Great OT, and a great idea for a community corner piece IMO 
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You evil genius! Maybe turn it into a Dating Sim?
2 Likes
Good list and great ideas. Viva Pinata has a lot of potential as a party style game like Fall Guys etc or a mobile game.
Jago: " Hisako-chan?! B-b-b baka?!"
See I do contribute positively to the classroom …
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Cobra Triangle though
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Not an Xbox-owned IP currently but I would love to see a new take on the Dead Rising franchise. As I mentioned for some of the games above, I think the gameplay structure of a Dead Rising gane is a perfect fit for Game Pass:
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While not necessarily a GAAS, DR incentivizes repeat playthroughs and re-engagement with the game over a longer period of time as the player accrues experience and knowledge. This allow them to replay the game with ever increasing stats in areas such as movement speed or item slots. Despite a difference in genre, Hitman is a decent comparison here (and I think iOi and Hitman would be excellent fits for the Game Pass model.)
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Building off of the above, DR typically features a zany, item filled open world that incentivized player agency, exploration, and “memeable” moments - perfect fits for the social media and Twitch-oriented gaming landscape we find ourselves in for the foreseeable future. One could easily imagine a map that changes to align with some real world seasonal event (i.e. Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day, July 4th, etc.) Item packs could be purchased to spur additional revenue generation, while providing players with a myriad of seasonally appropriate weapons, clothes, and other usable items.
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While State of Decay is currently Xbox’s premier zombie title, there really isn’t another that exists in that “genre”, so to speak. Furthermore, they offer totally different gameplay and narrative experiences so their coexistence wouldn’t necessarily be a huge problem. But having both could enable both franchises to share technology and best practices across each title, enabling more intelligent zombie artificial intelligence or survivor pathfinding. This technology would be to the advantage of each title, not to mention the flexibility it gives each developer to know they don’t have to regularly churn out their specific zombie game to fill some genre niche each (or every other) holiday.
In my head, I think Dead Rising should go one of two ways: Either they do a RE2-style remake, in which the original is used as an inspiration on a full scale reworking of the original title’s story and mechanics, or they do a new game ambiguously connected to the previous titles (so as not to be hamstrung by the narrative constraints of the previous 4 games.) I want to imagine the latter below:
Dead Rising University (DRU, for promotional purposes 
)
Setting
DRU would be a Dead Rising game set in Dolphin Ridge, Florida - a sea-side college and resort town home to Dolphin Ridge University and the Phenotrans Medical Laboratory. While I think this setting inhibits some of the environmental changes you could implement to reflect seasonal events and the like, I think it would be an incredible playground of fun weapons and locations. You could have everything, ranging from chainsaws attached to a water ski, or a beer gun retrofitted to shoot explosive cans.
The setting also allows for some really fun and unique spaces to explore and survive. Imagine a psychopath battle against a mentally gone football star who has kidnapped some frightened students under the Saturday night lights of the football field. Or rescuing a spooked out rapper from the Spring Break festival’s stage. Or battling against a crazy professor in the Science Hall, as he uses a concoction of chemical mixes to deal damage.
I think the college town / resort town hybrid really makes for a truly unique locale for a zombie game.
Player Character
The game would enable you to select to play as either a custom character, with the body and voice type contingent upon your selection (aside: I imagine this could negatively impact the volume of clothing options, so I suppose it would be an assessment of tradeoffs)
To manage the impacts of a custom character, however, you could have a gender neutral name for the PC regardless of their selections - something like Avery or Casey.
Most of the previous DR games have seemed to feature protagonists that are almost fishes out of water, so your character could be a visiting student coming for the big Spring Break Week celebration or something along those lines.
Miscellaneous Ideas
I mentioned above about the inclusion of some truly wacky weapon combinations, so I’d like to see that feature return from the latter Dead Rising games - I think it fits fine within the larger sandbox, while offering a ton of fun opportunities for the player.
