Xbox gamers are definitely living in some interesting times, with doubt and worry over the future direction that Microsoft is taking, but put that to one side and 2025 is set to be an absolute banger of a year for games. There is, of course, GTA 6, which is expected this year, as well as a new Assassin’s Creed, Monster Hunter, Civilization, Elden Ring and so much more. Microsoft’s army of developers is also set to deliver the goods with Avowed, Doom: The Dark Ages, The Outer Worlds 2, Fable, and more.
Oh, and there’s a ton of this that will also be on Xbox Game Pass with day one releases. That’s all been labelled as we’ve collated a huge set of 26 of the biggest games for Xbox in the coming year.
Eternal Strands
XSX|S, PS5, PC – 28th January 2025 (Day One in Game Pass)
Eternal Strands has a huge and expansive open world that can all be explored, which is called the Enclave. Unfortunately, the Enclave has largely been invaded and taken over by a force known as the Surgeborn, an otherworldly enemy that has trapped the people in a smaller and smaller corner of it.
Enter the Weaver, Brynn. She is on a mission to push back the Surgeborn, liberating the Enclave from their incursion. It will not be an easy fight as the Surgeborn consist of towering creatures that will prove a challenge to take down. However, Brynn has access to weapons and magical abilities to fight back, as well as being able to use the environment to help her. You can use enemy attacks against each other as well to even the odds. The world can be manipulated so new paths can be created showing hidden parts of the Enclave. Be careful though, as the world is dangerous and destructible.
Sniper Elite: Resistance
XSX|S, PS5, XBO, PS4, PC – 30th January 2025 (Day One in Game Pass)
You know what you’re getting with Sniper Elite: Resistance, a spin-off story that puts Karl Fairburne’s longtime co-op buddy character, Harry Hawker, in the spotlight. You’ll be sneaking through large levels, silently taking down patrolling guards, sniping from hundreds of meters away (to trigger the series’ iconic X-Ray killcam), and working your way through a variety of missions behind enemy lines in Occupied France.
We went hands on with Sniper Elite: Resistance at last year, saying, “Sniper Elite has become a bit like stealth action comfort food over the past decade, having really settled into the sandbox levels and mission structure in the last few games. Sniper Elite: Resistance isn’t looking to revolutionise the series, but give a new campaign, a few new twists and tweaks to the formula, and just let you settle in with a nice glass of red – to go with all the red you spill in-game.”
Citizen Sleeper 2 Starward Vector
XSX|S, PS5, NSW, PC – 31st January 2025 (Day One in Game Pass)
Sequel to one of the most acclaimed indie games of 2022, Citizen Sleeper 2 looks to take the same approach to its tabletop RPG narrative stylings, giving you a set of tools with which to navigate its rich narrative. There’s an overhauled dice system, new skills and, most significantly, a ship and a crew that you can customise for each Cycle as you take on jobs within the star system.
Still set in the Helion system, Citizen Sleeper 2 lets you hop into your ship, recruit a crew of characters to go with you and head out to explore the Belt, do jobs and get paid. You’re trying to escape your past, in which you fell under the control of a local criminal gang, rewriting your body’s code to do so, but introducing malfunctions to your system and having to run with a price on your head and no memories.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
XSX|S, PS5, PC – 4th February 2025
It’s been a good seven years since the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and fans of this historical RPG have been waiting a long, long time for Henry and Sir Hans’ journey to continue. There’s less than a month to wait, you’ll be glad to hear, with our duo journeying through medieval Bohemia in the early 1400s to deliver a message at the start of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.
Things…. don’t quite go to plan, and they’re swept up in the problems of kings and wars that are increasingly affecting the region. This grand sequel will feature two main areas, with the Bohemian paradise of the opening juxtaposed with the city of Kuttenberg and all of the political intrigue that that can bring. Don’t worry if you don’t remember or haven’t played the original, as Warhorse promise this will be a good starting point, even if it’s a direct narrative continuation.
Ahead of its February release, we’ve been able to dive into the opening hours of the game, sharing our initial thoughts on the road to review with our Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 preview.
