There are those who legit thought MS would release SF this year alongside Halo. Stupid decision from a marketing view and I was proven right. As always time will tell
So Avowed which has been rumored to be the reason Microsoft bought them and has been in the works since like 2018 was only a proof of concept last year? Im not getting into this.
If you think the strategy for xbox is to hold announcements and game releases on a service that needs a constant flow of games because of another similar one then idk what to say. Xbox needs to showcase stuff constantly from its internal studios irrelevant of genre.
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There will be a constant flow, of all genres. Thatās MS aim, but they will not release games of the same genre in the same period or year.
Iāve heard they will only show CGI if a game is 2 years out and gameplay a year out and I canāt see Avowed being a year out and I still think itās too early to show another CGI. Iād say Avowed would be shown next year E3, then gameplay reveal E3 2023 with release that year.
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This is gaming marketing at its most basic. Eventually MS will be in every genre.
I think maybe an X event in late 2022.
They absolutely will do so, if the games are ready
Bolstering Gamepass is more important than arbitraly holding games back because of not wanting to release it close to a similar game. We need to stop with this old way of thinking. They wonāt relese two big games in the same week, or anything, but the same month? Sure, if they both are fully ready to go. And the same few month period? Absolutely
And if they are of a similar genre. I donāt see them holding one back either for the same reasons above. Of course, it would be a rare occasion that two big AAA RPGās, two big Third Person action games, or two big First Person Shooters are both ready that close together and I think you know this too. So making such a prediction as you are is a pretty safe one to be right about, even if the real reason has nothing to do with what youāre saying
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My guess here
2022 weāll see Avowed gameplay 2023 weāll see Perfect Dark gameplay
Itās way too early to show gameplay for some of these projects. We should be happy now that Microsoft actually has studios now that Bethesda is under their belt.
2018 was Microsoft rebooting all their first party efforts. Itās going to take years for them to recoup some of the misdoings from the 2015+ era when they cancelled projects like Scalebound, Phantom Dust, Fable Legends, Project Knoxville etc. and shut those first party studios down.
At one point back in 2016 Microsoft only had
- Turn 10
- 343 Industries
- The Coalition
- Rare
- Mojang (on PlayStation and Switch)
Microsoft didnāt even start acquiring studios until 2018.
the 2018 acquisitions
- Playground Games is about to come out with their second title under XGS.
- We have no idea whatās going on at Ninja Theory but they already had one title released under XGS (Bleeding Edge)
- Obsidian was finishing obligations on The Outer Worlds and just finished the DLC for Pillars of Eternity ii Deadfire. has released one title under XGS
- Compulsion Games was about to finish wrapping up We Happy Few when Microsoft acquired them. They finished the final DLC for We Happy Few in 2019.
- InXile Entertainment is working on another DLC after Wasteland 3ās The Battle of Steeltown. This studio is not going to have a title under XGS for a longā¦long time.
- Undead Labs has and will probably continue to be a very slow moving studio.
2019 acquisitions
- Double Fine is putting the final touched on Psychonauts 2. Would not be surprised to see small projects coming out of this studio ** yearly or bi-yearly** along with the development of their larger projects. They released RAD last year.
Iām leaving Worldās Edge out because they donāt really develop games. They are just management over the Age of Empires franchise.
They also had some 2nd party releases under Xbox Global Publishing
- Microsoft Flight Simulator
- Tell Me Why
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps
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Iām not sure where this idea comes from that Starfield and Halo canāt release in a similar timeframe. Iām not saying they will as all signs currently point to 2022, but I donāt see why releasing them a month or two apart would really impact much of anything. Theyāre completely different games, and lots of gamers get the newest, hottest game and then complain two weeks later that thereās no games to play. Plus GamePass, so yeah, I personally donāt get the ācannibalizeā narrative that goes around.
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@Hindle You think starfield is late 2022 right? And you also said avowed is 2023. How is that āmuch much laterā.
There is no way Microsoft is going to arbitrarily hold games back a year because they released an RPG in Q1.
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Especially with gamepass
Iām not exprcting Avowed until Sept-Oct 2023
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Yeah I have to agree with this, the only time I see them holding it back is if they can use more polish. They can place the two games anytime in the year.
Starfield aināt coming in Q1.
No but you can drop an RPG on Q1-Q2 and then another one in the other two quarters. There is nothing that stops A Fable, Starfield or Avowed launching in the same year.
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We do not know how far along in dev those games are. I think they are still years away and will not be shown until ready. Starfield is coming first, so thatās what they focus on
The fact they will have other AAA games in other genres launching in that quarter is what stops it. Again you will see as we go forward
A great business pitch for any respective RPG developer joining Microsoftā¦
We can only release one RPG a year, so weāll put your IP into cold storage for years on end. 
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