ZeniMax Media was working on remasters of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3, and a Doom franchise new entry before Microsoft announced its decision to acquire the company in 2020. These revelations became public in an accidental leak of documents from the FTC V. Microsoft legal dispute.
“This is the biggest Xbox leak in history. Bigger than the Fortaleza leak that detailed the Xbox One, simply because this includes Microsoft’s hardware and platform strategy, unredacted internal communications, and more. You don’t usually see this much leak,” Tom Warren, Senior Editor at The Verge, tweeted.
Per the leaked documents, The Oblivion remaster was initially set for 2022 release, Doom Year Zero and DLC for 2023, and another set of DLC for 2024, The Fallout 3 remaster for 2024, A sequel to Ghostwire: Tokyo for 2024, and Dishonored 3 for 2024. With many of the releases scheduled for 2024, Microsoft’s gaming business, Xbox, had big plans for the year.
These plans were more estimates before Microsoft acquired ZeniMax in March 2021. While some of these plans may have been changed or wholly junked, the revelations hint at what games we might expect from Microsoft.
The leaks also revealed plans for a disc-less Xbox Series X redesign, a “Sebile” Xbox controller, and a refreshed Xbox Series.
Another vital disclosure from the leaked documents is the timeline for the next generation of Xbox consoles.
“Microsoft is tentatively targeting 2028 for a next-gen Xbox console, according to internal Microsoft documents from the FTC v. Microsoft case,” Warren tweeted.