Civilization VII
XSX|S, PS5, XBO, PS4, NSW, PC – 11th February 2025
There’s been a good few pretenders to the throne emerging over the last few years, but Civilization VII is arriving to firmly put its stamp on the historical 4X genre once more.
This game will tackle the concept of shifting ages, just as the genre as a whole has been. Split into three distinct ages – Antiquity, Exploration and Modern – each civ is restricted to a particular time period and then has to grow and morph into another through a point of crisis. Rome will eventually fall, but that can provide the historical and gameplay foundations to become any number of medieval empires – the Holy Roman Empire, perhaps? – and from there lead into modern European nations.
We went hands on with Civ VII back at Gamescom 2024, as well as having the opportunity to speak with Creative Director Ed Beach about this major new direction for the series.
Avowed
XSX|S, PC – 18th February 2025 (Day One in Game Pass)
Will you save the world or doom it? That’s the choice that runs through Avowed, as you gain more and more power on your journey as an envoy of the Aedyr Empire, tasked with investigating a spiritual plague that threatens the whole world.
Avowed takes us back to the Living Lands, a mysterious islands in the fantasy world of Eora, which it shares with Obsidian’s previous Pillars of Eternity games. However, where those games were both top-down CRPGs and part of the genre’s revival over the past decade, Avowed is shifting back to one of Obsidian’s areas of expertise: first person action RPG adventuring. Avowed is not a fully open world game, but has several large open areas that you can explore and, in that regard, it might be comparable to one of Obsidian’s other acclaimed hits, The Outer Worlds.
Originally set for release at the end of 2024, Xbox decided to hold off on Avowed’s launch in a busy release window to try and find a little bit of breathing room in early 2025. That…. hasn’t necessarily worked out, but with more time to polish and the promise of a first party Xbox game, this is certainly one to watch.
Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
XSX|S, PS5, XBO, PS4, PC – 21st February 2025
The Yakuza/Like A Dragon series is as much known for its leftfield side quests and spin offs, as it is for its more serious crime stories. Yet, Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii may just be the most out there for the series, and placing Goro Majima as a pirate captain with his own ship. It is bonkers and fits the character of Majima so well, who is probably only second to Kiryu when it comes to the franchise’s cast.
Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is a spin off set after the events of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth. In this spin off, Majima has lost all of his memories and wakes up on a desert island. Soon, after he is the captain of his own pirate ship, engaging in naval battles with other pirate captains, and setting foot on a pirate enclave known as Madlantis. Combat will be more of the classic action style of Yakuza, rather than the turn based of Like A Dragon, and we are expecting the story to be both bonkers and full of feeling when it drops anchor.
Monster Hunter Wilds
XSX|S, PS5, PC – 28th February 2025
Having transformed itself into one of the biggest video game franchises out there, Monster Hunter Wilds is looking to take the next step forward from the series, following on from Monster Hunter World and the Nintendo-centric Monster Hunter Rise. Wilds is set to feature the most open and most alive environments yet in a Monster Hunter game.
The fundamental gameplay loop will remain the same: find your target monster, attack them, chase them down, try not to die, capture or kill them, carve off pieces from the carcass, use those pieces to make better weapons and armour, find a bigger monster, repeat. It will also be better with friends, forming parties to go on hunts together and coordinating your resources. New for Wilds is that this can be crossplay for the first time.
Split Fiction
XSX|S, PS5, XBO, PS4, PC – 6th March 2025
Coming from the makers of the excellent Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, A Way Out and It Takes Two – and with an only lightly sweary introduction from Josef Fares at The Game Awards – Split Fiction has shot right to the top of our must-watch list as another splitscreen co-op experience that you’ll want to hunker down with a partner or friend to play.
Split Fiction sees Mio and Zoe – named after Fares two daughters – as two aspiring writers who are seemingly conned into feeding their stories into an evil AI machine. While AI stealing human beings content is worryingly close to reality, the game sees Mio and Zoe pulled into the machine, and their two stories, one fantasy and one sci-fi mixed and merged, with the duo jumping between the two from level to level. Each level will introduce new mechanics, blending fantasy and sci-fi tropes together in some intriguing ways. We can’t wait!
