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In a recent episode of VGC's new podcast, journalist Andy Robinson spoke about Xbox's upcoming games lineup, with the hosts speculating on what may appear at the Xbox summer showcase in 2023.
While the outlet hasn't heard anything specific about what's planned for the conference itself, Robinson claims to know some information on what games Xbox is focusing on in the short term, outside of Bethesda of course. Once Redfall, Forza Motorsport and Starfield are shipped, Avowed and Hellblade 2 are reportedly "the next big things" for Xbox.
"I think the nearest ones for them are Hellblade [2] and probably Avowed. That's the next big thing for them that they'll be talking about. From my understanding those two are the closest."
Unfortunately for Xbox fans, Robinson then went on to discuss what games are further down the pipeline, including one project that continues to "stun" him in terms of how long it's taking to develop.
"It's still pretty stunning that Fable is still miles away, Perfect Dark is not close, Everwild is not close [...] Everything looks so great on paper and it's just, the games are just not quite ready yet."
While we'd love for the likes of Fable and Perfect Dark to be closer than they are, we're not too displeased with this information to be honest, if it's accurate. Avowed and Hellblade 2 arriving shortly after Xbox's planned 2023 lineup of games is fine by us - we're guessing we won't see either of them until 2024, but who knows?
For now, this is all rumour and speculation, and we'll have to wait until the summer to see what Xbox is ready to show off next. The team hasn't dated its E3-time showcase yet, so expect to hear news on that front in the coming months.
What do you think to this potential Xbox timeline? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
[source open.spotify.com]
Comments 34
What about Compulsions game, State of Decay 3, and Indiana Jones? My personal interest in those is higher than it is for a game like Everwild. I figure Indiana Jones is still a ways since it just started in 2020ish. And I get Fable taking a while because of the resources Forza probably needed. But there’s other games besides Perfect Dark (well documented rumors as to what’s happening there) and Fable.
why does seem like there's little planned for this year. Starfield and Redfall are supposed to be last year's games, what were we supposed to be playing instead of them in 23 before they got delayed? Hi-Fi rush and Forza DLC for the first 6 months?
@BrilliantBill It's probably going to be similar to Outer Worlds than their CRPGs.
@BrilliantBill They came out and said they were using the Forza engine for Fable, so it's definitely going to take a while to get the engine suited for an open-world RPG.
@BrilliantBill I wouldn't be surprised if the team at Playground asked to use that engine. It's what they're familiar with, so they probably wanted to stick with that engine and modify it for the purposes of an RPG.
Plus, with them sharing the engine with Turn 10, it means they can collectively build and refine the engine, which is probably why the Forza games look and run so darn well.
Had forgotten about Avowed. They really announce too early.
They need something else this year imo, if the second half of 23 is Starfield and Forza that is a bit disappointing. Or at the very least indicative they were relying on having CoD on Gamepass this year.
That would be disappointing, if true, as it's been in development since at least 2017. Regardless it's another one that was announced too early and seems to be having a super long development process.
@ActionPanther I think @BrilliantBill could have been wondering if Avowed is more on the scale of Elder Scrolls rather than some of Obsidian's recent work like The Outer Worlds, which is a good game in it's own right, but very small and narrow by comparison. If he wasn't, I am
@Kaloudz A few people have softly spoken out about the company culture at Playground and it's an open secret that they seem to churn through a lot of staff. PG have a pretty low 2.8/5 rating on Glassdoor as a result.
Right now on their careers page they have over 60 roles advertised across the studio, including around 50 for Fable Team specifically. This includes some seemingly key roles like: Co-Dev Design Director, Producer x2, Lead Quest Designer, Lead Animation Engineer, Lead Audio Programmer, Lead UI Engineer, Lead Technical Artist, Lead UI Engineer, Level Designer, Game Designer, Gameplay Designer, Quest Designer, Dialogue Designer, Encounter Designer, Principal Animation Engineer, Principal Character Artist.
And about another 30+ roles.
Compare that to similarly sized Studios like The Coalition 4.1 on Glassdoor & 19 job openings; Santa Monica Studio 4.4 & 10 job openings; and Insomniac 4.3 & 15 job openings. There aren't that many senior roles either, they seem to be able to retain key staff.
While it's just speculation, to me that all sounds concerning and doesn't paint the picture of a team about to launch their game. It does SEEM to suggest it's a studio that's struggling a bit.
@BrilliantBill Outer Worlds was a MUCH smaller game in scope. As I said above I thought it was a good game in it's own right, but not what I was expecting from Obsidian.
Hopefully Avowed is full fat and not skimmed milk
Miles away means the next Xbox. Avowed and Hellblade 2 will be at some point next year.
@ActionPanther Me too. That original CGI trailer had me super excited with the possibilities, and I HATE CGI trailers. lol
FWIW I never pictured Avowed to be small. We know Obsidian makes big games and hasn't had money to make one since...IDK, KotOR2? But then again I don't really see Outer Worlds as small, either.
@abe_hikura
Because Xbox game development is in wibbly wobbly land like always.
We were supposed to FM and Starfield before end of June 2023 after the 2022 delays.
Think I’ll end up trading in my series x for a ps5
By the time these games come out they will be on the next Xbox anyways lol
All I really want is quality games that are pretty much perfect upon release. I played both Horizon Forbidden West and God of War: Ragnarok upon their release, and both games shipped in good order. I'm not suggesting that there weren't any problems at all, but for the most part that played very well. I don't mind if a game sits in the oven for a few extra months (as with Starfield) so long as when it releases, it is in such a condition that you can play it without issue, and not have to wait for updates to make the experience worthwhile (such as with the recent Pokemon games, which I still haven't been able to play a couple of months after their release).
