Xbox’s Current 2022 Lineup Proves There’s Still Work To Be Done
Despite all of the exciting headlines, I don't think Phil Spencer and the team have arrived quite yet
The team at Xbox has been making all the right moves lately. Between their masterful social media presence, their strategic and wide range of acquisitions, and the incredible work they’ve done to build GamePass into a must-have service, it seems like they are poised for one of the most impressive comebacks of all time.
I’m talking Brady and the Patriots coming back after being down 28-3 in the Super Bowl. I’m talking Lebron and the Cavaliers coming back after being down 3-1 in the NBA Finals. I’m talking about Stark and Rodgers coming back after being down half the universe and an Infinity Gauntlet to Thanos. I think soon we’ll be talking about Phil Spencer and his team coming back from the near self-destruction of the Xbox brand.
But not yet.
Xbox’s Current 2022 Lineup
I was recently watching an episode of IGN’s Next-Gen Console Watch where they were comparing each company's (PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo) game lineups for 2022.
As of now, Xbox is publishing two tentpole titles this year:
Redfall, which doesn't have a date (just "summer") and only has a concept trailer so far
Starfield, which comes in the last two months of the year
This is coming off a year where they published some of the biggest games in the industry:
Forza 5
Halo Infinite
Psychonauts 2 (Not exclusive, but Xbox published)
And to some extent, Deathloop (Not released on Xbox, but it was published)
This is in no way breaking news; we’ve known this was the situation since E3 (RIP) last June. The thing is, coming off a strong end of the year for Xbox, it definitely seems like they're going to lose a lot of that momentum throughout 2022.
Xbox Has No Games
For the entire Xbox One generation, Xbox has been fighting for its life to combat the “Xbox has no games” narrative. They’ve struggled to create exciting new IPs and failed to nurture the ones that they already have. Fortunately for them, they have an ace in the hole that no one else in the industry has: a trillion dollars.
Thanks to Microsoft’s practically limitless bank account, Xbox has finally defeated its demons. With the acquisition of studios like Double Fine, Ninja Theory, Playground Games, the entirety of Bethesda, and soon enough, Activision/Blizzard, it’s hard to argue that “Xbox has no games”.
But when will we start to see these exclusive games at a consistent cadence? Well, studios take time to build up and games take time to develop, so even though we’d all love to start to see the fruits of these acquisitions right now, we may have to wait a little longer.
Something to Prove
Xbox is still in this weird place where no one is quite sure about the level of quality we're going to get from their first-party titles.
Unlike PlayStation, which has proven time and time again that its studios will meet a certain level of polish, Xbox's track record is all over the place. In fact, except for Hellblade 2, I don't believe we've seen a lick of gameplay from any upcoming Xbox projects.
If the Forza 5 and Halo Infinite releases are any indication of the future, Xbox is trending in the right direction, but they'll need Redfall and Starfield to continue to build that trust with fans.
It’s Still Early
The good thing is that there’s plenty of time for the list of 2022 releases to get filled out. Xbox can still add some unexpected or previously announced games in the summer and fall windows to keep things lively.
The bad thing is that the pandemic is still alive and well, and developers’ lives aren’t getting much easier. It’s unclear how far along in the development of some of the projects Xbox has previously announced are, but with the way the industry has been looking, I think we’re more likely to see games get dropped than added.
Big Brother GamePass
So let’s talk about the most likely scenario: What we see is what we get, and the one big Xbox exclusive everybody is waiting for won’t arrive for another 10 months.
How does Xbox provide value to the early Xbox Series owners who are looking for something to play this year?
Well, the answer is simple enough. GamePass. It is Xbox’s golden goose, and coupled with the seismic wallet of Microsoft, they can easily buy exciting 3rd party titles to keep players happy.
January has already started by being arguably the best month in Game Pass history, so if they can keep up that tempo, the year actually starts to look pretty good.
They can add any of the following games to Game Pass over the next couple of months to keep things exciting:
Elden Ring
Dying Light 2
Gotham Knights
Suicide Squad
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
Guardians of the Galaxy
Life is Strange: True Colors
Resident Evil Village
Deathloop
(After making this list, I’m honestly shocked at how little we know about what big 3rd party games we can actually expect to come out this year, so clearly, this isn’t just a Microsoft problem.)
I think if Xbox can get a lot of the games on this list and make a strong case that every year the industry's best titles have to make their way through GamePass, that might go even further than putting out an extra exclusive this year.
Looking Beyond 2022
It seems like for the past five years we've been thinking, "Next year will be Xbox's year", but I truly believe 2023 will be the beginning of a new era at Xbox.
Matt Booty was quoted as saying that he wants to see a big release every quarter. Obviously, they're not there yet, but maybe next year they will be.
User Crusader346 compiled a list of known Xbox projects and release dates, and it is truly insane how many games are scheduled to drop in 2023. This post is worthy of its own write-up, so I won't dive too deep into it here, but as of right now, insiders are speculating that Xbox will publish 8 new first-party titles in 2023.
I'm sure many projects will be shifted and delayed, but if we even get half of that, we're looking at one of the most impressive years from Xbox in the last decade.
If Xbox drops some solid announcements to build hype for 2023, nails their two big releases of the year, and keeps GamePass consistent, they'll be alright this year.
Either way, I’m excited to see what the team over at Xbox is cooking up because I doubt they’ll want the insane momentum they’ve built thus far to die off with a quiet year for GamePass subscribers.
