Rumour: Microsoft Exec Hints At Hellblade 2 Appearance During Xbox Games Showcase 2023

I surely hope so...this is one of my Day One games (along with Alan Wake 2).

Well, I guess it is about time games like Hellblade 2 and Avowed show themselves (to be fair we did get a gameplay section from H2 so not aiming to whine too much here). Some of the games I am most excited about however, Gears 6, Mass Effect 5, Remedy's remake of Max Payne 1 and 2 are a long ways off.

Not sure what else there is to show about hellblade except the date. I'm betting it releases this fall or very early 24.

November 2023
Then an October delay until summer 2024 probably. Not my first xbox rodeo.

Would hope so. Was only announced 4 years ago!

That'll soften the blow of news that Starfeild is being delayed till late 2024.

Phil mentioning it was a hint it's coming sooner than later. I'd say first half of '24, first quarter of '24 if we're lucky.

they need start releasing decent games

I will say it everytime they mention about potential previews of games that were announced ages ago. Where is SOD3. I have been waiting 3 years for this. Give me something please. Just so I know there is a shred of hope it is still coming out.

@HarmanSmith Ive never played the first Alan Wake. Is it still worth playing today?

@Trmn8r out of interest, I looked into what upcoming games XGS/Bethesda has and when they were announced, or at least when their debut trailers/teasers appeared:

The Elder Scrolls VI - June 2018
Starfield - June 2018
Everwild - November 2019
Hellblade II - December 2019
Avowed - July 2020
Fable - July 2020
Forza Motorsport - July 2020
State of Decay 3 - July 2020
Perfect Dark - December 2020
Indiana Jones - January 2021
Contraband - June 2021
The Outer Worlds 2 - June 2021

Xbox really needs to get a handle on not announcing games until they're like 6 months out. A short CG teaser trailer and then up to 4 years with little to no gameplay shown and in some cases almost complete radio silence? This just doesn't cut it. This is part of why sentiment around the future of Xbox is iffy.

@TheCrafter1578 I think it is, I will recommend it greatly! The game is a thriller in third person, with an interesting and well crafted story.

I think that the original Xbox 360 version still holds up to this day, it plays and looks great. But now there's a remaster on PS/XB/Switch. Both versions (the original 360 game and the remaster) are semi regularly on sale, so you can check it out without spending too much.

2024 then delayed into 2025

Surprise shadow drop on june 11th just after the show.

@NeutronBomb Yeah, we really need an official conversion chart or something so we can cross reference dates.
Announcement: Nov '23
What they mean : May '24
Factor in second delay - Release: Sep '24

Meanwhile another video or three where the devs tell us they "can't wait" for us to get our hands on it...😂

@Markatron84 agreed. They kind of painted themselves into a corner by announcing early to try to run with Sony.

@Markatron84 Thankfully Phil acknowledged that Microsoft announced games too early and that the company would stop doing it.

Hopefully that still applies for the majority of games to be announced at this Showcase - though I want to say it wasn't long after making that comment that Microsoft had the whole Hideo Kojima announcement (which is probably barely out of the pre-production stage given that Kojima Production is knee-deep in Death Stranding 2).

Didn’t enjoy the original but will play the sequel and hope it’s better. It looks technically fantastic so I’m interested.

Honestly this one would convince me to get an Xbox more so than even Starfield. Hellblade 1 was among my personal favorites of the last generation and with Ninja Theory's track record I find it very difficult to see this one disappointing.

I always felt like Ninja Theory never got the appreciation they deserved. I've been a huge fan of their work since Heavenly Sword back in the early PS3 days.

@HarmanSmith Just saw that the original is on sale for like $4 but the remastered is still $29. Should I wait to get the remaster or just go for the original? Thanks for the info!

Loved the first one and can’t wait for this release! Wondering though if wiser to launch early next year (Q1?) so it doesn’t compete for GOTY against Starfield… fingers crossed that from here on out xbox can produce at least one GOTY contender a year!

