Pre covid I would laugh at anyone saying those games wouldn’t have come out before 2024.
While it’s hard to gauge the impact covid had, Ms was one of the first companies to react by moving devkits into xcloud and I’m sure they started this first with their own devs. So I don’t see their games being hugely delayed.
No way Fable is 3 years out.
Yes they where. By mid 2018 playground had around 50 people on their rpg.
You don’t send out a job listing for an rpg developer and then stick them on a racing game.
In 2018 when Microsoft bought obsidian they where already teasing that their next project was looking promising. Meaning it had to have been in development for a while already.
Not only had pre production already began on these games by 2018, so had full development.
I have a theory about the “connected worlds” IP with the cyclone emoji: someone is making a series of games for Xbox based on the Oz books. There are 14 Oz novels, so lots of rich source material there.
I am not an expert on the novels, but I think many of them do not feature Dorothy/Toto - so they are not sequels or prequels to the Wizard of Oz strictly speaking. This would fit my definition of a “connected world.”
With next gen SSDs etc, I could get behind the idea of each player getting their own “version” of the gameworld. Sort of procedurally generated, but as a single, finished product. A world unique to you and your playthrough. We all get the same storyline/quests, but with different elements to them.
Some players get an ice world, others a fire-world. But that is their world, for that playthrough. You can jump/get summoned into other worlds by other players, maybe because you have abilities or resources from your world that could help in their world.