Xbox says it’s ‘turned the corner’ when it comes to regular game releases

Xbox has “turned the corner” in its efforts to deliver at least four first-party games every year

That’s according to Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty, who for the last couple of years has been speaking publicly about the company’s ambition to deliver a new game each quarter.

With the likes of Redfall and Starfield delayed to 2023, last year was a disappointingly quite year for first-party Xbox titles, but the future is looking brighter, Booty told members of the press following Sunday’s Xbox Games Showcase.

“We had some gaps last year, but I think we’ve turned the corner going into 2023,” he said (via GamesIndustry.biz). “I am feeling very good about launching Hi-Fi Rush, we have Minecraft Legends out there that’s doing well. We’ve had Age of Empires continuing to come to console. As we saw today, we are very excited for this fall with Forza Motorsport and Starfield.

“But when we get into 2024, it really kicks into gear. We have got Towerborne, we have Hellblade 2, Avowed, Flight Simulator 2024, and some things we haven’t talked about so far.”

Over the past five years Xbox has aggressively grown its portfolio of first-party studios. As well as setting up The Initiative (Perfect Dark) and a new Age of Empires studio, Xbox has acquired the likes of Ninja Theory (Hellblade), Playground Games (Forza Horizon), Obsidian (Fallout: New Vegas), InXile (Wasteland 3), Double Fine (Psychonauts), Undead Labs (State of Decay), Compulsion Games (We Happy Few) and Bethesda (Starfield).

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The Xbox Games Showcase featured reveals for InXile’s Clockwork Revolution and Compulsion’s South of Midnight, plus a fresh look at Obsidian’s Avowed.

“For inXile, for Compulsion, for Obsidian… these are the first games that they’ve showed that are sort-of beginning, middle and end under the Xbox banner,” Booty said. “These are games that they started post-acquisition as part of us, and it’s just great to see those.

“This is all part of our goal to get to at least four games a year, which we’ve talked about a whole lot.”