Four of the big games featured in the recent Microsoft Games Showcase are now available for pre-load. The strange thing is, two of those games don’t look like they will be releasing anytime soon.
As shared by Idle Sloth on Twitter, the four games are Starfield, Avowed, Clockwork Revolution, and Forza Motorsport.
We know that Forza Motorsport will be releasing on October 10, 2023, and that Starfield will be releasing on September 6, 2023. So why are Avowed and Clockwork Revolution also available to preload?
To refresh your memory, Avowed is the latest project from Obsidian Entertainment. Obsidian had been best known in the past for producing several licensed RPGs, including Neverwinter Nights 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Fallout New Vegas, and most recently, South Park: The Stick of Truth.
In even more recent years, however, Obsidian’s money issues compelled them to produce an original IP with the help of crowdfunding. That venture was a success, and the product that came out of it was Pillars of Eternity, a hardcore Western style turn based RPG, conceived as a spiritual successor to the Baldur’s Gate games.
Now under Microsoft, Avowed is Obsidian’s effort to shift genres and make an action RPG from their Pillars of Eternity franchise. While we had earlier heard that Obsidian was looking to make an open world at the level of Skyrim, they had apparently shifted back to their specialty, which is building a narrative with characters like only they can build.
As for Clockwork Revolution, while InXile Entertainment had not shared much information about the game, it is publicly known that it is the first game they worked on from the time they were acquired by Microsoft, in 2018.
Five years is sufficient time to be building up a AAA, whether that game looks to be a new Bioshock or not. InXile may yet surprise us by showing that Clockwork Revolution is a completely different game despite all appearances. For example, it would certainly turn us all for a loop if it turned out to be a tactical strategy.
Well, Microsoft still won’t tell us more about how long before these games become available. I’m sure dataminers will find what they can in those preload files. At this point, we should not be surprised if it turns out that those games are coming sooner than we expect, maybe even this year.