Outside of that, I would also love to see the timer mechanic return for the game - I know that is a bit of an unpopular choice for some, especially those who gravitated more towards the latter games. But I think the timer mechanic helps to bring that additional level of difficulty and stress - it makes the random choices we decide upon in game matter greatly. Do you run for the Fraternity houses to rescue the party animals stuck in their backyard, or do you conserve health and resources for the next case happening at 2:00AM? Furthermore, it only incentivizes additional playthroughs. Perhaps you didn’t save all the survivors you had wanted to get in your first run, so with your additional PP and skills you dive back in. I think those are compelling gameplay impulses, and I think the later games really lost their magic without that pressure put on the player.
I think a smart phone could replace both the camera and the walkies-talkie from the previous games, with texts or phone calls alerting you as to the location of psychopaths, survivors, or other miscellaneous activities. This could be used to facilitate a photo mode, or some sort of in-game video recording feature (a fictional Tik-Tok equivalent? I don’t know)
Obviously, there would need to be some core, new mechanic that pushes the experience forward but I am unsure as to what that would be. My thinking goes to something that could take advantage of your PC being a college student - perhaps a limited faction system that provides skill bonuses or unique move-sets/weapons depending upon your allegiance to a particular student group/club? So maybe you could align with the Robotics Club in one play-through to unlock some unique weapons schematics and the ability to repair certain pieces of technology in the open world (Busted security system? Use your repair skills to fix it and unlock a hidden path.) Or join the Football Team to learn some new zombie tackles and unlock the locker room as a remote fast travel point.
Perhaps it could be a more significant environmental destruction system, where you can set fire to green spaces, level buildings, or flood neighborhoods. Not really sure but I am sure there are plenty of options.
That is about all I have to daydream on that one for right now - might think about some of the other franchises for another day lmao
2 Likes
As an added note, I can’t imagine acquiring the IP would be prohibitively expensive for Xbox to do at this point - DR4 seemingly flamed out, and the franchise was left out of the Capcom leaks detailing their fairly far out financial plans. If they were able to acquire the IP, a Dead Rising Trilogy Remaster - with Dead Rising, Dead Rising 2 & Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, and Dead Rising 3 - featuring a resolution, frame rate, and loading time boost would be an excellent add for Game Pass.
Edit:
Wanted to add in my idea for a Forza reboot of sorts!
Another non-Xbox IP that I’d be ecstatic that Xbox would purchase and reboot, would be Burnout. In its current lineup of racers, Xbox has a traditional sim (Forza Motorsport), a simcade (Forza Horizon), but no arcade focused game. I believe that Burnout would be a perfect fit to fill that genre gap, and to serve as the third pillar in the Forza franchise.
Forza: Burnout
Forza: Burnout would be a high octane arcade racing franchise generally set in urban/street environments with a focus on crashes and takedowns. Contrary to FH, I think setting Forza: Burnout at a lower price point (let’s say, $39.99) would help to establish a clear expectations on the title - it would likely not feature as exhaustive of a lineup of supercars due to licensing concerns over damage/crashes, and I envision it as a track-focused racer as opposed to an open world driven title.
You’d have your progression-focused singleplayer mode, the return of the classic Crash mode, and a comprehensive multiplayer suite. Regular updates could provide additional tracks, cars, and crash scenarios - with the Forza Tech engine powering the racing experience under the hood.
The introduction of a third pillar to the Forza franchise on Xbox and PC would help alleviate any potential time pressure on T10 and Playground games from their typical biannual release cadence, aligning with their newfound direction (seemingly, anyway) of building out each of their releases into living platforms that operate for 2-3 years. The first iteration of Forza: Burnout likely wouldn’t be as successful off the bat as those other two franchises, but an additional three years to build out the framework of another arcade title using the lessons learned from the first release would be optimal. Perhaps you’d see an alternation in the arcade pillar between Forza: Burnout (a high-octane, takedown focused racer) and a newly rebooted Forza: Street (a street racing game with a heavy emphasis on tuning culture and police evasion, akin to classic NFS)
We don’t get many of these types of games anymore, and I’d love to see them brought back into the fold - esepcially since they would fill a complementary role within Game Pass to the other Forza racing titles.
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Going back and playing diddy kong racing again…
Id super love someone to bring back pro am racing ip with it just beong a diddykong racing spiritual successor.
I mean i know dkc was proam64.
So I would love them to re get kev bayliss to do the art for the game.