Slew of Xbox Announcements

With just one month to go before the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has revealed a slew of new details about what you can expect from Microsoft's presentation at the event.

Asked if gamers will see new IP announcements at the show from first-party Microsoft studios, Spencer replied: "Yes, we'll announce both new IP and new sequels at E3." That's just one interesting piece of information that Spencer revealed last night during his tweeting spree.

We've rounded up what you need to know below, based on his Twitter comments from overnight.

• Microsoft is focusing on hardcore gamers for the show.
• Some announcements will be made in May, ahead of E3. "Yea, you'll get a couple of things before. May should be a good month for news. Took me a month to get plans set," Spencer said.
• Microsoft will announce new studios it's working with.
• Spencer is not allowed to talk about anything related to what Halo studio 343 Industries is working on.
• Microsoft's overall goal for 2014: "I feel like what we will show this year is stuff we are committed to, from top studios, for this year and future."
• Don't expect a Microsoft-made gaming handheld anytime soon. "I don't think we'll do a dedicated handheld gaming device, rather just focus on [Windows Phone], tablets, maybe with controller support someday," Spencer said.
• Spencer wants Microsoft's E3 2014 showing to be more "fan focused."
• Microsoft thought about using the voice of Cortana for their E3 show, but Spencer did not like this. Asked if the Cortana voice search functionality could come to Xbox One someday, Spencer said, "I like [Windows Phone] feature but don't want to overdo it."
• Gamers won't need to wait until the Tokyo Game Show (September) to learn about new Japanese Xbox One games.
• Microsoft is close to finalizing a release date for the Xbox One version of Minecraft.
• The Lost Odyssey rights are "a bit complicated," but Spencer would like to see the 2008 role-playing game come to Games on Demand some day.
• Details about external storage support for Xbox One are coming later.
• Why there hasn't been a Battletoads sequel: "Just time, lot's of things we want to build, all the teams are full right now and a long list of what they'd want to do next. You want to spend time because you want things to be as good as they can be, I don't want to do cheap ports," Spencer said.

E3 2014 runs June 10-12 in Los Angeles, California. Microsoft's media briefing is often held on the Monday before the show kicks off, which would be June 9.