Timeline
Thursday9th Jan 2025
News Xbox Developer Direct Returns This Month To Highlight Four 2025 Titles
Including one surprise!
Microsoft has announced the next Xbox Developer Direct event, this time showcasing four upcoming titles that are aiming to launch in 2025. These games are Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, DOOM: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight and one currently redacted surprise. The livestream kicks off at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm GMT
Soapbox Xbox Should Start Embracing Its Past A Whole Lot More
We have history together, MS
It's no secret, Xbox is changing. After a wild 2024 that firmly pushed Xbox towards full multiplatform territory, we're all slowly getting used to Microsoft's new vision for the brand. In theory, I don't take too much issue with change — it's inevitable some day, in some form — but one thing I'd love to see more...
News Award-Winning $3.99 Game 'The Exit 8' Has Just Shadow Dropped On Xbox
Going underground
It's a quiet time right now for new releases on Xbox, but we're still getting a few here and there - and something that's caught our eye today is a shadow drop for the award-winning walking simulator known as The Exit 8. This title first arrived on PC back in 2023, and has since come to a variety of other platforms, receiving a...
News Special Edition OG Xbox 'S' Controller Unveiled By Accessory Maker Hyperkin
"A perfect blend of nostalgia & innovation"
Exactly a year ago, accessory maker Hyperkin announced its modernised take on the OG Xbox 'S Controller', and today the company has unveiled a special edition of this Xbox 'DuchesS' remake. Dubbed the Special Edition Greenhaven DuchesS, this new Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S controller harkens back to the...
News Multiple Xbox Games Nominated For 14th Annual New York Game Awards
Indiana Jones is in the running for 'Game of the Year'
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was one of Xbox's biggest game releases last year and it's now been nominated for the New York Awards' 14th annual 'Game of the Year' award. It will be going up against Balatro, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth,
Wednesday8th Jan 2025
Soapbox I Can't Wait To See What Xbox Does With Activision This Year
And Blizzard for that matter
I think I'm still getting nightmares about that whole Activision Blizzard saga in 2023. Don't get me wrong, it was great for engagement here at Pure Xbox and was somewhat fun to discuss with everyone at the time, but it dragged on forever and undoubtedly caused controversy even within the Xbox fan community itself, which...
News Mouse: P.I. For Hire Dev Claims Upcoming Shooter 'Is Not Just A Fancy Art Project'
Runs deeper than Cuphead comparisons
Ever since we first saw Mouse: P.I. For Hire in action (when it was simply known as 'Mouse'), we've been super interested in what developer Fumi Games is cooking up - and a new social media post from the team aims to inform us that its upcoming FPS isn't all about the game's iconic visual style. Inspired by...
News Game Pass Titles 'Lose Around 80%' Of Sales On Xbox, Claims Reporter
"That’s the figure that gets thrown around"
A new Q&A has dropped today from former GamesIndustry.biz reporter Chris Dring, and it sheds some perhaps unfortunate light on Xbox Game Pass and how much it can hurt game sales. Although each game's specific number can vary, and this is just "anecdotal" information that's been passed around, Dring...
Talking Point Xbox Fans Divided Over Changes To 'Rewards' System
"They finally got rid of the daily achievement"
Earlier this week, we shared the news that Xbox Game Pass Quests would be getting a major overhaul to kick off 2025 (in some regions), and that overhaul has now taken place - marking significant changes to how the program works. As you can see in the image above, one of the biggest changes is that...
News Ubisoft Showcases Overhauled Assassin's Creed Shadows Gameplay Ahead Of Xbox Release
"We're excited to provide more information on parkour"
Following its delay late last year, Assassin's Creed Shadows has become one of the biggest games to be releasing next month, despite what's turning out to be a pretty stacked February in the gaming biz. It's probably a good thing, then, that Ubisoft is making some big changes to gameplay in...
Feature Xbox Predictions: What We Expect To See From Microsoft In 2025
An interesting year ahead
A new year in gaming is upon us, which means plenty of Xbox reveals to get excited about, games to dig into, and knowing Microsoft - industry-shaking announcements to bare witness to in 2025. With a busy 2024 now behind us, then, we're looking ahead to the next 12 months in the world of Xbox. What will the team deliver on...
News Physical Game Sales 'Collapsed' In The UK Last Year, Says New Report
"The games market is expected to improve in 2025"
In what sure feels like another dagger to the heart of physical game fans, the UK market seems to have had a pretty rough year when it comes to physical game sales. According to Chris Dring over at VGC, demand for discs and cartridges "collapsed" in 2024 - with physical game sales dropping by a...
News Four Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass Standard (January 8)
New titles hitting the library
Welcome to your latest Xbox Game Pass update! Today, we have a batch of fresh titles heading to the Game Pass Standard library; Microsoft's middle-tier of XGP that was first introduced last year. All of these games are already included in the main Game Pass Ultimate library, so if you're subscribed that that tier, you...
