We know that Microsoft has big plans for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S over the next few years, with titles including Fable, Perfect Dark and Avowed all currently without a release date. And that’s before you get into the very-likely-to-be exclusive games up Bethesda’s sleeve, including Starfield, The Elder Scrolls 6 and an intriguing-sounding Indiana Jones game.
But one insider believes that this is just the tip of the iceberg of what Microsoft is set to be offering in the next few years, with a “conservative, low estimate” that only around a third of first-party Microsoft games in development have been formally announced.
- PS5 vs Xbox Series X: Which is better?
- The best Xbox Series X games in 2021
- Plus: iPhone 14 concept imagines an Apple phone with none of the iPhone 13's drawbacks
Windows Central’s Jez Corden made the claim on The Xbox Two podcast, which you can listen to in full here. The relevant section comes when Corden is asked about Microsoft’s upcoming roadmap of games and how much has been revealed, as transcribed by Pure Xbox.
"I would say, out of the [games] I know, and there's games that I don't know about... as a complete ballpark estimate, and this is a conservative, low estimate, I'd say about a third of the games have been announced from Xbox Game Studios right now.”
This, Corden explains, is a low estimate because he doesn’t know “anything that Bethesda’s working on generally,” and is unaware of the rumored Hideo Kojima title either.
But while that number may be conservative, it might also be optimistic, too, thanks to the nature of video game development. As Corden adds, “a lot of these games might get cancelled.” There is, after all, a reason that companies don’t announce everything they’re working on at any given time, as that’s a recipe for disappointment.
But overall, he’s upbeat: “but I don't think they will, because the information that I got is… it sounds to me like these are happening, so who knows. I'm just so excited for the future right now. So excited.”
There are currently 23 outfits that collectively make up Microsoft Game Studios, of which eight are subsidiaries of Bethesda. If each one were working on a new game — not guaranteed for various reasons including DLC, co productions and other projects — then you could get as many as five or six first-party games a year, assuming a three-four year production cycle for each title.
Some will require more time, others less, of course, but there is certainly potential for the Xbox Series X and S to be swimming in exclusives over the next few years. And with Microsoft currently insisting that all first-party titles will be available to play as part of a Game Pass subscription, it may well be worth hunting down those elusive Xbox Series X restocks as they become available.
- More: The upcoming Xbox Series X games that we know about
