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BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk has claimed that Xbox could've had another potential franchise hit in the RPG Jade Empire if it wasn't for Microsoft's short-sighted advice.

In an interview with the My Perfect Console podcast, Zeschuk said that Microsoft convinced BioWare to release Jade Empire at the tail-end of the original Xbox's lifecycle. "It was the worst advice; absolute moronic advice from them. The stupidest thing ever," he explained.

He claimed that Jade Empire should've been an Xbox 360 launch game, which would've made it more successful as a product at the beginning of the console's lifecycle as opposed to the end of the previous console's lifecycle.

Zeschuk explained that if he had pushed for more development time and money, Jade Empire could've joined the ranks of fabled franchises like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. "Give us six months; give us the chance to make it a launch title for the 360 and we'd have another franchise," he said.

Jade Empire launched on the original Xbox in April 2005, and the Xbox 360 was released in November 2005. The most recent estimate of the game's sales was back in July 2005, where it crossed 500K units sold, which was below expectations.

While Jade Empire is backwards compatible with Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, there have been no subsequent entries outside of an enhanced PC port in 2007 and an iOS port in 2016. Back in 2011, BioWare expressed interest in creating more games in the Jade Empire universe, but any hopes of a sequel were eventually dashed.