The first of the big three press conferences has wrapped up and while we are all decompressing and unpackaging what we saw, there was one theme throughout the show that stuck out. It seems that Microsoft is gearing up to tackle the massive success of Sony’s (and Nintendo’s for that matter) success with single-player games.

First off, by the numbers the Xbox One is the console that’s lagging behind (tremendously so behind the PS4) and many have attributed this to a lack of solid exclusives. Now, the argument could be made that this is also due to a lack of stellar, story-driven, single player games, which is where Sony is seeming to excel. On Playstation 4 there are games like Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, and recently God of War. Even on the Switch are games like Mario Odyssey and Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. It was a phenomenal year for single player games on those consoles and that is only naming a select few of those titles.

It can be noted that Xbox One will soon have Gears of War 5, which seems to focus on the narrative a bit more. We see in this in the trailer where the focus was on Kait struggling with loss and striking out on a new journey. There have been human moments in Gears (especially the tear-jerking Gears of War 3) and hopefully this newest entry will capture these characters.

We also saw Microsoft Studios announce that they have acquired five new studios to be a part of the Microsoft development team. In Santa Monica, studio The Initiative will be lead by former Crystal Dynamics head of studio Darrell Gallagher. They also picked up Playground Games who developed the Forza Horizon games and were revealed to be supposedly to be using that expertise on another open world title. State of Decay developers Undead Labs are also joining Microsoft, as are Compulsion games who are working on We Happy Few.

Lastly, and probably most exciting of all, is Ninja Theory who recently knocked it out of the park with Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. This Norse tale surrounding mental disorder was held up by some standout acting. Combine all of these creative people and Microsoft could be preparing for something truly special.

Or maybe even several special somethings.

Of course that’s all probably benefits for players that will come in the late future. In the near future are games like Crackdown 3, which launches in February and let’s players put on the boots of Terry Crews and rain down pure destruction. While it was just an engine demo, Halo Infinite was also announced as the next chapter in the Halo franchise. Hopefully Microsoft learned their lesson with the abysmal story in Halo 5: Guardians and go back to narratives that actually have weight and character development. It also looks like Cortana may return as there was a flash of blue at the end of the trailer, being inserted like an AI is in the back of the Chief’s helmet.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps was also shown off more this E3, showing the real beauty and majesty that is being injected into the sequel to a well-received classic. It also seems like there will be more combat involved this time around.

Of course, many of these games also have multiplayer components and are sequels. Over the last few iterations of these titles, there has been a larger focus on the multiplayer components. For many years though, Xbox has been a multiplayer branded unit, at least generally speaking. It is interesting how these trends have swelled and dwindled.

Now Microsoft are in a position where they need to truly put some energy into their campaigns, but should probably still put forward the quality into multiplayer.

So is this Microsoft switching gears to catch up to their competition? Is it too little too late?

At the end of the day, it’s the games that determine the overall success of a console. So if Microsoft start putting out quality games, people will inevitably play them. There is some system loyalty sure, but gamers want to game.

Let them game.

Be sure to check out Gears of War 5 and other Gears titles that were announced during the Microsoft E3 press conference, as well as the new reveal of Crackdown 3 and Forza Horizon 4.