Microsoft shifts E3 2017 press briefing to Sunday

Microsoft will hold the Xbox E3 2017 press briefing at 2 p.m. PT on June 11, the company announced today.

That’s the Sunday of E3 week, which is a first for Microsoft — the company has traditionally occupied a Monday morning timeslot. Three makes a trend, as they say, and Microsoft now joins Electronic Arts and Bethesda Softworks as publishers holding press briefings on Sunday.

Bethesda has hosted its own event on Sunday evening for two years in a row, and last year, with a livestream called EA Play, EA shifted from its usual Monday afternoon slot to Sunday afternoon. EA and Bethesda have not yet announced when they will hold their E3 2017 press conferences.

This year, Microsoft will return to the Galen Center in Los Angeles, a 10,000-seat arena on the campus of the University of Southern California.

Microsoft’s tweet announcing its new timeslot, which you can see above, features an image of the motherboard for Project Scorpio, the upgraded version of the Xbox One that the company is planning to launch this holiday season. Expect to hear much more about that device, as well as the console’s games lineup and Microsoft’s efforts to combine the Xbox ecosystem with Windows 10. As always, Polygon will provide live coverage from the show; you’ll also be able to watch a livestream of the event.

Update: Aaron Greenberg, head of marketing for Xbox games, confirmed on Twitter that Microsoft will hold another Xbox FanFest at E3 this year. Through that initiative, the company invites a few hundred lucky fans and allows them to attend the E3 press briefing and partake in related events.