Microsoft's Xbox has enjoyed the power advantage over PlayStation for quite some time now, but in the world of gaming, that alone simply isn't enough.
Microsoft has been playing catch up to Sony's increasingly potent stable of high-quality AAA games, with titles like God of War, Spider-man, The Last of Us, and many others achieving widespread critical acclaim. Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios have been on the back foot, to some degree, with only a handful of titles like Ori and Forza Horizon achieving unanimous praise.
We've written previously about how this needs to change for Xbox's long-term future, and noted that Xbox Game Studios is well-positioned to improve the situation. Microsoft is investing more in first-party content than ever before, and we're beginning to see the fruits of those efforts in the teaser trailer for Hellblade II, which looks phenomenal.
What about other games though? We have no official word on what The Initiative, Playground Games' RPG team, or The Coalition may be working on next, although we have some pretty good guesses.
Noteworthy insider and all-round lovely chap @Shinobi602 recently offered some small teases about what Xbox Game Studios fans can expect in the future from the teams at Microsoft.
For what it's worth, there are some long-standing rumors floating around that Playground Games' is working on a big reboot of Microsoft's dormant Fable RPG franchise, while some others suggest The Initiative may be working on the Perfect Dark IP of Rare fame. Phil Spencer has also recently commented that he'd like to explore MechAssault again, despite the potential issues with franchise rights.
Either way, we could be waiting a while for any of these titles to materialize in full, perhaps even longer given the way most game developers are currently working from home, impacting productivity pipelines across the entire industry.
E3 2020 may be canceled, but Microsoft is planning a digital event to showcase some of its upcoming content, so hopefully, we'll see some of these rumors coalesce into reality sooner, rather than later.
Related: Everything (we know) Xbox Game Studios is working on
Jez Corden is a Senior Editor for Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by caffeine. Follow on Twitter @JezCorden and listen to his Xbox Two podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!
