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shikamaru317 on 18 January 2024
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G2ThaUNiT said:
shikamaru317 said:

Yeah, they definitely need to finally get these release pacing issues in check in 2025. 2024 is looking like a single game in the first half of the year, and then 6 or more probably in the 2nd half of the year. That is far from ideal. For one thing Gamepass needs content spread out more to help keep people subbed. Secondly, releasing like 7 games in 6 months can lead to the smaller games getting lost in the fray and not played as much as they deserve to be played. 

I kind of hope they do end up delaying a few of the games that were possibly going to make late 2024 such as Contraband and Oblivion Remaster and maybe even Horizon 6 into first half 2025 just so that 2025 won't have the same release pacing problems as 2024. The 2nd half of 2025 is already likely to be pretty crowded with games like Clockwork Revolution, South of Midnight, Fable, Perfect Dark, and maybe even id's next game (March 2020-late 2025 is 5 and a half years development time on their next game), so would be better to release games like Contraband, Forza Horizon 6, or Oblivion Remaster in first half 2025, rather than trying to stuff them into an already busy 2nd half 2024. 

Could end up being some of the games expected for 2025 could be pushed to 2026 and Xbox would have more than enough games for the 1 AAA game per quarter lined up from there on out. 

I'm sure no developer would mind having some extra development time lol

Yeah, it's getting to the point now where they are going to run into overcrowded release schedule issues more and more often, which is why they really need to start taking better advantage of the first half of each year. The schedule of upcoming 1st/2nd party games for Xbox is looking insane honestly:

Announced Games

  • Hellblade 2
  • Avowed
  • Ara
  • Flight Simulator 2024
  • Indiana Jones
  • Contraband
  • Towerborne
  • Everwild
  • Perfect Dark
  • Fable
  • State of Decay 3
  • Clockwork Revolution
  • South of Midnight
  • The Elder Scrolls 6
  • Project Mara
  • OD
  • The Outer Worlds 2
  • Age of Mythology Retold
  • Blade
  • Blizzard's as yet untitled Survival Game

Unannounced Games that should already be at least 2/3rds completed as of now

  • CoD Black Ops Gulf War (3 years dev time as of November last year)
  • id Software's next game (4 years dev time in March this year)
  • Double Fine smaller game #1 and #2 (2+ years dev time on each, and in the past Double Fine showed that they could release multiple smaller games per year)
  • The Coalition's next game, whether it be the smaller game they were said to be working on as a testbed title for Gears 6, Gears Collection, or Gears 6 itself (3+ years dev time currently on their next project or projects)
  • Forza Horizon 6 (2+ years dev time already, and the longest in development Horizon game had 3 years dev time)

Unannounced Games that are further out from release, less than 2/3rds done currently most likely

  • Sledgehammer's next CoD (sequel to CoD Black Ops 2 releasing in 2025 according to a recent leak)
  • Infinity Ward's next CoD (2026 release presumably unless something changes and Phil decides to do away with yearly CoD)
  • Zenimax Online Project Kestrel (3+ years dev time, they started hiring for the new IP in late 2018, officially opened a new studio for the new IP in December 2020, 3 years ago)
  • Project Suerte (Certain Affinity developed Monster Hunter-like)
  • Project Shaolin (Brass Lion developed kung-fu RPG with Wu Tang Clan branding and involvement)
  • Project Maverick (People Can Fly developed, only began development in 2023 so quite a few years before it releases) 
  • Arkane Austin's next game
  • Tango Gamework's next game (or games plural possibly, if they decided to stay multi-team instead of having the HiFi and Ghostwire teams merge for their next game)
  • Halo UE5

With so many games coming it is pretty much unavoidable for Xbox's release slate to not be packed to the gills in 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027, since nearly every game listed above will release during one of those 4 years, with the only exceptions that might release after 2027 being TES 6, Project Maverick, Arkane Austin's next game, Tango's next game, Blizzard's survival game, and Halo UE5.

Last edited by shikamaru317 - on 18 January 2024