2025 looks like a great year for Xbox

There’s a long-running joke in the Xbox community that Microsoft will finally hit its stride with Game Pass and Xbox releases “next year.” The joke has been going around since 2018, when Microsoft made a series of big studio acquisitions to create more Xbox games and make Game Pass more appealing. Year after year, Xbox fans have been waiting for a solid 12 months of new games to play, and it now looks like 2025 is going to be that “next year” everyone has been waiting for.

The annual Xbox Developer Direct this week was nothing short of excellent, after a turbulent year for the platform in 2024. Microsoft kicked the event off with a promise that all games shown would be on Game Pass, and impressively, they’d all be Xbox Play Anywhere titles so you can buy once and play on Xbox consoles and PC. It then dropped two big surprises: Ninja Gaiden 4 and a shadow drop of the remastered Ninja Gaiden 2 Black.

Published by Xbox Game Studios, Ninja Gaiden 4 is the latest entry in a long-running franchise that’s seen a lot of success on Xbox in the past. So it’s no surprise that Team Ninja also picked Microsoft to debut the remaster of Ninja Gaiden II. 

South of Midnight finally got a release date and a deeper dive into the gameplay and story, too. The game has a narrative that will touch on Southern folklore, and the artwork is stunning. It’s heading to Game Pass on April 8th and will be joined that month by Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — the debut title from Sandfall Interactive. The turn-based RPG has been developed by a team full of former Ubisoft developers. It features a host of voice acting talent and includes turn-based combat that’s similar to Persona 5. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launches on April 24th.

Microsoft finished the Developer Direct with a deeper dive into id Software’s Doom: The Dark Ages. There’s a big focus on melee combat this time around and a bunch of new UI sliders that let you adjust the game speed or parry timing. It looks like Doom: The Dark Ages will have some unique gameplay that sets it apart from previous entries in the Doom franchise, and I’m really looking forward to playing this one on May 15th.

Three out of the four games featured in the Developer Direct are also coming to PS5 (South of Midnight being the exception). It was amusing to see the developers avoid verbally mentioning the PS5 during the Developer Direct, but Microsoft was more than happy to list the availability of Ninja Gaiden 4, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Doom: The Dark Ages on PS5 at the end of each segment. It’s a refreshing change from when Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo pretended other platforms didn’t exist for multi-platform game announcements.

But Microsoft also highlighted its own ecosystem advantage as it debuted these cross-platform games. These titles will launch day one on Game Pass, Xbox Play Anywhere, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. That makes Xbox the most flexible way to buy these games or subscribe to play them because Microsoft offers cross-saves, cross-progression, and the ability to play them on PC, Xbox consoles, or stream them to many other devices you own. 

These three new games now make for a packed series of Xbox Game Pass releases in the coming months. Obsidian’s Avowed is arriving on February 18th, just weeks after Sniper Elite: Resistance, Eternal Strands, and Citizen Sleeper 2 appear on day one in Game Pass. The Alters is also supposed to debut on Game Pass in early 2025. That means there won’t be a month between now and June when subscribers don’t have something to look forward to, and that’s just the first half of the year.

Microsoft’s Xbox summer showcase will then set the stage for the rest of the year and beyond. Ninja Gaiden 4 is coming in the fall, but Microsoft has also previously announced that The Outer Worlds 2 and Fable are 2025 releases. It will also be interesting to see if Gears of War: E-Day will make the 2025 release date I’d heard Microsoft was planning for last year.

There could be some more surprises on the way, too. In recent weeks, rumors have pointed toward a remaster of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I first heard about this remaster last year, and at the time, Microsoft was tentatively targeting a release in late spring or early summer 2025. I’m also hoping we hear more about Contraband or Clockwork Revolution at the Xbox summer showcase.

If Microsoft can deliver a second half of 2025 packed with games like it did toward the end of 2024 with hits like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, it looks like Xbox Game Pass will have its best year yet. If Microsoft somehow fails to deliver, then, as Xbox fans say, there’s always next year.