New report claims an upcoming Microsoft game could “take a decade to develop”

There are some video games that have taken a long, long time to develop and release. One such example is Dead Island 2, which was first announced in 2014, but is finally being launched today. Of course, that game had a troubled history, going through more than one developer before today’s release. Some games actually are planned to take several years to make before they are ready to go.

Microsoft is reportedly working on such a game, according to a Twitter post from Axios’s Stephen Totilo. He posted a snippet of internal Microsoft documents that were part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by a group of gamers who are opposed to Microsoft’s planned purchase of Activision Blizzard. The Microsoft papers were heavily redacted before they were sent to the lawyers for these gamers, but they did have some interesting tidbits.

Most intriguing redactions from last week's amended complaint in the gamer lawsuit agains the Microsoft-Activision deal:

– A Microsoft franchise sequel on a possible 10-year dev cycle
– A presumably detailed explanation of something bad from May 2022 (Redfall/Starfield delay?) pic.twitter.com/OJETHAy8MM

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) April 20, 2023

The Microsoft papers try to make the case that the company needs high-end game content to keep the Xbox division going. Microsoft also indicates the content could take a while to develop. It states, “For instance, according to one Microsoft executive, [REDACTED] [REDACTED], a forthcoming game from the [REDACTED] franchise, may take a decade to develop.”

Of course, the speculation can now begin on what that title is and what franchise it could belong to. The franchise could be Halo, Gears of War, Fable, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, or something else.

Another interesting snippet Totilo posts from that Microsoft article makes reference to something that happened in May 2022, and it doesn’t sound like it was a good thing. The entire incident is redacted, but again we could speculate that it had to do with a major development delay for an unnamed game or games.

Perhaps we will learn about this mystery game in June as part of Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase online event, which will be held on June 11.

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