Microsoft is making a sequel that could take a decade to develop

gamesradar.com:

Xbox has a sequel in development that could take 10 years to make.

Last week, the "Gamer's Lawsuit" against Microsoft was amended with new complaints, along with information provided by Sony. What flew under the radar at the time is that a Microsoft executive stated in the lawsuit that Xbox has a sequel in development that could take a decade to develop.

As noted by Axios reporter Stephen Totilo earlier today on April 20, the "Gamer's Lawsuit" has access to internal Microsoft documents. Via these documents, which have been partially redacted, we can see that one Microsoft executive stated the company is working on "a forthcoming title from the [REDACTED] franchise, which may take a decade to develop."

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/OJETHAy8MMApril 20, 2023

This is a gargantuan development cycle, even in the modern gaming industry for a AAA game at the highest budget level. This would put the game on a longer dev cycle than, say, the long-delayed Dead Island 2, which has been floating around in development hell for roughly nine years, and unlike Dead Island 2, this would be a very deliberate plan.

The dev cycle could always be anticipating delays for the unknown sequel, but that's a charitable reading of the timetable. We haven't got a clue what franchise this sequel is in, but it's interesting to note that it's mentioned alongside Halo Infinite's prolonged development cycle, indicating that it it's very likely a tentpole franchise for Microsoft.

Then again, it'd