Competition pushes others to do better than they did before, and after the Nintendo Switch became a viable competitor to the Xbox One, meaning two consoles with better (and just more) exclusives include game of the year winner, Microsoft knows that it needs to step up its game.
Many of the big games promised to release last year were delayed to this year; including Crackdown 3 and State of Decay 2. The biggest gaming event of the year, E3, is actually closer than it feels and so the big players are beginning to reveal their arrangements for the event. Microsoft released an article detailing their plans for the event, but the most notable thing would have to be "The Microsoft Theatre", where attendees can get hands-on experience with the newest games releasing. This which actually run in tandem with E3 as a collaboration with the organisers. Their usual conference at E3 itself will remain, just like how it did when the original Xbox was revealed in 2000.