Take what time you need to put out a good product in good order...
The management for these games is insane perfect dark has been in development for atleast 4 years now and not even a single gameplay video. Everwild should be canceled. And the game they should release, which was almost completed they're sitting on it which is Scalebound.
Fable being a long way away is not surprising to me.
Driving games devs making an RPG in an engine developed for a driving game? Was bound to hit lots of major hurdles and obviously has. I hope it over-comes these and ends up being a great homage to the originals, but there's every possibility it will be a broken mess and not what any of us want.
I hope MS use their teams wisely and help them spread knowledge. Bethusda could help with designing some of the RPG systems on Fable, and those guys know how to do that stuff...
PSA: This is the same guy who claimed that MS would sell Xbox if they couldn’t acquire ABK, claimed that Xbox had no marketing budget and also the one who sparked all the controversy surrounding RedFall’s (lack of) physical edition.
I don’t believe a single word that comes out of his mouth anymore.
@BrilliantBill dont get me wrong Forza is one of my favourite and most anticipated games. Its nothing to do with a perception of MS having Halo/GoW/Forza only.
The point was if the latter half of this year is 2 games they previously had in their coming in the next 12 months showcase(one of which in turn having had several delays) it is a bad look for them after a nothing 2022.
@Sifi probably play through god of war 2 the last of us 2 possibly horizon and will be able to play final fantasy 16 and hopefully silent hill 2 remake when that comes out.
Not attacking Xbox I’ll still have my series s but don’t feel like the series x is worth it at this point
Gaming is about the games and there’s nothing at the moment that’s a must play on Xbox for me or in the near future
Play through hi if rush if that’s the game your talking about and it was alright nothing that could of been done on previous gen or even on the 360
It was alright
@Meehanuk_1987 that’s really the thing nobody is saying. We’re halfway through the generation and barely have any big 1st party games. I’m not without games to play thanks to 3rd party and GP, but definitely feel like I invested way too much in Xbox this generation. Lesson learned.
@Meehanuk_1987 I'm right there with you lol. As soon as I'm done with Hogwarts Legacy, I'm out, I think. It's mind boggling how much trouble this company has getting games out the door. they have more money than they know what to do with, but can't get anything finished, ever.
We have to start using a word that I know a lot of fans don't want to use: incompetence. Microsoft's baffling inability to get really ANYTHING out the door in a reasonable amount of time is just...incompetence at this point. Yes Sony has made great games for decades, but I'm sorry, Microsoft has beaten themselves far more than anything.
lol what the hell is going with Perfect Dark. the studio was founded almost five years ago and not only is it much further away than Starfield etc, but also Avowed?
@armondo36 Yeah there seems to be a lot of waiting for the next big thing with Microsoft I was massively looking foward to fable but that doesn’t seem to be doing well.
There was nothing in the Xbox showcase that excited me the vampire shooter looked average forza looked good but just another forza game.
@TheGrizMan Yeah it’s definitely sad as I’ve tried to enjoy my xbox but it’s got to the point now where gamepass doesn’t cut it
It’s cheap but there’s nothing on there for me anyway that’s made me think wow that’s amazing this is next gen even with Xbox first party games that have been released
The third party stuff the majority of is stuff I could get on PlayStation and a lot of it are games I wouldn’t really bother with anyways.
Just the way Xbox have handled halo is shocking halo was my favourite game series but that’s died with infinite which doesn’t give me hope for anything else that was there flag ship title it’s like Nintendo killing off Mario.
The only Xbox news we hear about is the Activision stuff which is getting boring now.
just lost faith in Microsoft and Xbox in general.
I am having so much fun playing all my backlog that I can’t hear your depressing moaning …. La la la can’t hear you
Seems like a silly rumor, I wouldn't worry much. There's a whole big list on this site of upcoming games, so even if true, I'm not too disappointed
@armondo36 Dude I've been feeling that kind of way for years. The Peter Moore and Don Mattrick eras of Xbox heavily relied on exclusive content partnerships to drive value to their products. Their top tier IPs (besided Halo) were developed via partnership. (Forza, Gears, etc.)
Their in-house studios? Horribly mismanaged.
Bungie was Microsoft's lone bright spot of consistency, but MS would buy and fumble so many studios (Lionhead, Rare, and Ensemble to name a few).
Point is, I don't think they've ever been good at team building or management within Xbox. My biggest hope from their Activision Blizzard deal is that MS will finally gather some decent studio heads to help make their other teams more efficient.
I’m honestly hoping that Xbox has learned their lesson from the apparently pre-production reveals of Everwild, Perfect Dark, and Fable, and are focusing on making more success stories like Hi-Fi Rush. I surely hope Xbox has projects in the oven that could draw people in. I know Hellblade may be popular around these parts, but let’s be real: it’s not a Mario or Zelda or GoW or Uncharted…. It’s a Plague Tale tier game in its popularity. And Avowed is an unknown at this point. Surely MS must have something cooking that’ll sell consoles to the people outside the Bethesda fleet. MS can’t be so niche that they put all their eggs in a Halo, Forza, Western RPG basket… or can it?
xbox should let obsidian & inxile help fable development after they finished their games
I have no interesting in Everwild, fable or perfect dark
@IOI Same here, this guy has lost all credibility.
Man I am excited for all 3 of these games. Obsidians Outer worlds was disappointing so hopefully its sequel and avowed are better. But man, come on FABLE!
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