Summer season Sport Fest is lower than a month away now, and with it comes the promise of huge bulletins and surprises from its 55 confirmed companions.
A type of companions is 2K Video games, and the official Summer season Sport Fest Twitter account is teasing that 2K intends on debuting the subsequent sport in certainly one of its “greatest and most beloved franchises.”
Zero hints got as to what it may very well be. So let’s take a number of educated guesses.
First, there’s the Mafia franchise. This one tops the checklist as a result of final month a reasonably dependable supply by the title Kurakasis acknowledged that they heard that Take-Two, the father or mother firm of 2K, was gearing up for a Mafia announcement.
“I can let you know that a number of days in the past, Take-Two started preparations for an announcement concerning the Mafia collection” wrote Kurakasis.
A brand new entry within the Mafia collection has been rumoured for years, however was formally confirmed in 2022. Numerous studies have indicated that it may very well be a prequel to the primary Mafia sport, set in Italy.
The final time we noticed a brand new entry within the Mafia collection was 2016 when Mafia 3 launched to a reasonably lukewarm crucial reception. Regardless of it scoring decrease than its predecessor, Mafia 3 vastly outsold Mafia 2, delivery 4.5m copies in simply the primary week. It went on to promote 7m copies by 2020, indicating that there’s lots of people who benefit from the Mafia franchise.
The following sport on the suspect checklist is a brand new entry within the Borderlands collection. Developer Gearbox was just lately purchased from Embracer by Take-Two. 2K had beforehand dealt with all of the publishing rights for the Borderlands collection.
The final time we heard from Borderlands was really a by-product in 2022 referred to as Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, which took the looting and capturing of the principle collection and mixed it with a Dungeons & Dragons parody. Nonetheless, when Take-Two purchased Gearbox a number of months again, it additionally introduced that the subsequent entry within the Borderlands collection was in growth. Whereas it was not particularly referenced as Borderlands 4, it looks as if a reasonably secure guess that it’s. And since Borderlands 3 was launched in 2019, it could be about the best time for a brand new entry.
Plus, Borderlands is definitely the largest franchise in 2K’s arsenal when you don’t rely their sports activities titles.
Then there’s BioShock. 2K formally introduced method again in 2019 {that a} new BioShock sport was in growth by an inside staff referred to as Cloud Chamber. Boasting a number of members of the unique BioShock staff, however not the inventive madman that’s Ken Levine, Cloud Chamber was setup particularly to craft the subsequent sport within the BioShock franchise which noticed its final launch with BioShock Infinite in…2013!? Are you shitting me? God, I really feel previous.
On the time, 2K acknowledged that BioShock could be in growth for “for the subsequent a number of years”. Since then we’ve heard virtually nothing from 2K or Cloud Chamber. There have been quite a few insider studies however nothing concrete, main folks to surprise if 2K is simply maintaining it underneath wraps for optimum dramatic impact, or if its in growth bother.
Transferring on, we now have two technique collection that 2K publish, each of which might simply be described as “beloved”. I’m, in fact, speaking about Civilization and XCOM.
Lately the XCOM collection has been reimagined in a number of methods, such because the small-scale XCOM: Chimera Squad in 2020 which acted as a sequel to XCOM 2’s Warfare of the Chosen growth. With that mentioned, developer Firaxis mentioned Chimera Squad was “neither a sequel or growth to XCOM 2” and as an alternative positioned it as a spin-off exploring new gameplay and story concepts. The smaller scale and smaller price-tag have been supposed to assist usher in a brand new viewers.
The final correct XCOM sport was XCOM 2 in 2016, so its some time since we’ve seen the brutally exhausting technique collection. Nonetheless, I’m unsure 2K view XCOM as certainly one of its “greatest” franchises, so I believe the possibilities XCOM 3 being introduced are slim. As a lot as I am keen on the collection, it doesn’t really feel like 2K has the identical stage of confidence in it.
I believe a brand new Civilization sport is the extra seemingly of the 2 2K technique franchises. Civilization VI got here out in 2016 and was supported by a wealth of expansions, with Firaxis lastly ending assist simply a few years in the past. Since then the corporate has struggled somewhat, releasing the superb Marvel’s Midnight Suns which sadly didn’t discover numerous industrial success. Firaxis has additionally been hit by layoffs since then. However a brand new Civilization sport may very well be the enhance they want, and we realized in 2023 that Civilization 7 is certainly being labored on, as confirmed by Firaxis themselves.
Finally, it comes all the way down to both Mafia or Borderlands, for my part. By way of simply sheer reputation, a Borderlands 4 would take advantage of sense for the grand stage of Summer season Sport Fest, however the current rumours of a brand new Mafia title are compelling. Once you get all the way down to it although: Borderlands, Mafia, BioShock and Civilization are all doable. There’s been sufficient time between entries in all of those collection for brand new video games to be prepared, and we all know which are new video games in growth for every of them. XCOM appears the least seemingly of the bunch.
For the sake of getting some enjoyable, I’ll decide only one: Mafia 5 will probably be proven at Summer season Sport Fest. The current rumours are compelling sufficient to make me factor its the almost certainly candidate.
On a deeper stage, I’m actually hoping BioShock would possibly lastly break cowl although.
