With Xbox set to host a Games Showcase and Starfield Direct in the near future, there’s speculation about what the company might be up to, with legal filings hinting at a mystery sequel that could take 10 years to develop. When Xbox kicked off its plans to acquire Activision Blizzard, a ton of information was brought to the forefront, such as the importance of the Call of Duty franchise, and some insightful tidbits about upcoming games.
Video games have been developed for years since their inception, and this trend is only going to expand as the demands on creating AAA titles continue to increase. As video games have grown in complexity over the generations from 8-bit to 4K, a high-budget project like Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2 took eight years and required more and more resources and skilled personnel. As Xbox looks to lure more gamers with things like the Activision Blizzard deal, there’s more news that it wants to spend time developing a game, which could take up to 10 years.
According to one of the details of Xbox’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard that is slowly being picked up around the world, a Microsoft executive has said that the edited franchise “coming soon” could take up to a decade to develop.’From Xbox Other things removed from this section of the legal document include the development time of Halo Infinite, the development cost of 343 FPS, and specific Microsoft executives mentioned in the sentence. Since the Xbox franchise remains vague, it could be some announced game like Fable, Perfect Dark, or Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls 6, but it could also be a completely unannounced project.
Bethesda took four years to make Fallout 3, seven years to make Fallout 4, and six years to develop Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls 6 may be a strong contender for the 10 years in development game implied in the legal documents, but it’s not the only one possible. Each Xbox showcase highlights future content that fans of the platform can expect to see in the near future, usually Day One Game Pass and DLC reveals. With this legal message coming out about Xbox acquiring Activision Blizzard, it could mean that June’s Xbox Games Showcase will have at least one AAA world premiere for games that don’t have a 10-year development cycle. It hasn’t been shown off yet.
While it’s unclear which franchise the Xbox legal paperwork is referring to, the fact that it’s tied to a AAAA development like Halo Infinite is the only thing that helps fans narrow the guesswork. Given some fans’ concerns about Xbox’s performance on games like Redfall at launch, there may be concern that a game that relies on both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S in a decade’s time may be nearing the end of its lifespan by then.