Xbox has announced a Developer Direct for January 23 and, though the focus of the presentation will be on three previously announced games — Doom: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — it’s a mysterious fourth unannounced game that’s getting all the attention. In an official post on Xbox Wire, editor-in-chief Joe Skrebels wrote that, in addition to visiting the developers of those games during the show, the Direct would also “visit a surprise location to see another studio’s brand new game.”
On an image shared to Xbox’s Twitter, the fourth developer is represented by a TV displaying test pattern color bars with a question mark in the center of the screen.
What Is Xbox Cooking?
TheGamer’s Executive Editor George Foster speculated that the new game could be the rumored The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion remake, and that’s a definite possibility — especially given that any other new Bethesda RPGs are likely three to five years away. I would like to speculate in another direction. Last October, Xbox announced that 343 Industries had rebranded as Halo Studios, switched from its proprietary Slipspace Engine to Unreal Engine 5, and currently had multiple projects in development. But that announcement didn’t come with any information about what those projects are, or how long they’ve been in development.
More than three years have passed since the launch of Halo Infinite, and while some of the team was busy supporting its multiplayer component, others have had the better part of that time to work on something new.
That something new included getting the game’s characters, environments, and assets into Unreal, which would have kept much of the team busy. Realistically though, much of the studio likely wouldn’t have been heavily involved with those processes. So what game are they working on?
Halo Doesn’t Have To Be Close To Done To Show Up
That doesn’t mean that the game is done, or anywhere near that milestone, but as the trailer for The Witcher 4 at The Game Awards reminded us, a game doesn’t have to be close to done to be announced. You can show a CGI reveal trailer at any point in development, with The Elder Scrolls 6 and Cyberpunk 2077 both receiving them years before either game entered serious development.
Halo is very important to Xbox. Though Microsoft has acquired its way into owning iconic franchises like The Elder Scrolls and Doom, Halo is the closest the company has to a Mario.
The fact that Xbox released a documentary video to announce that the studio was being renamed and switching engines — information that could just as easily have been revealed in a press release — should highlight the franchise’s pivotal importance. Xbox succeeding as a hardware manufacturer means getting Halo right, and for a long time, Xbox has failed in that task.
Regardless of how far along the game actually is, Xbox seems to want to get the narrative out there that the ship has been righted and the franchise is on the right course. And, when speculation is rampant that Xbox doesn’t actually care about exclusives anymore, a strong showing from Halo could change that narrative. But, then again, it could just be Oblivion. Maybe a new Crash or Spyro game. Hell, maybe a Candy Crush action-RPG or Dishonored 3. I’ll be real with you, Xbox owns a lot of IP.
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