Report: Microsoft Could Be Partnering With A Big Third Party Title At E3

Sometimes, the Electronic Entertainment Expo can deliver some big surprises – like unexpected third-party partnerships with first-party publishers. Remember a few years back when Valve came out of left field and teamed up with Sony for a big Portal 2 promotion on PlayStation 3 and PC? Yeah, something like that.

Well, reports indicate that Microsoft could be doing something big with a third-party publisher, and an announcement is likely to be made during its pre-E3 presentation, which is taking place on Sunday, June 11th – one month from now.

Twitter user shinobi602, who usually reports on a number of rumors with posts – and has a pretty good track record with them becoming official, recently reported that Microsoft has acquired the particular marketing rights for the unannounced third party title, and will be working in partnership with said company to promote the title primarily for their system.

This isn't the first time Microsoft has pulled off such a coup, as a couple of years ago, it attained the exclusive console rights to Rise of the Tomb Raider for a full year on Xbox One, before it came out for PlayStation 4 a year later. The move paid off in shock value, though the game didn't quite sell as well as expected.

Now the real question is – what is this AAA title? It obviously isn't either Destiny 2 or Call of Duty: WWII, as Sony has third-party tie-ins with both of those franchises for 30-day exclusivity on DLC and other features. And it may not be Red Dead Redemption 2 either, as Sony has reportedly already made a play for that franchise, too.

That leaves a few blind guesses, but some are saying it could be one of Ubisoft's franchises, namely Assassin's Creed: Origins, which marks the return of the franchise after a two-year hiatus (well, the remastered Assassin's Creed game last year doesn't really count – the last new game in the series was 2015's Syndicate).

We'll find out next month, but Microsoft is taking a big gamble on whatever this third party franchise is. Hopefully, it'll pay off.