Fans seem to have put the pieces together to confirm that IO Interactive’s upcoming fantasy game, codenamed both Project Dragon and Project Fantasy, is now an Xbox exclusive.
The big clue comes from an internal Microsoft document, but before we discuss that, let’s talk about IO Interactive’s fantasy game project.
Windows Central’s Jez Corden was the first person to share details on this game all the way back in April 2021. Back then, he referred to it under the codename Project Dragon. His sources told him this was an action RPG, and that Microsoft was partnering with IO Interactive as its publisher. Note that there was no mention that it would be Xbox exclusive at the time.
Jez did point out that IO did announce they were working on a new IP, without identifying it any further. IO Interactive also had several job openings for said game.
Jumping ahead to February of this year, and as revealed on Reddit, IO publicly tweeted out even more job openings. This time, they identify the job openings for a game called Project Fantasy. They also specifically identify the game as being inspired by ‘Fighting Fantasy’ books that were ‘compelling you to choose your path.’
Fighting Fantasy is actually a gamebook series from the 1980s, created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. In keeping with the gamebook genre popularized by Choose Your Own Adventure, these books gave you choices on where to take the story, and offered branching paths with multiple endings.
Unlike Choose Your Own Adventure, Fighting Fantasy added a board game RPG element. You needed six sided dice to play Fighting Fantasy, both to create your character, and to pick random outcomes in the game.
It’s interesting that IO Interactive namedropped Fighting Fantasy on the recruitment webpage, instead of more famous franchises like Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. IO didn’t say outright that their game is using the Fighting Fantasy license, but it seems that that is a possibility.
In any case, this project is named in an internal Microsoft document, where the company identified other game companies they could acquire. They made the document public as part of the FTC federal trial vs their Activision deal.
On page 31 of the document, under the heading of Expected Release & Previously Shipped Games, Project Dragon is listed, as TBD, an RPG shooter for PC and Xbox Series X|S.
While this may all seem brand new, it’s likely that IO Interactive has been working on this game for two years now. It’s also interesting that IO itself is listed as a potential acquisition for Microsoft. Truthfully, whatever the outcome of their Activision deal, IO Interactive could actually be up next in Microsoft’s acquisition block.
