E3 2016: 7 Ups & 5 Downs From Microsoft's Conference

There was far, far too much of an emphasis on "social" gameplay during Microsoft's conference, made no clearer than during two painfully cringe-worthy scripted gameplay sequences.

First up, we were shown the new social options for Minecraft, allowing players to team up across Xbox One, iOS and Android devices. Cue the Minecraft team cracking awful quips as they play, and that's before John Carmack joined them to show off Minecraft on Oculus.

And secondly, promising pirate adventure title Sea of Thieves showed off some extensive gameplay from a pre-recorded play-test...featuring terrible actors bleating their lines and basically talking like nobody ever would while playing a video game. If you didn't wince, you probably weren't paying attention.

And now let's look at what actually worked in Microsoft's conference...