Microsoft has now officially cancelled Scalebound, Platinum’s action RPG that had been a staple of its E3 presentations since 2014. One of very few Xbox One exclusives on the horizon, the game was scheduled to release in 2017 amidst a seemingly barren year for the console, padding out its lineup until the launch of the Xbox One Scorpio in Q4. However, Microsoft bringing an end to its development now places a bigger spotlight upon just how little the Xbox One has in store for gamers in the near future.
Microsoft has now rolled out all but a few of the heaviest hitters that it has announced over the past few years. E3 2014 was one of the company’s most successful appearances at the expo ever, with it featuring a plethora of new games debuted in an attempt to catch up with Sony’s runaway PS4 sales, but looking back at the event reveals a selection of titles that have either yet to make their way to market, or have been unceremoniously canned.
Microsoft could be holding games back for the release of the Xbox One Scorpio.
In the past few years we’ve seen the closure of Microsoft’s first-party developer Lionhead Studios, a decision which brought with it the cancellation of Fable Legends, while games such as Crackdown 3 and Sea of Thieves have yet to be given definite release dates outside of their broad 2017 launch windows. Then there’s the Phantom Dust Remake, which was put on hold after its developer Darkside was shut down, with a separate re-release appearing in its place instead. This makes the Xbox One’s lineup for the year shaky to say the least, with Halo Wars 2 being the console’s only major exclusive that has a release date locked in.
Also See: Video Game Predictions for 2017: Nintendo Switch’s Success, PlayStation VR’s Struggle
In Microsoft’s defense, the Xbox One Scorpio is set to be released during the 2017 Holiday period and, as a result, it could be keeping a few games up its sleeve to coincide with the release of the console. The PS4 Pro has suffered from a lack of games to sell its 4K capabilities, and Microsoft could be looking to avoid making this same mistake by withholding a few games to launch alongside the Scorpio. However, this still doesn’t detract from just how quiet 2017 is shaping up to be for the Xbox One in its current guise, with there being very little reason to plump down the cash for either the original Xbox One or the Xbox One S if you haven’t done so already.
The Xbox One has far fewer exclusives releasing this year than the PS4.
The console’s 2017 lineup is even more disappointing when you compare it to what Sony has in store for this year with the PS4. Persona 5, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Nier: Automata, Gravity Rush 2 and Yakuza 0 are all releasing within the next four months, while the likes of the Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy, Gran Turismo Sport, Nidhogg 2, Ni no Kuni II and Shenmue III rank among the exclusive games to round out its jam-packed year. Microsoft may well throw its full weight behind the Scorpio, but to seemingly gift Sony an entire year in the run-up to its launch will surely stand to harm the Xbox brand, and will push those who are in the market to buy a new console towards the PS4.
Hopefully Microsoft’s Xbox One Scorpio lineup will impress us more than its 2017 release calendar, but either way it’s certainly not ideal for those who currently own an Xbox One. It’s understandable that Microsoft will invest heavily in its mid-generation console, but if it’s at the expense of the Xbox One’s established player base, then expect to hear many more criticisms of it as the year rolls on.
Check out our most anticipated games of 2017:
Most Anticipated Games of 2017
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20. Crackdown 3
Crackdown 3 looks to be the one of most technically impressive Xbox One games to date, with Microsoft having celebrated its ability to process real-time destruction via the cloud as an innovation that will make it stand out from the crowd. While this feature is limited to its online multiplayer component, and the underwhelming Crackdown 2 has left us a little concerned that this new entry in the series will suffer a similar fate, we're still very interested to see how new developer Reagent Games will attempt to lift this ailing franchise from out of the doldrums. The original Crackdown was one of the sleeper hits of its release year, and we hope that the third in the trilogy will share the same unexpected level of success in 2017.
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19. Absolver
We're seeing the term "Souls-inspired" frequently pop up in reference to action RPGs with a specific focus upon complex combat and high difficulty levels, but whereas many of these fall into Lords of the Fallen territory and wind up being woefully derivative, Absolver offers a pretty interesting take that manages to incorporate everything from a deep customization system that allows you to greatly vary your fighting styles, to card-based progression that shares similarities with tabletop games. Absolver looks like a pretty unique deviation from the From Software formula, and we're looking forward to seeing more of it.