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
XSX|S, PS5, PC – 20th March 2025
Fans have been demanding an Assassin’s Creed set in Japan pretty much since 2007, and they’re finally going to get what they want with Assassin’s Creed Shadows – even if it’s been embroiled in a disappointingly inevitable amount of internet discourse, thanks in no small part to featuring a black immigrant samurai as one of the two playable characters. That’s something that Ubisoft has at times struggled to communicate well with fans and gamers around the world.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes us back to 16th century Japan during the Azuchi-Momoyama era, featuring a female ninja and a male samurai for its lead characters. That man is a historical character based off Yasuke, a man of African origin who was one of the rare immigrants to Japan and who served Oda Nobunaga. The female ninja is named Naoe from Iga Province, who is inducted into the local Assassin’s order to battle all those persky Templars. Their stories will be intertwined, letting you master complimentary playstyles as both characters have contrasting abilities – Naoe for stealth, Yasuke for direct combat. This will be a fresh take on the twin protagonists that we’ve seen on occasion through the Assassin’s Creed series.
Atomfall
XSX|S, PS5, XBO, PS4, PC – 27th March 2025 (Day One in Game Pass)
Atomfall spins us off into an alternate version of events following the Windscale Fire nuclear disaster in northern England, in which the surrounding area was rapidly locked down, the locals kept in line and monitored by the military group Protocol, and advanced retro-futuristic technology the order of the day. Can you unpick the mystery?
It might look like a very English Fallout, but this is a rather different style of game, where scarcity of resources plays a big factor in pushing you to melee – you get to fight roving bands of bandits dressed like Morris dancers – and investigating the story will be a bigger part of the experience.
The First Berserker: Khazan
XSX|S, PS5, PC – 27th March 2025
Sometimes, you just want a violent, revenge story to dive right into, and it looks like The First Berserker: Khazan will be that game. Ben Starr, the iconic voice behind Final Fantasy XVI’s Clive Rosfield, has been cast as General Khazan. General Khazan is betrayed by his Emperor and exiled to the the mountains, where he nearly dies. However, after surviving he merges with the Blade Phantom, and sets out for revenge.
The world of The First Berserker: Khazan will be merciless. Set in the Dungeon & Fighter universe, every foe will provide a challenge in combat. Bosses will be even tougher, and defeat will come easily to those who are not prepared for it.
South of Midnight
XSX|S, PC – 8th April 2025
Coming from Compulsion Games, the makers of We Happy Few, South of Midnight looks to be something rather different, whisking us away to the fantasy world of Prospero and confronting our heroine Hazel with giant sea monsters.
The game features an almost claymation visual style, blending together action adventure exploration with Bayonetta-style combat. The world blends together vibes of the deep south of America with giant, island-sized alligators and more, which you’ll come across after a hurricane has ripped across this world.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
XSX|S, PS5, PC – 24th April 2024 (Day One in Game Pass)
JRPGs are in a really good place right now, but who says you have to be a Japanese studio or developer to make a game in this style? French studio Sandfall Interactive has taken inspiration from this subgenre, belndingit with a Belle Epoque France fantasy world to create the turn-based RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Poignant and painterly, as described for our Gamescom ’24 preview, the game sees you follow yet another doomed expedition as they venture out to try and stop the Paintress from literally just ending the lives of people of a certain age. It will lean in on the tried and true turn-based RPG combat, with a few invigorating twists mixed in, such as an active QTE element and Persona-like menus fanning out from characters. This could be a real treat for fans of the genre.
The Alters
XSX|S, PS5, PC – Q1 2025 (Day One in Game Pass)
What would it be like to live with yourself? It is a question you may have pondered? Would your copy be exactly like you, or look like you but have a different view of things. Enter The Alters, 11 Bit Studios new psychological survival horror in which that question is answered, though in a very stressful environment that will push anyone to their limits.
