Xbox has announced that this year’s Xbox Games Showcase will take place on June 9, and will be followed up by a Direct focusing on a mystery game which will most likely be Call of Duty.

The Showcase will be livestreamed at 6pm UK time (10am PT, 1pm ET) on Youtube, Twitch and Facebook. The event will feature games from Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, Activision and Blizzard, along with third parties. Microsoft, of course, acquired Activision Blizzard at the end of last year, so this will be the first Showcase event to feature them.

Rumours have been swirling for the past few weeks that this Showcase will see the return of the Gears franchise, either for a new game in the franchise or the long-rumoured remakes/remasters of the first three games. Even JD’s actor from Gears 5 seems to believe Xbox might finally announce Gears 6 in June.

Meanwhile, Tom Warren of The Verge is reporting that the showcase will “include a number of release dates for upcoming Xbox games like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Avowed, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.“

I’m also expecting to finally see something from State of Decay 3. It was announced all the way back in 2020, clearly long before it was really ready to talk about. I may be very wrong, but it feels like State of Decay 3 might be ready to show off to the world.

I’d imagine Fable has a good chance of popping up too, along with Silksong.

As for the Direct that Microsoft is hosting after the Showcase, all they’ve said is that it will feature the “next instalment of a beloved franchise.” While that could reference anything from Gears to Fable, the orange wolf-head logo they showed looks a lot like something you would expect to see in a Call of Duty game.

Tom Warren of the The Verge agrees. “….sources familiar with the company’s plans tell me that this is indeed Call of Duty.” he writes.

Finally, I expect us to get a release date for Starfield’s Shattered Space expansion, which Todd Howard recently said is due to launch this Fall.

Should these rumours all prove true, Microsoft will have an impressive showing that will set them up for a strong 2025.