@TheCrafter1578 I think the original offers great value for that price, and I think you won't be missing much of the new stuff (mostly, some quality of life improvements, animations and resolution). IMO, both are great and the remastered is the best way to play it. But, if you're on the fence, I would try the original, because it's always cheaper than the new one. That way, if you don't like it that much, you won't regret spending that much

@HarmanSmith Thanks!

@Markatron84 those dates are crazy, everwild announced in 2019, that's 4 years and we don't even know what this game looks like.
Elders Scrolls announced in 2018 but likely won't be out until well after Starfield. That's 5+ years, maybe even 10.

@NeutronBomb I’m far more pessimistic, it’ll be in the show targeting Spring 2024 then it’ll be delayed until Fall 2024 if not 2025.

Also can’t see Avowed, Perfect Dark and Fable coming before 2025, and Everwild if not canceled will arrive until the next generation is announced.

I know I’m way too pessimistic, but I honestly have zero confidence in Xbox currently and I say it owning a Series X since day one, I’m open to being owned in the showcase but I have absolutely no hope in them anymore.

@Dan1283 in the last two years these are igns top reviewed xbox games, they have had one bad game

Microsoft flight simulator 10
Forza horizon 5 10
Pentiment 10
Deathloop 10
Halo infinite 9
Hi fi rush 9
Psychonauts 2 9

@HarmanSmith You day 1 beta testers are the unsung heroes of the gaming community, thank you! .. Please make sure you report all bugs and glitches so that they can patch it for the rest of us before we buy them 3 months later for 40% off.

Hellblade 2 is one of the reasons I went with an series x over PS5

Well that and the inevitable gears 6

@Markatron84 And yet we know games are taking 5yrs+ these days to make. Most of those CGi trailers are meant more for the 'industry' not the Consumer - meant to help with recruitment and bring people into the 'development' - as well as let people know what their Studio's will be 'busy' working on.

Infamous 2nd Son released in 2014, but you had to wait '6yrs' until Ghost of Tsushima released, over 5yrs between Killzone and Horizon:ZD and another 5yrs to wait for its Sequel. As you point out, not one of these games has been announced for '5yrs' yet - Starfield is coming up to 5yrs now, and expected Sept 23 (5yrs and 3mths after 'reveal')

State of Decay 2 came out 5yrs after their First game - yet people now expect a AAA SoD3, not the 'AA' or indie style of the first 2, built from Scratch, using UE5 (which only 'released' last year for game 'production') in much less time than they have ever made games before.

Realistically, I can see why they go quiet for '4yrs' because they didn't have anything 'worth' showing. When it was 'revealed' its very 'early' in development, maybe still in the 'pre-production' stage of story-boarding and preparing concept art. 3yrs later, its in very rough alpha state, 4yrs later its approaching beta - but can 'polish' a small section for an actual game-play 'reveal' and 5yrs+ later, its 'ready' to release...

@BAMozzy of course, AAA development is long and arduous. My issue isn't long development cycles; it's companies (in this case Microsoft) announcing games way too early. Some of these games probably weren't in full production when they were publicly announced. And if the reveal teasers weren't meant for consumers, then... don't show them to consumers? When you announce a game in 2019, then show literally nothing about it for 4 years, that's not consumer friendly. It's just a bad look.

@Markatron84 E3 isn't a 'consumer' focussed show - its a 'trade' show, meant for developers to pitch their ideas, their concepts etc in the hope that they get picked up by big Publishers, for Companies to announce what their future plans are, to draw in investment, to draw in the right people to make projects etc.

As games have 'increased' in their development cycle, its increased the time between 'initial' reveals and their release. Sony would often have the 'same' games for multiple years at E3 long before they 'released' and it was 'known' H:FW was in development following on from H:ZD but still had to wait 5yrs to play it.

As things seem to have changed in the industry in just the past 5yrs - what with Lockdowns and 'criticism' of revealing games too 'soon', take last year as an 'example', MS only talked about games 'expected' in the year ahead and got extremely criticised because there was 'no' news about Hellblade or Avowed or SoD3. You can't 'suddenly' unreveal games and therefore even if you 'change' strategy to only talk about games nearing completion, it can take several years to 'catch-up' to that change.

