Microsoft to announce two new IPs?

2008 was a great year for the Xbox 360, with great sales in America and Europe, and Japan finally warming up to the console with increasing sales throughout the year. Third party publishers showed amazing software sales, with games such as Call of Duty: World at War and Guitar Hero: World Tour, and big-name exclusives sold millions and gained great critical success with the likes of Fable 2 and the monster sequel Gears of War 2 leading the way. The question that is on everyone’s lips, though, is what has Microsoft got up its sleeve for 2009? With Sony having an amazing looking range of exclusives, what has MS got to counter them? We all know about Halo Wars and Halo ODST but neither will pack the punch of a full and proper Halo game e.g. Halo 4. With Alan Wake’s release still shrouded in as much mystery as the game itself, MS hasn’t really got anything to say to potential consumers to entice them. As Microsoft has always said, the company only shows games when they’re nearly ready, and it looks like they may be announcing two new games very soon.

According to a Microsoft spokesperson, MS has at least two new properties that have been in development for quite some time. “We’ve always focused our attention in the year of operation concerned, I would safely say that our community will see at least two new games being announced exclusive to the Xbox 360 console by the end of Q1 2009.”

What these games are at the moment is anyone’s guess but according some diggin done by v4vg.com one game could be an online fighter based on a very popular franchise, and the other is rumoured to be an action/adventure game from one of their internal teams. Now when it comes to the fighting game, only one name pops into my mind straight away. I’m almost afraid to say it to avoid getting everyone’s hopes up, but Microsoft has been looking for a Killer game, and going by my Instinct we could be getting a very popular reveal very soon. Did you see what I did there? We have had this certain game in Rumor Killers a few times, each with more and more convincing evidence that it could be real. Screw it I’m just going to come out and say it…Killer Instinct 3! Please let this be true; if this were the only MS release all year I would be happy. As for the action/adventure, we don’t know what it is or which team is working on it, but it seems Microsoft wants its own Uncharted-like game. Who blames them? Uncharted is still one of the best games on the PS3.

There is no denying that MS needs to announce some exclusive games to keep gamers and potential buyers happy and there is no denying that MS will announce them soon. What they are is still anyone’s guess but as I mentioned above, all our hopes are on a Killer reveal. Expect these announcements at GDC 2009, just as Gears 2 was announced last year.

TGR Rating: Highly Likely