2025 for Xbox and beyond!

I made the bad decision to really look at the rest of the year as far as game releases go. My mind immediately started swirling, trying to lay out a game plan for the website and personal tastes. I then proceeded to look at 20205 releases and beyond... My computer figuratively started on fire. We’ve been eating well since development roadmaps got back on track, and somehow only uphil from here. With that, let’s take a look at Xbox’s wheelhouse of studios since that’s my niche and break down what everyone is working on. Next year, more than ever, it feels like Xbox is specifically cooking for me, and my hype is off the charts. There’s a lot of studios to get through with a ton of killer content, so get comfy, grab your favorite beverage, and let’s dive in! We’ll be skipping more of the support studios as there’s a lot of smaller teams under Activision that help feed the Call of Duty machine. Hopefully one day they’re able to break out and do their own passion project some day.

Treyarch, Infiity Ward, Sledgehammer—Call of Duty Black Ops 6. Release: 10/25/24. Further Call of Duty titles

It’s wild to finally be able to label all of the studios under Activision/Blizzard under the Xbox umbrella, but here we are. The next closest release we have is Treyarch's next entry into the Call of Duty series. In an attempt to fix some ill will the series has earned recently, Treyarch has for the first time been given an additional year on top of CoD's traditional three-year cycle. With that extra time we have the return of traditional zombies, a new omnimovement system aiming to add a new layer to pvp, and a traditional campaign with a spy thriller story laid out over a 1990’s palette. I’m going to be honest and just like the other two studios here as well since we know what they’ve been working on and what they will forever be working on. 

MachineGames—Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Release: 12/9/24

The team at MachineGames is back doing what they do best. Sticking it to nazis. In an effort headed by Todd Howard we’re getting a standalone  Indiana Jones adventure set between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. Tackling any sort of established IP can be a daunting task in trying to make fanbases happy. While previews have been up in the air so far we as players don’t have much longer to wait to see if Jones sticks his landing or falls into an abyss.

Obsidian Entertaiment—Avowed. Release:2/18/25 The Outer Worlds 2. Release: TBA

Obsidian has been the under appreciated work horse for the Xbox name since being acquired in 2018. Releasing The Outer Worlds, Pentiment, and the live service title Grounded in that time. Their future is already revealed as well with Avowed originally set to release this fall being delayed to early 2025 and with The Outer Worlds 2 being announced in 2021 you’d imagine that will be here by the end of 2026z 

Compulsion Games—South of Midnight. Release:2025

Continuing on with our nearest releases we have South of Midnight set for 2025. The next game from the We Happy Few developer takes place in the deep south following gothic folklore and fantasy. Showcasing off a gorgeous art style that blends claymation and an almost oil based painting color over everything South of Midnight is the new type of weird and unique ideas I love to see in gaming. You’ll be able to explore the voodoo fillies mythos with Hazel later next year. 

Halo Studios—Multiple Halo projects 

Formally 343 Industries the newly revamped team in charge of the Halo IP seem to be reworking now they fundamentally look at and create Halo. With an almost entirely new leadership team and the recently announced switch to Unreal 5 as an engine the future has never been brighter for the franchise. Personally I hope we can recapture the magic of Halo 3 and the community around that but only time will tell. With recent rumors of a remade version of Halo CE we shouldn’t have long to wait.

The Coalition— Gears of War: E-Day. Release: TBA

The Coalition have been the graphical powerhouses for Xbox’s in house studios. Assisting teams in understand Unreal and helping them get the most out of the hardware they have available. With m Gears 5 being almost 6 years gone already it was welcomed when we finally got the reveal of E-Day during the June Showxcass this year. Takin the series in a more horror survival focused approach E-Day follows the events of what started it all. Basic locust enemies you’ve been so used to running through become larger than life threats and there’s danger around every corner.

Arkane Studios—Blade. Release:TBA

Coming off a rocky launch with Redfall last year Arkane is going back to what they do best with narrative driven single player experiences. Announced at The Game Awards 2023, Blade seeks to bring a Marvel IP to the Xbox ecosystem after years of speculation and Spider-Man being solidified on PlayStation. While we have a while to wait Blade could be the thing that brings Arkane back to the forefront of immersive storytelling.

Undead Labs —State of Decay 3. Release:TBA

Undead Labs has spent the better part of the past 6 years updating and keeping the wheels rolling on State of Decay 2. State of Decay 3 was announced back in 2020 as an early concept so we’re not really sure how far along the title is at this point. With it making more frequent appearances at the June Showcases however the wait may not be as long as you think. The team has Microsoft’s financial backing to give them all the time they need to truly nail down their vision of the next installment and hopefully skip past the initial hiccups the previous title ahead at launch. 

Playground Games— Fable. Release:2025. Forza Horizon 6(rumored) 

Playground was maybe one of the best acquisitions Xbox has made in recent years. While building their legacy on the Forza Horizon franchise the team has shown off their technical prowess time and time again. Giving them the Fable IP a combat focused RPG may of sounded off at the time. Now that we’ve seen a few glimpses of the finished product and a 2025 release window I have full faith in what Playground is cooking up. Change is inevitable and it’s time to bring life to a dormant franchise. Fable isn’t all the studios working on as they have multiple teams working on different projects so one can assume the next entry in the Horizon series is also racing ever near. Perhaps in the long fan requested country of Japan perhaps? 

Double Fine—Kiln(Rumored) Release TBA 

Double Fine is one of the few studios we don’t really have a roadmap for yet. Coming off their massive success with Psychonauts 2 in 2021 the studio has essentially been silent. There were rumors at the beginning of the year they decided to go ahead with a party style arena brawler named Kiln but that has seemingly disappeared from the equation. Kiln was first spotted in their documentary for Psychonauts 2 as a game jam proof of concept made internally. Whatever the teams working on hope they able to get the criticism reception and appreciation they deserve.