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18. Days Gone
Zombie games are a dime a dozen, so SIE Bend Studio are under a lot of pressure to make Days Gone stand out from the crowd. The developer has most recently been responsible for the Uncharted PS Vita spin-off games, though previously brought us the Syphon Filter series, with this being the studio's next opportunity to thrust itself back into the spotlight. Its showcase at E3 2016, which closed out Sony's presentation in a major vote of confidence from its publisher, revealed the game's ability to withstand an alarmingly high number of the undead onscreen at once along with inventive ways of killing them, leading to comparisons with the Xbox exclusive series Dead Rising. We're not exactly frothing at the mouth in anticipation of playing another post-apocalyptic zombie game, but it definitely shows promise.
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17. For Honor
For Honor is Chivalry: Medieval Warfare but with a more competitive edge, tasking teams of up to four players with assuming the roles of knights, samurai or vikings and then beating the daylights out of one another online. We rarely see PvP hack-and-slash games, and early impressions have been positive, so we're optimistic that For Honor will be a fun online game with a unique flavor.
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16. South Park: The Fractured But Whole
South Park: The Stick of Truth was one of the very best video game adaptations, with it successfully walking the tightrope between offering satisfying fan service and an enjoyable game in its own right. Although it was a pretty simplistic turn-based RPG, it was carried along by the animated series' creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker's clear enthusiasm for the project, which looks to be continued with its sequel The Fractured But Whole. South Park's coming off the back of arguably its most popular run of episodes yet, and we can't wait to see what material they've got prepared for this sequel.
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15. Tekken 7
It's been nine years since the latest entry in the mainline Tekken series, so Tekken 7's release in 2017 will be a pretty big deal for the fighting game community. Having already been released in Japanese arcades in 2015, Tekken 7 was met with a positive reception and its console release can't come soon enough. Featuring improved graphics, a refined fighting system and expanded roster of combatants and locations, hopefully Tekken 7 will prove to be more successful than this year's Street Fighter V.
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14. Detroit: Become Human
Quantic Dream peaked with Heavy Rain, a flawed but enjoyable murder mystery that, despite its QTE-heavy gameplay, still placed the direction of its plot in players' hands. The studio has been keen to emphasize that this will also be the case in Detroit: Become Human, with it also allowing players to decide the fate of its selection of playable characters, and its story adapting to reflect these decisions. Director David Cage's cinematic aspirations were at their most untenable in Quantic Dream's last game, the dreadful Beyond: Two Souls, so hopefully Detroit will see the team rein in the self-importance and get back to making oddball sci-fi melodrama.
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13. Sea of Thieves
Rare's new team of developers have routinely struggled to live up to the studio's illustrious history, having mostly been put on Kinect duty by Microsoft over the past few years and struggling to create anything of note as a result. Sea of Thieves looks to turn the tide with a multiplayer swashbuckling game with both PvE and PvP elements, allowing players to form their own merry band of pirates while taking down other teams they come across in explosive nautical battles, forcing friends to walk the plank, hunting down buried treasure and all that fun stuff. Early impressions indicate that it's basically the video game equivalent of when we'd play pirates with our friends back when we were kids, and it's impossible to not get excited by that.
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12. Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite
Whereas Marvel vs. Capcom 3 released in a time period when the Marvel Cinematic Universe was still finding its feet, Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite has the benefit of existing in a world in which even the bit-part heroes of the comics threaten to become household names. Remember when people scratched their heads over Rocket Raccoon's inclusion in the game? Yeah, that won't be happening any more. Capcom's had a perilous year in 2016 thanks to the half-baked launch of Street Fighter V, so we hope that the developer really ups its games for this sequel in 2017.
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11. Resident Evil 7
Resident Evil has struggled with its identity ever since Leon Kennedy went hunting for the president's daughter, with Capcom routinely struggling with whether or not they wanted to make a survival-horror game or an all-out action game. After the panning RE6 received, the developer has gone back to the drawing board for Resident Evil 7, transitioning to a first-person perspective and taking a chapter out of modern horror games such as Amnesia and Outlast. Its post-E3 demo was suitably scary, as was the virtual reality experience Kitchen for the PlayStation VR. Hopefully it will distract us from the fact that Kojima's no longer making a Silent Hill game.