You are Jan and Jan and Jan and Jan and, well you get the idea. Jan is a space builder trapped on an alien planet. He wants to get home but to do that he has to survive and restore his ship. It is a job he cannot do alone, but he can create Alters of himself. They are clones but with their own personalities, wants, needs, and stress points. If you don’t manage each individual’s needs or meet their expectations things will get tense, and the Jans will turn on each other. Probably not wise to say something like “Sure, Jan” sarcastically.
A The Alters demo is available now.
Doom: The Dark Ages
XSX|S, PS5, PC – 15th May 2025 (Day One in Game Pass)
Another Bethesda game that’s avoiding Xbox exclusivity, Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel to the 2016 series reboot, nipping back in time to the last time that the Doom Slayer was out and about for some demon bashing. You’ll go thoroughly medieval on those demons, which will include a mix of very familiar foes from the series as well as some all-new enemies.
You’ll be just as powerful as in the last couple of Doom games, but the weaponry in your hand will be just a little bit different. Now you couldn’t do without a Super Shotgun, even if you’re this far back in time, but alongside that you’ll be able to whip out a Flail to knock some heads in, or rev up a throwable chainsaw shield, like it’s some kind of Captain America – Warhammer 40,000 crossover. Oh, and you’ll also get to pilot a giant mech and fly a robot dragon. What’s not to like?
Revenge of the Savage Planet
XSX|S, PS5, XBO, PS4, PC – May 2025
Journey to the Savage Planet was a fun time, pitting players on a hostile world and leaning right into the comedy. Revenge of the Savage Planet looks like it will continue right in that vein, but with one major change to the gameplay. Where Journey was a first person title, Revenge of the Savage Planet will be in third person.
Revenge of the Savage Planet looks colourful and chaotic, but with plenty of danger to watch out for. You will need to shoot, scavenge, and upgrade to survive after being abandoned by Alta Interglobal. Interestingly, there is not just one savage planet to learn to survive on. There are four this time around, all enjoyable on your own or in co-op.
Mafia: The Old Country
XSX|S, PS5, PC – Summer 2025
The Mafia series is going back to where it all began, with Mafia: The Old Country tracing its narrative steps back to the early 1900s and before the crime families of Sicily saw their influence spread through the emigration of Italians to the United States.
You’ll be cast as Enzo Favara, having to prove their worth to the Cosa Nostra, fighting to survive through the brutal underworld of organised crime. Enzo’s already survived labor in the sulphur mines, and now has a chance (in a twisted way) to find a better life for himself by working for Don Torrisi’s crime family, doing whatever it takes to gain and retain favour along the way.
The game looks fantastic from the snippets of action that we’ve seen, and this is absolutely one to keep an eye on in 2025.
GTA 6
XSX|S, PS5 – Late 2025
GTA 6 is set to be another defining cultural event, much like GTA 5 was back in 2013, a game that will no doubt suck tens of millions of people into its open world crime story. Grand Theft Auto VI takes us all back to Vice City for another crime story, featuring Lucia as the first female protagonist in the series, getting out of prison at the start of the game after a bit of “bad luck”. Revisiting Vice City, this is a modern day setting in the fictionalised state of Leonida, deeply influenced by the breadth of American culture in the South East of the country and Florida in particular.
Take Two has targeted the back end of 2025 for release, though given the scale and ambition of these games, we wouldn’t be surprised to see this slip to early 2026, sneaking into the same financial year.
Fable
XSX|S, PC – 2025 (Day One in Game Pass)
We’re putting a bit of trust in Playground Games and Xbox with this one. It’s been years since the formal announcement of Fable in 2020, which had already been long-rumoured to be in the works, and every occasional reappearance at Xbox showcases has been heavily reliant on lusciously produced cinematics and an understated British sense of humour, rather than gameplay. Still, Fable is supposedly on track for release in 2025.
To be charitable, the most recent trailer from last June does state that it’s “in-game footage” and shift between clips that could be representative of in-game dialogue scenes and wandering through the environments, building up to some quick shots of combat. It does look very, very pretty, as the baton is passed from the now retired hero Humphry to a new hero.
One we want to see much, much more of, and which we’d expect is coming later, rather than sooner. There’s other big first party Xbox games expected before then!
