In July 2020, just before the release of the Xbox Series X|S, Microsoft broadcast an Xbox Games Showcase full of promise with many games supposed to define the new generation. Unfortunately, almost four years later, we have no news of most of the big first party games revealed on this occasion.
After a complicated start to the year for Xbox, marked by the closure of several studios and a divide within its community after the announcement of the arrival of exclusives on other consoles, it becomes almost imperative that the firm speaks again of these titles. In this article, we therefore list these games announced a long time ago by Xbox which should, in our opinion, and to reassure the community, provide their news next June.
Advertisement
State of Decay 3
State of Decay 3 was the second game presented during the Xbox conference in July 2020. It was revealed with a CGI trailer just after the controversial Halo Infinite gameplay demo.
Almost four years later, we have almost no news about the game, as if it had completely disappeared from the plans of the Undead Labs studio. In 2022, we learned that The Coalition, the fathers of the latest Gears of War, had come to lend a hand to the teams to help them make the most of the Unreal Engine 5 engine.
While Xbox never again mentioned the title during an event, Nora Shramek, Senior Lead Lighting Artists on the game from February 2022 to November 2023, indicated on her LinkedIn profile that the title was planned for 2027, i.e. seven years after its announcement.
If State of Decay 2 has recovered well from its difficult release in 2018 and continues to receive content today, it seems more and more necessary that the studio and Microsoft provide news about State of Decay 3, and we really hope the game will be present at the next Xbox conference.
Advertisement
Perfect Dark
To say that Perfect Dark is highly anticipated is an understatement. Presented with great fanfare at the Game Awards 2020, the title is the first project from the new studio The Initiative, whose ambition is to offer AAAA games.
If Perfect Dark was only revealed in 2020, we have heard about the project for a long time, in particular via the prestigious profiles who have joined the ranks of the studio over the years.
But while we thought the title was in good hands, several rumors reporting major difficulties surrounding the project began to flourish on the web and we learned in 2021 that Crystal Dynamics had come to lend a hand to the teams.
Three years later and after losing many important members, the project is in very bad shape, and it seems more essential than ever that Microsoft gives reassuring news of the game which has not given any sign of life since the broadcast of its first trailer in 2020.
Everwild
Everwild is also one of the big Xbox projects announced many years ago and about which we still don't know much, except that development would also be in difficulty.
If it was revealed in 2019 at XO19 in London, we learned at the time that Everwild had been in development within the Rare studio for at least three years, and was originally a survival game in which nature played an important part.
But since the departure of its Creative Director, Simon Woodroffe, in 2020, the game has reportedly been completely rebooted to become something “very different->art45196]”, and has not given any sign of life since.
Last December, Rare wished its community happy holidays by revealing an image showing various elements of Sea of Thieves, but also of Everwild, thus giving a little hope that the project was still alive.
As is the case for Perfect Dark and State of Decay 3, it seems essential that Microsoft provides news about Everwild during its Xbox Game Showcase scheduled for next month, with concrete information on the game.
Project Mara
If it is less popular than the games previously mentioned, Project Mara is also a project announced in 2020 that we have not seen since. Developed by Ninja Theroy, the fathers of Hellblade 2, the game was described at the time as “an experimental title currently in development that explores new ways of telling stories.”
Aiming to be “a real-life depiction of mental terror,” the game is based on experimental accounts and extensive research, with the aim of recreating “the horrors of the mind in the most precise and realistic as possible”.
At the time, Ninja Theory concluded that the title would be “a showcase for what could become a new storytelling medium”, but unfortunately we haven't heard anything about the game since it filed for its trademark in 2022.
While Hellblade 2 will be available in a few days, it now seems time for the studio to say more about Project Mara, and the Xbox Game Showcase expected next month is the perfect opportunity to highlight this title which should exploit fully Xbox Series