Thanks!  You too!

I'll try to step it up.  But the next 4 months will be a tight schedule. 

First purchase of the year.  Added to backlog pile.

Horizon 6 should release this year. If you look at the Horizon series development history, Horizon 1, 2, 3, and 4 each got 2 years of development time (Playground even managed to release Horizon 1 just 2 years after their studio opened in 2010). Horizon 5 was the first in the series to receive 3 years of dev time, likely partially due to covid hitting 5 months into it's 2nd year of development and partially due to AAA games taking longer to make than in the past. November 2024 would make 3 years since Horizon 5 released, which 3 years should be enough since Covid wasn't really too much of an issue after Horizon 5 released. It just wouldn't make sense for the first 4 games in the series to get 2 years of development time, the 5th to get 3 years, and then for the 6th to shoot all the way up to 4 years, double the development time of the first 4 games in the series.

It would be in Xbox's best interest to keep the release cycle as short as possible, now that we have multiple sources saying that Xbox is planning to start next-gen early in 2026, if Horizon 6 releases in 2025 and moves the dev cycle to 4 years, the next-gen Xbox wouldn't see it's first Forza Horizon release until 2029, 3+ years after the generation begins. Sticking with 3 years per Horizon game instead would see Horizon 7 releasing on the next gen Xbox in it's 2nd Holiday season in 2027 most likely, 2028 at the longest if they decide to move to 4 years then and make it next-gen only instead of Series S/X and next-gen Xbox cross gen.  

However, I do see one possible reason for a delay pushing it to 2025, it is the first current gen only Forza Horizon game and will therefore likely have a big graphical leap, and they may want a longer dev cycle in order to push out both a larger than Horizon 5 map made with higher quality textures and such and more car models than Horizon 5 (which would take time since Turn 10 only has 500 some odd current gen cars done and Horizon 6 released with over 700 cars).

2024 lineup for Xbox will probably be:

Likely

• Avowed
• Hellblade 2
• Flight Simulator 2024
• Ara: History Untold
• Towerborne
• CoD Black Ops Gulf War

Possible

• Forza Horizon 6
• Contraband (began development in 2018 or 2019, announced June 2021, so it feels like it should release in 2024 with 5 or more years of development)
• Oblivion remaster (the original leaker claiming to be a former developer at the studio in charge of the remaster, Virtuos, said that it may make 2024, though he also said there were internal discussions about making the game more of a remake than a remaster which would delay the game into 2025. The Bethesda release schedule that leaked out also suggested Oblivion remaster would be a 2024 release, as they had it on the schedule for the year after Starfield, Redfall, and Hibiki/HiFi Rush)
• Indiana Jones (Todd Howard himself suggested the game would see a gameplay reveal in 2024, and it was on the Bethesda release schedule for the year after Starfield, Redfall, and Hibiki/HiFi Rush)

If we get all 6 of the likely releases list and at least 2 of the 4 from the possible list, I think 2024 will be a pretty good year for Xbox. 

I sampled it back in July 2022 and didn't play it.  I only had about 30-40 minutes in it back then.  This was my goto for this New Year weekend and I think it has drawn me in enough that I'll remained focused on it for 2-4 months to bring to completion.

I laughed at the first fast travel spot I unlocked, I had a family member watching as I was climbing up a leg trying to avoid the crotch area.  Also shoving Cyclop's obsidian eye into the backside of an unsuspecting farm animal got me to chuckling.  

I'm predicting a 350+ hours for my play through.  I do have all DLCs I'm going to go through as well.

I really want studios that made iconic games to continue making new iconic games, rather than remakes/remaster. I still want the remasters/remakes, but that should all be outsourced to porting studios. If there aren't enough porting studios to do that, make one for your group of studios. The ends justify the means, right? If MS can make profit (after subtracting costs from starting up their own port studios) from having a remake/remaster release, then it's a no brainer.

I think porting or remastering old games is a good learning experience for new staff. Also these Remix games Nintendo had on the WiiU.

One of the 3 best AC games imo.