Xbox |OT|

[trunkswd]

shikamaru317 said:

trunkswd said:

I feel like Xbox will showcase one or two games from the first half of 2023 lineup - maybe Starfield and/or Forza trailers - as well as one or two games from the second half of 2023.

Yeah, that would be my guess as well, probably 4 games from Xbox on The Game Awards. Redfall, Starfield, Project Belfry, and Hellblade 2 are probably the 4 most likely to be there:

• Redfall pretty much has to be there since it's probably a Q1 2023 release, they'd be foolish to announce a release date for it outside of a big show honestly, that game badly needs a big marketing push since it's previous 2 E3 trailers didn't receive much attention (low view count on youtube), and Xbox's marketing for it has been pretty abysmal thus far. If they don't want a total flop on their hands, they need to show gameplay at The Game Awards and blow people away with it as the start of a big marketing push ahead of a likely March release. 
• Starfield is their biggest release of 2023, and if it is still a 1st half 2023 release, The Game Awards is the last big show before it's release. Things like Game Developers Conference in March and PAX East in April are nowhere near big enough to host a big showcase and release date announce for a game as huge as Starfield, so unless Xbox is doing their own XO23 in Q1, they need to show Starfield and a release date at The Game Awards I think.
• Project Belfry was originally rumored to be a late 2022 release, then it was rumored to be a 1st half 2023 release, and now it is rumored to be a 2nd half 2023 release. The game would have entered development Summer 2018 shortly after Banner Saga 3 released, meaning that it is currently sitting on 3 and a half years of development (longer than any previous Stoic Studio game, which each received 2 years and 3 months of development or less). Surely the game is ready to reveal now, and will release in 2023 with roughly double the dev time of any of their previous games.
• Hellblade 2 has now been shown twice at The Game Awards, and while some will say that is a good reason not to make it a threepeat, I would argue that it makes logical sense to show it one last time at The Game Awards 2022 ahead of it's rumored Q4 2023 release. However, there is a chance that Xbox will decide against a threepeat of Hellblade 2 at The Game Awards, in which case I think a Contraband gameplay reveal will take the 4th slot.

Redfall does make sense to show off. It looks like a good game for the Left 4 Dead/Back 4 Blood fans and as you pointed out marketing for it has been pretty awful. The lack of synergy between the different parts of Xbox is something that needs a lot of work.