Save and Forget (Microsoft/Various "Internal" Rumors)
-I have a couple of friends that work in the industry and people are ravenous for news and you all seem like a fun bunch, so I thought I'd share a few things they've shared. Just save this and revisit it in August.
-Throwaway because there's work stuff on my main Reddit account.
-I work on the very edge of the industry, so it's mainly stuff I've heard from friends that are a little more in the know.
-I work for a company that is tied to Microsoft at the hip, so most of my information is for Xbox stuff.
-Halo is on track for release this year, as of now, but Microsoft/343 are being super tight-lipped about it. They're weirdly confident that it's going to come together, despite some issues that came up during development.
-One thing that has "gotten out" is they apparently have spent significant time reworking Forge mode and the whispers internally are that you'll be able to create combat "scenarios" for others to play with goals.
-They apparently used Mario Maker as a template and have a wide-range of "clear conditions" like time trials, defeating all enemies, and things like score attack (where you complete as many conditions as you can in a set amount of time).
-Playground is making Fable and The Initiative is making Perfect Dark. It's a done deal. Apparently, the Perfect Dark stuff was kind of in place when The Initiative was created.
-Microsoft sees Joanna Dark as a "face of the brand" character and they want her to exist alongside Master Chief.
-They're not locked into Perfect Dark forever. There's already talk about breaking off a few members of the already small team to explore other projects.
-They're taking advantage of the contract/temporary developer environment that exists in Southern California that other studios use.
-I have not heard anything about Fable. Not a single peep.
-Microsoft apparently has two studios that are either done deals or are agreed in principle. The internal rumor is Poland and an Asian studio.
-One of my friends said he heard The Farm 51 is the Polish studio, but he heard it from someone who wasn't really in a position to know, so shrug.
-No word on the Asia studio, if that's true, but that's not unusual because a newly formed team in Asia is handling that process.
-The internal talk about an Asian studio has also carried a caveat that it's been close a few times, but never really hit the finish line, but apparently is done or at least as close as it has ever been.
-I wish I knew more on that, because it's obviously a juicy tidbit, but that's partially why there's a lot of buzz around it.
-The Asia acquition is not Sega. Everyone internally is pretty confident about that, because in the first half of last year I heard about a Sega/Xbox partnership starting with PSO2.
-I honestly didn't believe it at the time, but as you know, PSO2 showed up on Xbox's E3 stage last year.
-The rumor was there was three other elements to the "partnership" but no one's really sure what they are.
-There's also an internal rumor that one of the three elements is an exclusive game from a "legendary" franchise, but again, that rumor came from someone who wasn't really in a position to know.
-Another weird thing going around internally: Compulsion has two projects in development, one that was originally kicked around during the days of a short lived internal studio called Microsoft Games Studios Victoria.
-They apparently nabbed one of the people from that studio (Microsoft Game Studios Victoria) to come over to Compulsion, as he was kind of the primary visionary on that initial pitch.
-Another weird one: Xbox Game Studios may be working on a sports game. They've been working with two basketball players named Ja (lol. Not Ja Rule. I asked) and Zion. I don't know much about basketball, but their names are so distinct, I actually remembered them. I have Googled them and they're real people.
-There was a little more attached to this one. Microsoft is kind of trying to enter the same space as Rocket League with an approachable sports game.
-Matt Booty from XGS has a history of working on sports stuff at Midway and it's kind of been identified by him as an "area of opporunity."
-One of my sources said this stuff pretty confidently, but another one said they thought they were just doing commercials for GamePass.
-That being said, if such a commercial exists, it hasn't aired yet. That being said, they're not playing basketball because of the pandemic. shrugs
-Again, not much to say about Rare, because they're not based in the US, but I have heard they have FIVE projects in development.
-One is Battletoads (which I've heard is getting a serious re-work after getting a negative reaction), one is Sea of Thieves, one is Everwild, so that leaves two projects unaccounted for.
-Gears story DLC is coming.
-I'm not sure what's going on with the Coalition since Rod left. Based on the traditional hiring process, it doesn't seem like they've even attempted to find a replacement yet. shrugs
-Obsidian's XGS transition is apparently going amazingly. Obsidian's unannounced RPG is shaping up great and they're confident it's going to bring the house down when announced.
-It originally wasn't going to be announced this year, but that plan has since changed.
-Things are going so well on that game that Microsoft is fast-tracking The Outer Worlds 2 and they're adding a ton of people to that team, although that plan has been delayed a bit because of the pandemic.
-I've heard the long-term goal is two AAA teams for TOW and this new franchise (I've been told it's not Pillars of Eternity).
-There's also one unannounced smaller project and Grounded.
-There's some question if those smaller projects will continue if Obsidian goes "full fat" with two AAA RPG teams.
-Obviously, Grounded will still come out and get finished, but it's unclear if they'll do more small projects or those teams will get folded into the AAA teams.
-I've also heard good things about inXile. I've heard nothing about their new major project other than the pitch was really unique.
-They have two smaller projects in development, in addition to Wasteland 3, but I've heard one will probably get shelved.
-The other is a battle royale that was originally designed for VR, but is now non-VR as well to exist on the Xbox family of devices.
-Ninja Theory is also pretty minimal, but like the Rare project count, Ninja Theory's active project count is FOUR.
-One is Bleeding Edge, one is Hellblade 2, one is Project Mara, so they have one unannounced game, but don't get too excited. It could be a contract job from their pre-acquisition days.
-I have heard things aren't going well at Turn 10, but when I pressed the person that was telling me about it, they gave me a weird look and wouldn't elaborate.
-In terms of non-Microsoft stuff, I've heard that Ready at Dawn has a Playstation exclusive locked and loaded.
-I've also heard that there may be more restructuring going on at Blizzard soon.
-One more weird one: I heard that Retro had FOUR games (that were in various state of development) cancelled between the release of Tropical Freeze and them beginning work on Metroid Prime 4.
-I will try to clarify anything as best as I can if people are confused.
So, like, are we getting the
PS5 console reveal this week? June 4 th. Announcement could be this week or next week
www.neogaf.com
![[McR]-[PanThrO]](/data/avatars/m/95/95166.jpg?1589830328){kind=avatar}
