Xbox aims to release at least 5 major games by June 2023

As the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase takes place this Sunday, Xbox has held a private press conference. At the beginning of the week, the firm was indeed able to present its objectives and ambitions for the coming months. With a promise that will appeal to gamers: to market at least five Xbox Game Studios games by the end of the current fiscal year.

5 or more games by June 2023

It’s no secret that Microsoft wants to strongly develop the Xbox Game Pass. The current 25 million subscribers are only a step that the American firm intends to quickly exceed. And to achieve this, it has a clear strategy: to offer exclusive, quality and regular content.

To do this, Microsoft has invested heavily in recent years, particularly in talent acquisition. 23 studios already make up a strike force which should be enriched in 2023 by entities of the Activision-Blizzard group whose takeover is in progress. Results ? The publisher has all the cards in hand to roll out its plans and offer players great and numerous video game experiences. And this should take shape in the coming months.

During the press conference organized by Xbox, the company’s executives did indeed share a vague schedule of upcoming releases. According to Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft could meet or exceed the number of games it has published in 2021. A year marked in particular by Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite, Psychonauts 2, Flight Simulator and Age of Empires IV. Five games marketed in the space of six months and whose quality was praised by the press and the public.

In the last fiscal year, we launched 5 new games on console, PC and cloud. We are on track to meet or exceed this number in the next fiscal year.

Matt Booty – Head of Xbox Game Studios

What games to expect for Xbox?

While there’s no doubt that the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase will shed some light on upcoming games, we can already identify a few titles. And among these, Starfield seems obvious.

Bethesda announced the postponement of its future RPG last April. His next great adventure must now be released in 2023 and more precisely in the first half of the year. It is therefore accepted that Matt Booty refers in particular to Starfield during his speech.

Other Bethesda games that slipped in 2023: red fall. Arkane Austin’s new license was originally supposed to be available in the summer of 2022 but will finally see the light of day next year. The studio wants to refine its next shooter as much as possible and therefore benefits from 6 to 8 additional months of development.

For the rest, several contenders stand out. death loop and Ghostwire Tokyo, released in September 2022 and March 2023 on PS5 respectively, will be coming to Xbox in the coming months but are unlikely to appear in Matt Booty’s accounts. Both titles have already been released and have already been included in the last fiscal year. It is therefore necessary to look into new projects and in particular that of Turn 10.

After a Forza Horizon 5 attractive, Forza Motorsport could finally make a comeback this year. Six years after the last iteration, when the saga had a bi-annual release rhythm, rumors are multiplying while tests are already underway with a selection of players. It’s a safe bet that the racing simulation will be one of the attractions of Sunday’s showcase.

Still in the rumor mill, two RPGs from Obsidian have been popular lately. The first is Avowedalready unveiled in 2020, and the second would be the project Penance directed by Josh Sawyer. A project still secret today but which we know has been in development for at least 3 years! Without forgetting that Microsoft also relies on Xbox Games Studios Publishing to enrich its catalog. The project Belfry (Stoic Studios – The Banner Saga) regularly returns as hallway noise, just like Contraband.

My answers shouldn’t be long anyhow. Sunday’s Showcase will be the opportunity to know, finally, the calendar of the games to come. And it’s a safe bet that we have a great show to live together!