The Outer Worlds 2
XSX|S, PS5, PC – 2025 (Day One in Game Pass)
The Outer Worlds 2 has chucked Xbox exclusivity out the airlock, about as ceremoniously as you could yeet yourself into the nearest star in the original. The sequel promises to do all the usual sequelly things with more action, more weapons, more possibilities, and more better graphics.
The Outer Worlds 2 will very much follow in the tone and style of the original, but promises to go bigger and broader on pretty much every level. There’s the new colony to explore in Arcadia, which is the home of skip drive technology, and which you explore as a new Earth Directorate agent trying to figure out if it’s responsible for all the big and scary rifts that are threatening the whole galaxy.
Replaced
XSX|S, XBO, PC – 2025 (Day One in Game Pass)
Set in an alternate universe 1980s America after a catastrophic nuclear event, Replaced casts you as an AI named R.E.A.C.H. that’s somehow been transplanted into a human body, now forced to try and escape and survive in Phoenix City
Replaced caught a lot of attention upon its original reveal for the gorgeous voxel art style and Cyberpunk setting, as well as the 2.5D gameplay that blends in a slick looking counter-based combat style. Originally planned for 2022, but delayed because of the war in Ukraine, Replaced has slipped further beyond its 2024 target and is now expected in 2025.
Borderlands 4
XSX|S, PS5, PC – 2025
Welcome to the planet Kairos, a world that’s dominated by a ruthless dictator known as the Timekeeper, with an army of synthetic followers known as the Order. You, of course, will play as a Vault Hunter searching for mythical alien treasures in a race against time against the Timekeeper to uncover it.
You pretty much know what to expect from Borderlands 4, with the procedurally generated loot pushing you on through each battle and mission, and a humour-filled script that will thankfully tone down the toilet humour of Borderlands 3. We’re yet to really be introduced to the Vault Hunters that will lead this adventure, but the gameplay first look showed an impressive sense of scale and slick snippets of action.
Sleight of Hand
XSX|S, PC – TBC (Day One in Game Pass)
Sleight of Hand has one of the best descriptions going for it, with developer RiffRaff Games calling it a third-person card-slinging occult noir stealth sim. What more could you want? You are Lady Luck, an occult detective and former witch, who is taking on one last job. A job that has her meeting her past head on as she is tasked with going to Steeple City and bringing down her former coven.
The card slinging element comes from one of the core game mechanics, which are Lady Luck’s cards. She has cards imbued with magical abilities that can be used for all sorts, like creating a smokescreen, use smoke based attacks, and set traps. There will be different cards to use, allowing you to customise your deck which in turn determines your playstyle? Will you favour stealth cards or more attack based cards. Sleight of Hand is coming to PC and Xbox Series X|S, and will be on Xbox Game Pass.
Elden Ring Nightreign
XSX|S, PS5, XBO, PS4, PC – 2025
FromSoftware aren’t making an Elden Ring 2, but they are working on a spin-off from their smash hit. Elden Ring Nightreign is a more specifically co-op game than before, mixing up the visual style, combat and general setting of Elden Ring with a new format.
While you can play Nightreign solo, it’s intended to be played with a group of three, working together across multiple in-game days to prepare for a final boss. There’s a little dash of battle royale thrown into this as well, with the playable area shrinking after players defeat a minor boss at the end of each day, limiting the second and third day as you get closer to that final encounter. An interesting twist on proceedings.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
XSX|S, PS5, PC – 2025
The early 2000s and PS2 era is proving to be a fertile source for modern remakes, and Konami is the latest to try to get in on the action with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Having been rumoured for years, this MGS3 remake was confirmed back in 2023, with 2024 giving us a couple of additional glimpses of cutscenes and story, and the game tentatively expected this year.
Very little is really known about the remake, how much the gameplay is being tweaked and modernised, but you can see from the cutscene-heavy trailers that the game does look pretty fab with Unreal Engine 5 powering it, and they’ve kept a lot of that Kojima tone.
That’s a stonking batch of games coming to Xbox in 2025, wouldn’t you agree? It’s going to be great seeing their first party studios really delivering the goods this year.