Xbox One had very few high-profile releases in 2017, but the roadmap for 2018 looks pretty great if these discreet rumors are to be believed. One known leaker cited Fable and a Forza Horizon 4 set in Japan as possible future additions to the lineup.
The user, Klobrille of ResetEra, phrased each of these predictions as hypothetical questions. However, given the pedigree of the source, some fans believe there may be more to it. Here’s a recap of what’s implied.
- Players may revisit Albion in a new Fable game being developed by a U.K. studio.
- A third-person Perfect Dark is in development with help from Gears Of War’s Coalition.
- The Crackdown 3 campaign offers four-player co-op.
- A future Forza Horizon game is set in Japan.
- Age Of Empires 4 is super early in development.
- Xbox’s biggest franchise [Halo?] will have something with really high player counts in the future.
- MechWarrior is far from dead.
- Very light allusions to Conker, Banjo and Crimson Skies, but those may be actual musings rather than a part of the rumor itself.
While a skeptic wouldn’t be wrong to perceive these seemingly pie-in-the-sky internet ramblings as speculative trash, the details actually come from a fairly reputable source. For those who haven’t heard of Klobrille before, a reddit user of the same name correctly leaked the vast majority of Microsoft’s E3 2016 reveals two weeks in advance. This includes Forza Horizon 3’s Australian setting, the existence of State Of Decay 2 and more. Not all of the listed claims were exactly correct, but there was a ring of truth to most of them.
With that passable level of credibility established, there’s a good amount here that just sounds right. Bringing Forza Horizon 4 to Japan after Australia is a pretty great idea. It’s a new location that’s vastly different from the previous one. Oh, and that U.K. studio making a new Fable? What better choice could there be than Rare to head up the project once major development on Sea Of Thieves has wrapped?
Given Coalition’s recent role as a support studio for the console version of PUBG, we could also see a small team working in a similar capacity on something like Perfect Dark. Between that and MechWarrior, Phil Spencer and company seem to be reintroducing Microsoft’s classic franchises as a great answer to Nintendo’s stellar 2017 exclusives lineup. Spencer has promised that Microsoft is committed to growing on a creative level, and if these rumors are true, he wasn’t joking. There’s no guarantee that any or all of these games will release in 2018, but even if some of them do it’s a pretty solid start.
All of these rumors could still be false despite sounding fairly plausible, but there’s no denying that Xbox One gamers could use some positive news in the software department. If any of this is accurate, there’s certainly a lot to appreciate. If Crackdown 3 releases later this year without four-player co-op, we’ll have a solid idea of how this report should be gauged.
Which of these rumors is most likely to be true? Which one would you most like to happen? Tell us in the comments section!
