To be brutally honest, Halo and Halo Studios probably need a lifeline right now too, Lol. No income from Halo MCC because they couldn't add MTXs and hardly anyone is buying it 10 years after launch, Halo Infinite is basically on life-support, the studio is probably years away from the next game and already suffered heavy layoffs, Halo Studios probably has little income now and I want Halo to return to mainstream glory so if Switch and PlayStation helps them then awesome. MCC is 10 years old anyway and Halo will bring newcomers to the series and hopefully it brings support back to MCC after 343 ended support a couple of years ago. Jez said Hellblade 2, Age of Mythology, and potentially Gears of War: Ultimate Edition are all also slated for PlayStation 5 this year.

It would be a goated year from Xbox if they actually delivers on this lineup. I feel like there will be a few delays to space out releases. I can see Gears and Outer Worlds 2 releasing in 2026. On the other hands, I can see Forza Horizon 6 releasing this year. 

I think part of it is that Forza Horizon 5 was MASSIVE and so there's no pressure to get Forza Horizon 6 out so they can take however long they want, a bit like GTA V, I think we would have had GTA VI far earlier if it didn't explode as huge as it did and the multiplayer didn't take off so massively which also contributed to its huge sales.

This is backed by the fact that Forza Horizon 5 has received longer and more post-launch support than any other Forza Horizon. This shit is still selling well in 2024, Lol. Playground probably feels like "Why do we need to rush? Lets take our time to make the next Forza Horizon GOAT and a real huge jump" which after 5 Forza Horizon's they may feel the add to make some major changes to freshen the series up a little.

Fable will also play a role, even though they are separate teams, there has been some overlap with Forza Horizon members joining the Fable team and the overall planning of the studio, I really do not think, even with them being separate teams, they would want to launch their two biggest projects a few months apart, there is still going to be overlap in planning, scheduling, marketing, etc. And since the studio needs an income stream too, it also makes sense to put them further apart from an economic standpoint because once Horizon and Fable are spat out, their next large income will be 4-5 years later, Lol. Better to space it out a little more.

But I think the key aspects are.

+ Forza Horizon 5 is a gigantic seller, no need to rush.

+ They want to change the series up a little and make it a real noticeable jump.

I'm high confidence The Outer Worlds 2 releases in 2025.

I actually speculated before The Outer Worlds 2 release date was announced, that we had a rumour one time that Obsidian was aiming for 1 release per year and due to Avowed being delayed for scheduling reasons, there may have already been something for 2025 planned and that thing planned would have been The Outer Worlds 2 and it looks like maybe I was right, Lol.

The Outer Worlds 2 was actually in pre-production before The Outer Worlds 1 even released IIRC.

This just feels like Obsidian showing off

Gears I don't want to believe, it's too good to be true, even Fable is too good to be true. This line-up being so good that even 1-2 major delays would still make it a really strong year is an awesome feeling, I really hope GTA 6 fucks off to Early 2026, Lmao. I'm excited for it but I feel it would be better for all publishers if GTA 6 was early 26.

What's funny is that Nate leaked a bunch of shit but not what the mystery title was? Lol.

Definitely feels like 2025 might be a bit too stacked with 10 games, so I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of the 10 gets pushed into 2026. As it stands right now, if the above list of Ryuu's are the 10 games for 2025, 2026 would likely have:

-Clockwork Revolution
-State of Decay 3
-Perfect Dark
-CoD Infinity Ward

Additionally 2026 could possibly have these:
-Everwild (if it's development hell is finally about over)
-Contraband (if it's development hell is finally about over)
-Project Mara
-Marvel's Blade (2026 is 5 years since Arkane Lyon's Deathloop, though we don't know how soon after Deathloop the Marvel deal was signed)
-Project Kestrel from Zenimax Online (which began development in 2018 and had the 2nd satellite studio opened to work on it by 2020)

2026 probably wouldn't have TES 6, Project Maverick (People Can Fly), or Halo (unless they really speed that Halo 1 remake along to release it as a next-gen launch title Holiday 2026)

Everwild development been smooth for over a year now according to insiders, I think a British journalist close to Rare said so, I forgot his name, Andy Robinson? Someone said Everwild has been going smooth for a while now and they have a lot of faith in Gregg Mayles, I'm pretty sure we'll see it again soon and the development is full steam ahead.

But XGSP has a lot of unannounced stuff and a few already leaked things, I think 2026 will be fine but yeah there could be some a couple delays into 2026 from 2025 with how stacked it is but I think a lot of this depends on where GTA 6 lands. If GTA 6 delays into early 26 then they may rather stick to stacking 2025 even if some stuff needs a few months extra polishing.

Jez said State of Decay 3 was planned for 2025 but moved to 2026 so I imagine that's first half of 2026.

I wonder if the ??? is XGS and Square Enix ends up being a 5th announcement or if the ??? is Square Enix.

Square Enix being there wouldn't be a surprise at all, especially with Nate being confident FF16 is being announced for Xbox soon and seeming certain that FF7 Remake will be releasing on Xbox this year, if those two are coming, which again, Nate seems certain on, then they could dedicate a whole segment to Square Enix announcing both FF16 and FF7 Remake for Xbox and maybe even Rebirth but the question is whether that would be the 4th slot or whether there's a secret 5th slot still. I would rather the 4th slot be something new though.

DICE Awards - Xbox Nominations.

Now that in 2025, Xbox is back to its days of being a WRPG powerhouse, which one are you looking forward to the most?