Consumers expect a 'finished' and 'polished' game. The fact that its announced as being in development, or even the 'next' project the Studio is about to 'start' work on is not 'anti-consumer' either. Its telling their Consumers that their Studios are 'busy' at work making games you want to play. Its Consumers impatience, demanding that game and info about it instead of giving them the time to realise that game.

We don't know what Compulsion, inXile, Double Fine, id Software, the Coalition or Arkane Lyon are working on now, but there are some consumers that 'demand' to know, not happy to wait until 6-12months before its due to release to find out...

I prefer a 'short' time between reveal and release myself, but if the question about 'where are the games?' or 'All these Studio's but 'nothing yet' to show comes up?', then you feel MS is in a difficult position - show/reveal to let people know what these studios are actually working on (as it seems they are doing nothing) or decide to only show what's due in the year ahead which probably won't appease everyone because they have ALL these Studios (most not even part of Xbox 5yrs 'yet') and so few 'games' to tell us about...

Catch 22 - reveal too 'early' and then 'unexpected' issues delay them further (lockdown really affected a LOT of development time) but at least people know what they are working on, what to expect in the longer future - or - don't reveal anything until its 6-12months out at the most but only have a 'few' big games to reveal and not give any 'updates' on what their other studios are doing - making it seem that they have 'very' little in the long term...

Different 'consumers' have different ideas, expectations. Some want to hear about games every year until they release, get more updates, more 'news' and eagerly waiting for Fable, Perfect Dark etc - much like eagerly waiting for H:FW or GoW:R for '5yrs' - expecting to see/hear something. Others can't handle waiting and prefer the 'short' reveal to release window so you can't say its 'anti-consumer' to announce games in development 'early/late' as they are still intending to bring those games to Consumers and hope that these announcements will bring Consumers in sooner or later to play, to be excited for the 'future' of that particular Platform.

I'm also sure that other games were announced in 2019 or older that haven't yet released either - and don't forget that Bethesda wasn't owned by MS in 2018 so their 'reveal' wasn't determined by Xbox/MS policy. Even Indiana Jones reveal in January 2021 was again not 'revealed' by Microsoft as the deal to acquire Zenimax didn't go through until March 21...

So you can't 'blame' MS for those...

@BAMozzy yes, but saying these trade shows aren't consumer-focused doesn't wash when they're literally broadcast over the internet for consumers to watch. And your average videogame player is nowhere near as clued in to the industry as a whole as, say, people like us who frequent focused videogame news sites. If something's not meant for consumers, don't show it to them. Showing consumers an announcement teaser trailer and then wondering why said consumers are asking "but what/where is the game?" 4 or 5 years later gains a company nothing.

@Markatron84 That's become more common only in recent years - but that doesn't change the 'Purpose' of E3 and the messaging. It's only really changed since 'Lockdown' but the Primary function of E3 was for these big 'Publishers' to 'present' their future plans to the industry and Press knowing that the Public too will get to watch.

Mark Cerny's breakdown of the PS5 was NOT meant for Consumers, but still ended up being available for Consumers.

The whole Purpose of E3 was for these Publishers to present their Plans to the industry and press so that they would write articles in magazines over the course of the next few months or so about the 'projects' they saw - some never made it to 'release' either but as the 'internet' has enabled 'anyone' to watch those 'presentations', its become 'less' important to Companies as they can conduct their 'own' showcase at much lower 'cost' and get the information out - sometimes before it 'leaks' too...

You can't suddenly go from announcing 'everything' one year and then the following year, after 'criticism' about the length of waiting time, just focus on the 'year' ahead as those other games are still 'known' about. If MS only talk about games coming only in the next 12 months, then some games revealed a few years ago aren't going to feature. Point is, its going to take time for those 'early' reveals to release so its going to now take 'time' until they can talk about them because they are NOT releasing in the 'next' year.

Its still not 'anti-consumer' to let those people know what their Studio's are currently working on and what Games those Consumer can 'expect' to play in the coming 'years' as opposed to only focusing on what those Consumers can expect in just the next 12mths. Some may want to know what's coming beyond the next 12months to know whether its worth investing in a $500 console....