In Entertainment Weekly's piece about the 25th anniversary of Xbox and the studio's push for Hollywood adaptations (including a Sea of Thieves movie), we also got a few more updates about some of the most interesting Xbox projects, including Kojima's OD, Bethesda's TES VI, and Arkane's Marvel's Blade.
Let's start with The Elder Scrolls VI, which is definitely the biggest of these projects in terms of fanbase. Todd Howard, head of Bethesda Game Studios, acknowledged the pressure of having to "get it right", as well as the long wait since 2011's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
TES VI is our biggest project right now. That's what the majority of the studio is on. We know we need to get it right, and it's been a long time.
His most interesting comment was about Marvel's Blade, though. Arkane's games, you'll remember, are also published by Bethesda, and as such, Howard would be privy to its progress. Indeed, he claimed to have seen the game on May 21 (when these interviews were conducted), and praised the studio for doing "a really great job".
I'm not at liberty to say when we'll see more, but I saw some stuff just yesterday, and the folks at Arkane Studios, the developers, are doing a really, really great job.
Arkane, as you'll recall, has been rumored to be in big trouble due to Xbox's impending layoffs and studio closures. There are even whispers that everyone at ZeniMax not working on Elder Scrolls or Fallout will be removed. Howard's comment does provide a ray of hope, but it is no guarantee that the studio won't still close. After all, Ninja Theory even showed its new game, Senua, with a 2027 release date, and it's still likely to be shut down.
Luckily, there are no such whispers regarding Hideo Kojima's experimental OD game. In the EW interview, the visionary designer behind Metal Gear and Death Stranding revealed that the game's goal is to push beyond the boundaries of horror, but he also conceived a system that will allow those too scared to keep playing.
I wanted to do something new. I wanted to do something different. I had this OD concept since I was working on Death Stranding, and I was working on it just by myself. I can't reveal much detail, but it's something that no one has ever seen before. A new game system. I pitched to many people, to the big companies, and also to the up-and-coming companies. All of them said the same thing. They said that I'm crazy, and that they really don't understand the concept, that they will not be able to do it.
I wanted to go beyond the limit of the 'scariness' that other games had reached. It's a single-player game, and I wanted to make it as scary as possible. But for those that might stop playing when it gets too scary, I have thought of a system that will allow them to keep going. I can't say much more, because it'll give too much of a hint on the system, and I could get in trouble for saying too much!
None of these games has a release date yet. Marvel's Blade is still up in the air, while OD and The Elder Scrolls VI probably still need one to two years before they're ready.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