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10. Horizon: Zero Dawn
One of the most exciting PS4 exclusives on the, er, horizon, Killzone creator Guerrilla Games' Horizon: Zero Dawn has been one of the key talking points of Sony's past two E3 presentations. The game places players in the boots of Aloy, a fiery-haired heroine who must survive in a world dominated by destructive, mechanical beasts.
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9. Prey
Arkane Studios were responsible for one of the games of the year with Dishonored 2, and in 2017 they'll be making a swift return with their Prey reboot. Initially planned to be a direct sequel to the 2006 game of the same name, after falling into development hell it's now taken a new form as a completely different game that doesn't appear to share much in common with its predecessor. Described as more of a psychological game than a straight-up horror, we know very little about it right now other than it's set in an alternate universe in which John F. Kennedy wasn't assassinated, and humanity's space exploits had been more successful as a result.
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8. Ghost Recon Wildlands
Ghost Recon Wildlands will boast one of Ubisoft's largest open worlds yet, and when you consider just how huge your typical Ubisoft game world is, this won't be a small feat. Wildlands echoes Metal Gear Solid V by allowing players to complete missions in whichever way they see fit, only they're able to do so alongside three friends co-cooperatively. Ubisoft has released quite a few games in the past few years that have failed to live up to their high level of expectation, but while Ghost Recon isn't the publisher's most popular franchise, it is one of their most consistent. Hopefully this continues with Wildlands.
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7. Cuphead
Cuphead's one of the most original looking games we've seen in quite some time, with it using the style of classic 1930s cartoons as a backdrop for a series of fast-paced run and gun boss fights, soundtracked by toe-tapping big band music. Think of it as Steamboat Willie mixed with Contra and you're halfway there, with this coincidentally being one of the very best descriptions for a game imaginable. Hopefully it's as fun as its art style.
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6. Kingdom Hearts 3
Kingdom Hearts 3 has been a long time coming, with the series having only produced bizarrely titled spin-offs and remastered such as *deep breath* Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue. We still don't know an awful lot about Kingdom Hearts 3 despite it having been announced quite a while back now, but despite this it's very difficult to not get unreasonably excited when considering that we'll soon (hopefully) get our hands on a sequel to one of the very best PS2-era games.
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5. Mass Effect: Andromeda
Mass Effect 3 was one of the most unsatisfying game finales ever, but it's far enough removed from the unparalleled controversy it generated for BioWare to take another crack at the whip with a brand new story set within the same universe. Mass Effect: Andromeda takes place in an open-world environment this time around, with players taking control of either Scott or Sara Ryder in a galaxy-spanning adventure that takes place 600 years after the events of the first game.
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4. Yooka-Laylee
We've been begging for a new Banjo-Kazooie game for years now, but with Rare no longer employing the folks behind the legendary platforming series they banded together in order to form their own studio, introducing Yooka-Laylee in the process. Fortunately Yooka-Laylee looks to provide exactly what we've been asking for, offering a vibrant world in which to explore and collect a multitude of shiny things while retaining the irreverent humor of its creators' previous work.
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3. Persona 5
Persona 5's Western release date has been pushed back into 2017, with the anticipation for Atlus' RPG reaching nigh-on excruciating levels. As Persona 4 Golden eventually became the only reason to turn on the PS Vita, we're hoping that its long-awaited sequel will live up to the series' pedigree, with it set to once again couple high school drama and relationships with adventures in an alternate dimension for its band of teen protagonists.
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2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
It now feels like we've spent a significant portion of our lives waiting for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to release, but in 2017 we'll finally get our hands on it. Originally planned as a Wii U exclusive before also being developed for the upcoming Switch, Breath of the Wild is an open-world Zelda game with unprecedented scale for the series, teaming the old with the new in order to give it a modern update. This stands a good chance of being TLoZ's Super Mario Galaxy moment.
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1. Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2's debut teaser may have been a little underwhelming, but it hasn't sullied our excitement for what could well be Rockstar's best work yet. Despite Grand Theft Auto V's bank-rolling success, the first RDR (excluding Red Dead Revolver, because everyone else does) was the Scottish developer's greatest game to date, and we can't wait for them to return to the Old West setting with the power of current-gen consoles behind them. The game will even take a page out of GTAV's book by introducing RDR Online, meaning we can envisage ourselves being kept occupied by this sequel well into 2018.
