The Game Awards 2020 swiftly approaches, marking an end to another year and a celebration of all the great games we’ve been able to play over the last 12 months.
Last year, Microsoft surprised everyone – first by unveiling the Xbox Series X, and then by showing off the sublime looking ‘real-time’ trailer for Hellblade 2, from Ninja Theory.
While we weren’t sure they were going to be there this year, it now seems all but certain. A recent Xbox Wire blog post finished with a pretty definitive statement.
Megan Spurr, Community Manager, Xbox Game Pass
So, we sat around our crowded virtual staff room and talked this one out – what can we expect to see from Team Green? Here’s our favourite suggestions from the XboxEra team.
The Initiative
We think it’s finally time to see just what Microsofts ‘built-from-the-ground-up’ first party team have been up to. If we’re right, we shouldn’t expect a full ‘gameplay’ trailer, but more an acknowledgement of the project, both to get fans excited, but also as a recruitment advertisement to game developers – once the secret is out in the open, it’s a lot easier to hire additional developers for the game, without the need for so much secrecy.
Think IO Interactive’s reveal of their 007 origin story project, or the Fable reveal from Playground, and you’ll be on the right track.
Ubisoft+
Xbox Game Pass just won’t stop! Following the announcement earlier this year from EA that their subscription service – EA Play – will be a part of Xbox Game Pass, we fully expect Ubisoft to follow suit, with the addition of Ubisoft+.
We believe this has been in progress for sometime, and while it might not land at the Game Awards, we do it expect it to happen – and soon.
Ooooh, Elden Ring
Will Shpeshal Ed finally be vindicated with regards to Elden Ring? According to him on one of our recent podcasts, the time is finally here for FromSoftware to reveal their latest masterpiece.
It’s fair to say that From fans are chomping at the bit to finally see something on Elden Ring, and Xbox seem to have the marketing rights to this one, so it’ll be great moment to finally see some Series X footage at long, long last.
Psychonauts 2 Launch Date Reveal
We’ve seen a lot of Psychonauts 2, the long-awaited sequel to the cult classic from legendary developers DoubleFine Productions. The game was delayed to 2021, but it might be time to surprise everyone and what better venue than The Game Awards? A snazzy new trailer and more importantly, ending with a release date would be great and start paving the way for Xbox in 2021.
Gears 5 – Hivebusters DLC
Gears 5 has received a lot of great updates for the launch of Xbox Series X|S, and a reveal and potential shadowdrop of the Hivebusters campaign DLC would be a great bonus for Xbox and Gears fans. This is a pretty safe prediction, because the developers have already said the DLC is coming in December.
“All I can say is December and the title is Hivebusters, so it might give you a little hint as to what that content might contain. That’ll be available on the new consoles as well, so it’ll be optimized for those two.”
Zoe Curnoe, Principal Lead Designer | The Coalition
BONUS ROUND: Forza Horizon 5
It sounds crazy, but bear with us here.
Forza Horizon 4 came out back in 2018, and typically, the Forza Horizon games arrived on a 2 year cadence. That time has passed, and while we know Playground Games are hard at work on the reboot of Fable, development has obviously continued on the Forza Horizon series.
With the track focused Forza Motorsport from Turn 10 seemingly still a ways off and with it unlikely releasing the same year as it’s sister brand, we think a surprise reveal of Forza Horizon 5 might steal the show. Unless…
Starfield
Okay this is a longshot, but it might just be possible. Starfield has been in development for a very long time, and all we’ve seen of the game is a teaser trailer and some possibly real leaked screenshots. The hype surrounding Starfield is very real, and now that Microsoft is about to own Zenimax, and by extension, Bethesda and the IP, it would be one way to make gaming fans sit up and take notice.
However, as the acquisition is yet to complete, we might be left star gazing with this one.
So that’s it! What do you think?
Let us know in the comments below.
