When it come’s to the PC, Microsoft can survive on Age of Empires and Flight Simulator, but what about the Xbox 360? Just to give you guys a run down, here’s a list of Microsoft’s upcoming game’s and their release dates courtesy of IGN: (Excluding XBLA)
Gears of War 2: November 2008
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise: September 2008
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts: November 2008
Fable 2: November 2008
Too Human: August 19 2008
Ninja Gaiden 2: June 3rd 2008
Halo Wars:TBA 2008
Alan Wake: TBA 2009
Go! Go! Break Steady: TBA 2008
PC
Alan Wake: TBA 2009
Sensible World of Soccer: TBA 2008
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The PC line up is disappointing for 2008 and it really doesn’t seem like they have anything announced for 2009.
E3 is coming up so you may wonder, what can Microsoft announce for either PC or Xbox 360? Here’s a list of their franchise’s that could see a possible future.
Kung Fu Chaos
Perfect Dark
Kameo
Brute Force
Mech Warrior
Mech Assault
Microsoft Simulator series
Shadowrun (Was leant to Smith and Tinker)
Tao Feng
Age of Empires
Age of Mythology
Forza Motorsport
Project Gotham Racing
On the PC side of things, I believe Microsoft may be planning a “2.0″ release of GFW/GFWL, several hints have been passed in the past few month’s regarding a GUI, similar to the Xbox 360 blades for the PC. Along with this update to their PC brand, they will probably announce a revival of some of their PC titles, along with some new IP’s. I believe this new release may have some anti piracy related features to encourage PC development again. But that is just me speculating so don’t take any of it to heart.
You might hate GFW, but you should be glad Microsoft is actually doing something to bring developers and gamers alike back to the PC. Sure their is Steam, but Steam work’s much differently, it’s just a distribution center with DRM. Steam doesn’t have a set layout that developers can use to create games, it’s practically just a store with a huge collection of endless stock.
The Xbox side really confounds me, I don’t know what to make of it. Microsoft needs to get a strong line up going in 2009 if they hope to take on Sony. I hope Brute Force 2 will be announced for 2009, Microsoft really has not tactical shooter under their belt, and they need to fill the gap Halo has made.
E3 is week’s away at this point, it will be interesting to see if Microsoft announce’s sequel’s to the tile’s they have in their hats.
What are your thoughts/speculations?
