Microsoft has been working on bringing original TV programming to the Xbox platform for literally years, so it's about time the company revealed something besides that Halo show.
Microsoft has detailed not one, not two, but a dozen upcoming and in-development Xbox shows, many of which are news to us.
Six of those, including some we hadn't heard of before, are "committed projects," wrote the Xbox Wire staff, while the other six are "projects in development."
Remarkably, only two of these 12 programs are Halo-related.
They got Ridley Scott, too
Of the confirmed projects, the Steven Spielberg-produced Halo show (which was previously said to be inspired by Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad), the soccer/football reality show Every Street United, the gaming documentary series Signal to Noise/Atari: Game Over, and the adaptation of the Swedish series Real Humans (the English-language version will be just "Humans") were previously known of.
In addition Xbox Wire mentioned Ridley Scott's "Halo digital feature," which is apparently coming this year, as well as "live concert destination" coverage of the 2014 Bonnaroo music and arts festival in June.
The post also described six "in-development" programs, including Deadlands, "a genre-bending alternative history of the Weird West" based on Shane Lacy Hensley's pen-and-paper RPG; Extraordinary Believers, a "hybrid stop-motion show" a la Robot Chicken and created with Seth Green; and Fearless, in which Australian Navy bomb clearance diver Paul de Gelder "takes on an adrenaline-fueled quest to aid individuals who risk their lives to make the world a better place."
There's also Gun Machine, "a hardboiled detective thriller" based on a Warren Ellis novel; Winterworld, a limited live action series based on a well-known graphic novel "in which our world has been encased in ice from pole-to-pole;" and an "untitled JASH comedy/variety half hour" in which "the biggest names in comedy will showcase the people that make them laugh."
Working titles
Many of those projects are currently under working titles, so expect some of them to change again before we hear more.
Interestingly, Microsoft made no mention of Street Dreams, the rumored biopic that was supposed to chronicle the rise of rapper Nas. Maybe it's not happening anymore - or it never was. Who knows?
Xbox Wire says the first original Xbox programming - including Every Street United, the untitled comedy show, and the Bonnaroo coverage - will debut in June.
These shows will be available on Xbox One, Xbox 360, and other MIcrosoft devices, including Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 gadgets, and will have "interactive features tailored to each show."
It was about time Microsoft revealed more about its original shows. Official word has for some time been that these programs will begin arriving in early 2014, and June is stretching that definition pretty far.
We'll just have to let it slide this time, though.
