Microsoft had an excellent showing at Summer Game Fest with its Xbox Games Showcase. There, we saw new looks at games like Fable, Forza Motorsport, and Avowed, while also getting a 45-minute deep dive into Starfield. That said, there were a few Xbox games that have been previously announced and were missing in action. Obviously, you can’t have everything at a single showcase, but it was a bit surprising that we didn’t hear anything about either Perfect Dark or State of Decay 3. Fortunately, Xbox boss Matt Booty later confirmed that we’ll be hearing more about them in the relatively near future.
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Booty and Phil Spencer joined the Giant Bomb couch at SGF to talk shop. The discussion was wide-ranging, but eventually, the question of where Perfect Dark and State of Decay 3 were during the event was brought up. Booty first mentioned the year 2025 and then said that he’d “seen builds” of both games recently. He’d go on to say, “As I look ahead to the next 18 months in terms of what we’re going to be able to show and deliver and do that kind of gameplay [reveal], I’m cautiously confident. Because the teams are hard at work, and they get that that’s kind of the bar now, which is, ‘let’s show it, let’s show up with gameplay and do a deeper dive when we show up.’”
In short, the games are still in active development but aren’t quite ready for primetime. Both were announced back in 2020 with CG trailers, but haven’t been seen since. It’s hard to predict exactly when they’ll come out, but 2025 sounds like a safe bet given Booty’s comments. That would also give Microsoft’s other releases plenty of room to breathe.
Remember, Booty also recently said that they are looking to release “four big games a year.” Considering that Xbox just showed off several games that will seemingly be 2024 games, it’s going to need some big hitters to make 2025 another standout year. Both Perfect Dark and State of Decay 3 should be able to do that, meaning Xbox would only need two more “big” games to come out to hit its goals.
