Highlights
- Xbox is working on multiple games based on licensed IPs, which were not included in the September leak, indicating a larger game roadmap.
- The LinkedIn profile of Microsoft Senior Business Development Manager Kat Carson suggests the existence of two licensed IP titles and one unannounced Xbox Game Pass offering.
- The lack of mentions of ZeniMax or Bethesda on Carson’s profile suggests that Microsoft’s middle management might not be involved in Bethesda projects, making it unlikely that the licensed IP game mentioned in the leak is from them.
Xbox is currently working on multiple games based on licensed IPs that are yet to be announced, some recently surfaced evidence suggests. This newly emerged info indicates that the giant Xbox leak from September did not offer a complete picture of Microsoft’s upcoming game roadmap, as massive as it was.
While Microsoft has been growing increasingly more transparent about its attempts at ramping up its content library ever since launching Xbox Game Pass in 2017, the company is still no stranger to keeping things close to chest on an occasion. That’s partially because development can be wildly unpredictable, as underlined by the sizable list of confirmed big Xbox games that are still pending a reveal.
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Yet it would appear that the company is currently also pursuing a number of unannounced projects, including two “licensed IP titles.” That’s according to the LinkedIn profile of Microsoft Senior Business Development Manager Kat Carson, which was recently spotted by Twitter user Timur222. The publicly available description of Carson’s current role at the Washington-based tech giant mentions her working on that pair of mysterious Xbox titles, as well as one unannounced Xbox Game Pass offering that’s part of the ID@Xbox indie publishing program.
The profile also references five unannounced first-party properties from Xbox Game Studios, although it’s plausible that some of those were already unveiled since Carson started at Microsoft in 2020. In contrast, nothing that Xbox announced since then fits the description of licensed IP titles, leading to the conclusion that both of those projects are still under wraps.
The September 2023 Xbox leak did mention Bethesda working on one such game, which a subsequent insider report pegged as being based on a Disney IP. However, Bethesda parent ZeniMax Media has been operating completely independently of Xbox Game Studios ever since Microsoft acquired it in March 2021. It is hence somewhat unlikely that Microsoft’s middle management would be personally involved in Bethesda projects. The lack of any mentions of ZeniMax or Bethesda on Carson’s LinkedIn profile fits that assumption.
Looking at the current list of major Xbox Game Studios subsidiaries that could feasibly be tasked with a game based on a licensed IP, all the most obvious candidates already have their hands full with previously announced titles, except for Double Fine. And though a licensed IP game wouldn’t exactly be on-brand for the California studio, it also wouldn’t be completely unprecedented, given how Double Fine previously handled Grim Fandango Remastered in its pre-Xbox Game Studios era. One alternative explanation for these two unannounced projects is that they aren’t actually games based on non-Xbox properties that Microsoft is developing in-house, but the company’s own IPs licensed to third parties.
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