News Xbox Wants To Bring A Console Experience To PC Handhelds In 2025
"We’ll have a lot more to share later this year"
In December, it was announced that Xbox's "VP of next generation" Jason Ronald would be appearing on a PC handheld panel at CES 2025, and that's what happened last night - although nothing major was revealed for Xbox specifically. In fact, the interesting bit for Xbox fans came after the event, as...
News Halo Veteran's New Studio Backed By NetEase Halts Work On Current Title
"Team members will be exploring new opportunities"
It's been a tough period for many game companies and it seems it might have got the better of the new team Jar of Sparks. This developer was formed by the ex-Microsoft, Xbox and Halo veteran Jerry Hook after he exited 343 Industries in 2022. Now, in an update on LinkedIn, he has announced the team...
Tuesday7th Jan 2025
News MGS3 Remake Dev Rumoured To Be Working On Oblivion Remastered In Unreal Engine 5
LinkedIn profile drops new hints
A new discovery on job-seeking platform LinkedIn has lent even more weight to existing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion remaster rumours. This time around, an art director at support studio Virtuos has updated their profile to say that they're working on "an unannounced UE5 PS5/XSX/PC remake", which is suspected to be...
News Indie Dev Questions Whether Xbox One Is Worth Developing For In 2025
It's sparked an interesting discussion
We're now entering the twelfth year of the Xbox One's existence, and Microsoft's last-gen console continues to receive loads of new games on a monthly basis - an incredible feat for what eventually turned out to be an incredible system! But at what point do you stop? That's the question that indie developer...
News These Six Games Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass (January 8-14)
Microsoft's first roundup of the year!
Microsoft has returned with the very first Xbox Game Pass roundup of 2025, revealing a few more titles heading to Game Pass in January including the likes of Diablo (for PC) and EA Sports UFC 5 for Game Pass Ultimate members. As you can see below, four of these are focused around
Guide Next Xbox Console: Everything We Know So Far About Microsoft's Next-Gen System
Your all-in-one guide to the console AFTER the Series X
With the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S generation now having spanned multiple years, it's time to look ahead to what the next Xbox console will deliver for us, which is expected to arrive at some point in the not too distant future. In this all-in-one guide, you'll find everything we know so...
News New Nvidia Ray Tracing Footage Gives Us A Fresh Glimpse Of DOOM: The Dark Ages
Blink and you'll miss it
As parts of its efforts to impress at the CES 2025 tech convention, Nvidia has shown off its latest ray tracing improvements with DLSS 4 - and the short teaser up above gives us a fresh glimpse at Xbox's DOOM: The Dark Ages. Admittedly, this is a very short clip of the upcoming id Software title, but to be quite honest, we...
News Call Of Duty's Crazy Development Budgets Revealed In New Report
Xbox will be spending a pretty penny
As game development budgets continue to rise, it's perhaps no surprise that churning out a big AAA shooter every year is a pricey endeavour. For well over a decade, Activision's Call of Duty has been the biggest AAA shooter of them all - and a new report details some of the eyewatering budgets that have gone into...
News Road 96's Grand Adventure Is Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (January 7)
The journey of a lifetime
Our second Xbox Game Pass drop of 2025 is now available, with Digixart's story-driven adventure Road 96 now available on Microsoft's subscription service. When this one first came to Xbox a few years back, we reviewed it and fell in love with the experience. It's got tons of character, unique and attractive visuals, and a...
News Xbox Exec Appears At AMD's CES Keynote, Shares Black Ops 6 News
Matt Booty: FSR 4 is coming "later this year"
It's a new year for Xbox and as part of its campaign going beyond consoles, it seems we may see Microsoft gaming executives pop up at more tech events in general. With this in mind, CES '25 is currently underway, and apart from Jason Ronald appearing at the "future of gaming handhelds" panel, Microsoft's...
Monday6th Jan 2025
News Microsoft Is Expanding Xbox Cloud Gaming To LG Smart TVs In 2025
Coming later this year
Having first launched on Samsung TVs back in 2022, Microsoft is bringing its Xbox Cloud Gaming service to yet more television sets in 2025. This time around, Xbox is partnering up with LG to start streaming games on another batch of Smart TV devices later this year. We're not sure which specific TVs will be supported just...
Talking Point It's Now Been 24 Years Since Bill Gates & The Rock Unveiled The Xbox
We could all smell what they were cookin'
Xbox fans around the world... it's officially been 24 years to the day since The Rock joined Bill Gates in unveiling the original Xbox! Yep, this big old chunky plastic box has been in our hearts and minds for almost a quarter of a century at this point, so we thought now's a good time to look back at the...
