Microsoft's E3 2018 media briefing has a date - and a new venue

Microsoft has announced its plans for E3 2018 - and it's doing things a little differently this year.

In previous years, Microsoft had a major presence on the Los Angeles Convention Center show floor, with a mammoth booth in which games were playable and executives and developers demoed their titles.

This year, Microsoft will use the nearby Microsoft Theater to host hands-on gameplay and demos. Crucially, it'll also use the Microsoft Theater for its media briefing. Traditionally, Microsoft used the Galen Center for its big press conference.

In a post on Xbox Wire, Mike Nichols, Corporate Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Xbox said Microsoft will still have a presence on the Convention Center show floor, but it will be dedicated to Mixer, the company's Twitch competitor.

"Not only does the Microsoft Theater allow us to centralise our Xbox presence at E3," Nichols said, "but its size enables us to include even more fans and partners in the Xbox E3 2018 Briefing than ever before." It sounds like Microsoft is following the lead of EA, which ditched the Convention Centre show floor in favour of its own, consumer-focused E3 event space a few years ago.

Microsoft's media briefing, by the way, takes place on 10th June 2018 at 1pm PT, which is 9pm in the UK. So, what can we expect? A reveal of Halo 6? Something new in the Gears of War franchise? A glimpse at Fable? Gameplay from big games by third party studios, such as CD Projekt's Cyberpunk? We don't have to wait long to find out. E3, terrifyingly, is only a few months away.