[HTML1]

It's two months after E3 and that means it's time for the other massive video game event of the year: Gamescom. The annual trade show in Cologne, Germany is just as big as E3 and with 2014's event beginning tomorrow, today hosts the large press conferences. Microsoft was up first and they came out strong with new trailers and a few surprise exclusive announcements that'll help the company boost Xbox One sales.

First there was the surprise reveal that the sequel to Crystal Dynamics' and Square Enix reboot of Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, will be coming exclusive to Xbox platforms and now, Space Engineers has also been locked down as a major third-party exclusive. The official announcement specifically states that Space Engineers is exclusive to the Xbox One for a 12-month period so expect it to come to PS4 after.

You may not be as familiar with Space Engineers but you soon will be. It's Minecraft in space but better looking, more polished and with more potential. Game Rant's Anthony Taormina and myself recently played with the PC version (on Steam Early Access) and quickly fell in love. Watch the video of us playing and talking about the game here.

Marek Rosa, CEO and Founder, Keen Software House:

“We are really excited to introduce Space Engineers to an all new audience on Xbox One and provide gamers from around the world the same open-ended creative environment that has enamored PC gamers. With the power of Xbox One, we will be able to offer all of our features with amazing multiplayer options. We expect the Xbox community to unleash amazing creations and astounding worlds that we can’t even imagine.”

Space Engineers is being developed through the ID@Xbox self-publishing program and is already a popular hit on PC. It has the potential to explode on the console market in a similar way Minecraft did and embraces a similar sandbox, community-driven approach. The difference however, is that Minecraft had a far larger player pool with mode community support and mods on PC before it made the jump to the Xbox 360.

Check out the in-game screenshots below, along with a few renders detailing the high polygon counts that the Xbox One can also deliver.

[gallery columns="2" link="file" ids="234977,234978,234979,234980,234981,234982,234983,234984,234985,234986,234987,234988,234989,234990"]

Developer Keen Software House promises that the Xbox One version will not hinder development of the PC version in any way, but with an announcement of it it coming to Xbox One so early in its PC development, there are obvious concerns about what it means for additional content and features on the PC version and how those will translate to the Xbox One. Will the Xbox One version have limitations of user-created maps and sharing of creations? Will it support mods? Will it be priced the same as the PC version?

These have yet to be detailed specifically and a release date has not yet been set. Still, this is the natural evolution for Space Engineers and a larger player pool means more funds for development of all the versions.

Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.