Guide Microsoft Rewards & Xbox: How To Make 10,000 Points Per-Month
How to get Microsoft Rewards points fast
We know how amazing Microsoft Rewards is, but did you know that if you live in a certain region and you have access to all the MS Rewards benefits on offer, you can make around 10,000 Microsoft Rewards points per-month? That's the equivalent of almost £10 / $10 worth of free Xbox credit every single month!...
Feature 10 Free-To-Play Games To Look Forward To On Xbox In 2025
Including some MAJOR new releases!
We've got hundreds and hundreds of new releases coming to Xbox in 2025, and inevitably there will be plenty of free-to-play releases amongst them! In fact, we already know about quite a few, including some major upcoming titles such as EA's Skate reboot and the massively popular action-RPG Path of Exile 2 later in...
News Forza Horizon 3 Features Go Offline As Fans Question Potential Xbox Server Closure In 2025
Update: Playground Games has "rebooted" the servers!
In recent days, we've seen reports from Xbox fans that 2016's Forza Horizon 3 is having server issues - with some folks even claiming that the game is completely unplayable online for them right now. As a result, we had a look at the game to see what's what, and our findings have been mixed when...
Rumour Microsoft's Next-Gen Console Dubbed 'Xbox Prime' Is Possibly Coming In 2026
Salt trucks at the ready
As Xbox Series X and S move past the four-year mark, we're starting to hear more and more about Microsoft's next generation console plans - both officially and coming from fresh reports and rumours. Well, today a new rumour is doing the rounds that gives us a possible next-gen Xbox codename and even a projected release...
News Xbox Game Pass Quests Are Getting A Big Overhaul For 2025
Including new ways to earn Microsoft Rewards points
A new year brings new improvements to the Microsoft Rewards program, and specifically for Xbox Game Pass Quests! Xbox is announcing an overhaul today for Quests that should ultimately result in players earning more points this year. Firstly, there are a bunch of new Xbox Game Pass Quests being...
News Xbox Series X|S Sales Estimates Show Consoles Lagging Far Behind Last-Gen
Just over 30 million units sold so far
Website VGChartz has provided its latest sales estimates for current-gen gaming consoles, and the roundup provides a fresh look at how Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S systems were getting on at the tail end of 2024. During the month of November last year, the data suggests that Series X and S shifted 767,118...
News Hyperkin Is Going Full-PS5 With Its New 'Competitor' Xbox Controller
DualSense in disguise
We've seen a few PS5-style Xbox controllers over the years, but this must be the most similar of all! As part of CES 2025, Hyperkin has announced a new Xbox controller called "The Competitor" that very much resembles the DualSense. As you can see, this controller drops the left thumbstick down to the bottom of the controller...
Saturday4th Jan 2025
Poll Which 'Xbox' Devices Will You Spend The Most Time With In 2025?
Is console still the #1 for you?
2025 marks the first full year of Microsoft's "This is an Xbox" campaign, in which the company attempts to convince the world that the term "Xbox" doesn't just refer to consoles anymore - it refers to anything that can play Xbox games! These days, that encompasses a wide range of devices. PC and mobile are the...
News Here's What Might Be Leaving Xbox Game Pass In February 2025
Some early predictions!
What's leaving Xbox Game Pass in February 2025? Well, Microsoft hasn't confirmed anything just yet, but based on some games that were added to the service this time last year, we can at least make a few predictions ahead of time. We know that a lot of Xbox users want more advance notice of games leaving Xbox Game Pass, but...
Feature These Games Are Coming To Xbox Next Week (January 6-10)
Including another Game Pass title!
Welcome to your Xbox games roundup for January 6-10! Once again, things are looking very quiet next week, but we do have a few intriguing new releases - along with the Xbox Game Pass return of our beloved Road 96! Here's what's coming to Xbox next week: New Xbox Releases (January 6-10):
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (January 4-5)
The first weekend of 2025!
A new year begins, and this marks our first weekend of it! Xbox is remaining quiet at the moment (we're expecting things to kick off again next week), but don't forget to check out Carrion - it got added to Xbox Game Pass on Thursday! Here's what we're playing this weekend: Fraser Gilbert, Editor: I could get used to...
Friday3rd Jan 2025
News Suddenly Getting Banned From Microsoft Rewards? You're Not Alone
Update: Microsoft says the issue is being fixed
A significant number of Xbox users engage with Microsoft Rewards these days, as it's an amazing way to rack up free credit for your Xbox account by playing games and completing basic tasks on a monthly basis. So, we're willing to bet a few Pure Xbox users have run into an issue where their Microsoft...
News Friday The 13th Game Now Officially Offline A Year After Xbox Store Delisting
Dancing on its grave
In an era where server closures and storefront shutdowns seem to be all too common, another Xbox multiplayer title has bitten the dust this week. A year to the day since publisher Gun Media pulled the game from all major digital storefronts, Friday the 13th: The Game went offline for good recently ahead of the new year. Yep,...
