year's E3 in just a few short months. Xbox will be one of the few major companies with a major presence at E3 after Sony chose to bow out earlier this year and other publishers, like EA, have begun to gravitate towards hosting their own livestreams during the same timeframe instead.

Microsoft's presence at E3 2019 is going to be a major turning point for the company. It's already hinted at having a major announcement in store for the future of Xbox and console gaming in general, which had generated quite a bit of hype—up until yesterday, when Sony suddenly announced the first details on what will become the PlayStation 5 when its launched, completely sweeping away the hard work Microsoft had done to build up anticipation for its own presentation. That isn't to say that the company won't have an exciting E3 2019, of course. It will simply have more competition and expectation when it comes to its own announcement, now that it can be compared and contrasted to Sony's.

Microsoft announced yesterday that the company would be starting a major initiative in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate while supplementing fans with the knowledge that its E3 2019 has plenty of content left in store following the confirmation of the rumored games service. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will include all the benefits of Xbox Live Gold alongside what fans have come to expect from Xbox Game Pass. Essentially, the Ultimate service will offer over 100 games and Xbox Live Gold online multiplayer for $14.99 USD a month. The service is currently in the process of being stress-tested by Xbox Insider community members before it launches fully later this year.


As for Xbox at E3 2019, Microsoft's announcements about its presentation aren't that surprising. The company will begin E3 2019 week with the Xbox E3 2019 briefing, which will begin on June 9 at 1pm PDT. Fans will be able to watch the event on Mixer, Microsoft's livestreaming service. The company also announced that it would be hosting a special E3 2019 Edition of Inside Xbox, which will air on Monday, June 10 at 10pm PDT. Finally, Microsoft will be bringing back Xbox FanFest, with ticket purchasers getting exclusive insider access, a fan showcase, an E3 Expo pass, priority access to the Xbox E3 2019 Briefing, and the ability to meet some of Xbox Game Studios' new developers.

Microsoft's E3 2019 presence is expected to be a big one already, so it makes sense the company didn't share any particularly exciting details about the event in these latest update. As for the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, it's a renewed version of an already well-received online service that combines two exciting elements for a better price point. That's going to make Xbox gamers very happy as they head into what will undoubtedly be the most exciting time to be interested in Microsoft consoles in years, as the company shakes up the landscape of the gaming industry.