Turn 10–Forza Motorsport (continued support)

Turn 10 launched the latest iteration of their Forza Motorsport series end of last year to a somewhat rocky start. After spending the past year consistently updating and refining what Motorsport is the game is in a much better spot to showcase the technological advancements they were shooting for last year. Being only a year since launch you’d imagine the team only has more updates for the current title while getting some sticky note whiteboard ideas for what their next title to hit the track will be. 

inXile-Clockwork Revolution. Release TBA

Announced at the 2023 showcase the team at inXile announced this new IP leaving me with a ton of excitement. A drastic turn from their tactical background in the Wasteland series Clockwork is a steampunk inspired first person shooter focused heavily on time travel. Looking like a sister project to Bioshock Infiite you’ll be traveling back and forth between different time periods altering the overall layout and outcome of the city of Avalon. With the little bit we’ve seen so far inXile could truly be into something special. 

Ninja Theory— “Project Mara”. Release TBA

Ninja Theory just released they’re follow up to critically acclaimed Hellblade earlier this year so there’s no rush into their next thing. What is that you may ask? Well we don’t actually know. All we have to go off is “Project Mara”, we’ve gotten a few glimpses of work in progress footage and know they’re going all in on the horror genre. With their knowledge of getting the absolute most from audio and sound effects they could reinvent how we view horror games. With them just dropping a game this year I don’t expect to fully see any more of this till at least 2026. Let the team cook and work their magic.

Rare—Sea of Thieves (continued support). Everwild (maybe?)

Rare has been hard at work crafting THE blueprint of how Xbox should approach live service games with Sea of Thieves. The way Rare has managed to balance consistent updates with premium content. Balancing how large updates are released with quality of life improvements. It’s a science other studios in the Xbox family could learn to follow for the better. In that time Rare has also announced Everwild. An open world fantasy setting involving raising creatures and attuning to spiritual elements. Maybe? Not much is known but there’s been constant rumors about the project restarting and trying to recapture what the game actually is or if it’s even in production. 

The Initiative— Perfect Dark. Release TBA

This has easily been Microsoft’s longest kept project. The Initiative was formed all the way back in 2018 to develop  Xbox’s first “AAAA” title. We weren’t made aware until the end of 2020 that the project was going to be a reboot of the Perfect Dark franchise which has been dormant since the launch of the 360. We got our largest look of what was marketed as gameplay this past showcase in June, while promising and exciting to see ideas I personally worry the game is aiming to be too much right out the gate. Helmed by a super group of developers including talent from Naughty Dog, Respawn, Blizzard, Sony Santa Monica, Rockstar, Insomniac plus a working partnership with Crystal Dynamics. You can only sit and wonder what the final product will actually end up as and received 

Worlds Edge— Age of Mythology, Age of Empires (Continued support) 

Worlds edge does strategy games well and I mean really really well. With recent advances the past few years they have brought RTS games to console with ease. Keeping up on both of their current titles with consistent updates and content seems to be their top priority right now. When you’re trying to reach a new audience on a new platform keeping new things coming to those titles is a must.

Bethesda Game Studios—Starfield(Updates), Elder Scrolls VI. Release TBA

Bethesda dropped their long anticipated space exploration game Starfield just over a year ago to very, very mixed reviews. With a recent expansion and mirrored to be on the way Starfield has quite a bit of fuel left in its tank before settling among the stars. Looking at the future we actually have to go back. On the exact same day Starfield was announced we also got the announcement for The Elder Scrolls VI. With next to nothing spoken about it since I hope it’s scaled back with more focused content compared to the experimental procedurally generated content of Starfield. How much long do we have to wait is up to imagination but I don’t see us getting our hands on the title until at least 2027.

id software—Doom The Dark Ages Release 2025

It’ll of been 5 years since id released Doom Eternal by the time we get their next outing. Originally wrapped in rumors of the team returning to the Quake franchise to bring the last of their 3 IP to current generations. That was laid to rest at last year June showcase where they instead revealed a Midevil themed iteration of Doom. Doom with dragons? We got it. Doom with a blade shield and melee combat forcing your way through castles? It’s here. Doom white a fun that grinds skulls exploding he fragments out in front of you shredding enemies? It’s coming to you next year and I absolutely can’t wait for the year Xbox is about to have. 

Blizzard -Overwatch 2(Updates), WoW The War Within (Updates), Diablo 4(Updates)

Blizzard has had a rocky few years with constant highs and lows as they struggle to regain a balance within their teams. A rocky launch for Overwatch 2 that had many fans questioning its exsistance has only gotten worse with the game possibly reverting back to a 6v6 format. This would essentially make the game exactly how Overwatch 1 was with a more toxic marketplace. On the other hand Diablo 4 has regained success with its recent “Vessel of Hatred” expansion. This has fixed a ton of issues and reworked some of the main gameplay systems that people either weren’t a fan of or kept people hook when it initials dropped last year. Finally we have my bread and butter World of Warcraft. This has probably been the most drastic as far as changes go. Coming off of two of the worst received expansions, The War Within had unobtainable goals of setting up the series for its final acts. Blizzard has been very forward about the next 3 expansions coming at a faster rate and setting up the next 20 years of the series. Whether that’s a World of Warcraft 2 or a complete refresh on what the game is is yet to be seen but the future has never been brighter and optimistic. 

Elsewhere Entertainment ???????

Earlier this year to much surprise Activision announced an opening of a new studio “Elsewhere”. Based our of Warsaw, Poland. The team being formed has a long list of heavy hitters with previous work on titles like The Witcher, Destiny, Uncharted, and Far Cry. With the team just breaking ground this year we have a very, very long wait to see what eventually emerges from their closed doors.