News Lots Of Xbox Games Are Reduced By 90-95% In January's 'Last Chance' Sale
The bargains have begun for 2025!
Looking for some cheap games in the first major Xbox sale of the year? Fortunately, the Last Chance Sale includes a whole bunch of titles that have been discounted by 90% or more, bringing them down to extremely low prices! Some of the highlights are Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Back 4 Blood, Mad Max, Border
News GTA 6 'Likely' To Make More Than $1 Billion Before It Launches In 2025, Say Analysts
Extremely strong pre-order game
Well, we're officially into 2025 now - which means it's GTA 6 launch year... if all goes to plan over at Rockstar. Yep, for now the game is simply slated to release sometime this year, and analysts have begun predicting just how lucrative a launch this could be for publisher Take-Two. In an overview of GTA 6's...
News Ubisoft Has Some Crazy 'Just For You' Deals Right Now On Xbox
Up to 90% off!
Xbox's first round of sales for 2025 has just kicked off, with a bunch of promotions now running for games, DLC add-ons and more. However, the Microsoft Store is again hosting some amazing 'Just For You' deals right now as well - with Ubisoft delivering some massive discounts this time around. Across a couple of our accounts here at...
News Call Of Duty's Unique 'Squid Game' Event Looks Well Worth Checking Out On Xbox Game Pass
With a chance to get free rewards!
These days, crossovers with other IP are pretty much the norm in online gaming, but this weekend's Call of Duty x Squid Game event actually looks worth paying attention to on Xbox Game Pass. This big Black Ops 6 & Warzone get-together, which starts today (January 3rd), contains some unique-looking game modes...
News Xbox's First Major Sale Of 2025 Begins, 300+ Games Reduced In All
It's called the "Last Chance" sale
The Xbox Countdown Sale from late last year has now officially ended, so that means it's time for our first major Xbox sale of 2025! This arrives in the form of a "Last Chance Sale", which includes around 300 games that have been reduced until January 13th, and there's also an add-on focused "Beyond Countdown Sale"...
News Kojima's Xbox Game 'OD' Suffered Strike-Related Setbacks In 2024
But progress was made earlier in the year
In a New Year's update posted by Hideo Kojima himself, the legendary game maker has provided various updates on his studio's in-development projects - some positive and some not so much. In terms of Kojima Productions' Xbox game OD, while progress was made throughout 2024, it sounds like the title suffered...
Thursday2nd Jan 2025
Talking Point Is 2025 The Year We See Everwild On Xbox?
A rare appearance
Here at Pure Xbox HQ, we've begun theorising on what games might show up at a potential Xbox Developer Direct later this month. We know that the showcase hasn't even been formally announced yet - but it's still fun to speculate on what could make an appearance if Xbox continues its recent trend of January showcases
News Xbox Fans Think Back To Halo Infinite Feature Finally Made Famous In 2024
"Halo Infinite did this first but nobody cared"
Prior to the launch of Halo Infinite in 2021, Xbox fans were very excited for a new era of Halo multiplayer, especially when it contained consumer-friendly features like free-to-play online access and battle pass progression that never expired. Over the course of the game's life cycle, Halo Infinite...
News Microsoft Rejected Halo & DOOM Crossover For 'Secret Level' Episode, Say Creators
"I spent a whole weekend crafting this impassioned letter..."
If you haven't come across it yet, a new adult-animated series called Secret Level arrived on Amazon Prime in early December, and it seems to have been a big hit so far - to the point where it's been greenlit for Season 2! All of the episodes in Secret Level are based around video games,...
News Two More Xbox Game Pass Additions Seemingly Leaked For January 2025
From a reliable insider
As we enter into the new year, we've got lots of Xbox Game Pass updates coming our way right now - and a new rumour from reliable insider eXtas1s suggests January's Game Pass lineup is about to get even better. According to the well-known leaker, Blizzard's first Diablo game is set to come to PC Game Pass this month,
News Hi-Fi RUSH Dev Posts New Year Message As Studio Is 'Reborn' Outside Of Xbox
"We're excited to continue crafting games"
Last year proved to be a bit of a wild time for Japanese studio Tango Gameworks. The team was riding high after 2023's Hi-Fi RUSH, before then-owner Microsoft decided to close the studio during a heavy round layoffs in 2024. In the end though, things are working out for the team - as evidenced by its new...
News 'Carrion' Is Your First Xbox Game Pass Addition Of 2025
Available in the library right now!
Xbox has delivered its first Xbox Game Pass addition of the year in the form of "reverse horror game" Carrion, which is now available in the library. The title returns to Game Pass after previously being available back in 2020, 2021 and the first half of 2022. We have a few more games already confirmed for the...
