Here’s Everything Xbox Announced During its Developer_Direct 2025

Microsoft has just wrapped up its latest Developer_Direct livestream that showcased five games coming to Game Pass on day one in 2025. The first one is a remastered version of Ninja Gaiden 2 that Microsoft has just shadow-dropped on Game Pass today.

The Ninja Gaiden franchise has a pretty special relationship with Xbox as Ninja Gaiden 2 launched exclusively on the Xbox 360 back in 2008. Before it, Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden Black also launched exclusively on the original Xbox.

Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, the just-announced remaster of the original Xbox 360 game is launching today on Xbox Series X|S, the Xbox app for PC, and Game Pass. It’s been developed with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5, and it features additional playable characters and enhanced battle support functions.

Ninja Gaiden 2 Black will be followed by a brand new episode in Fall 2025, Ninja Gaiden 4. The new game will also launch on Game Pass on day one, and it’s being developed by Team Ninja and PlatinumGames for Xbox Series X|S consoles, Windows, and Sony’s PlayStation 5. The game will be published by Xbox Game Studios, and it’s another Xbox game that will be launching day one on the PS5 this year in addition to Doom: The Dark Ages.

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a direct sequel to Ninja Gaiden 3, a game that launched 13 years ago on the Xbox 360 and PS3. You can watch the game’s first trailer below and learn more details about it on Xbox Wire.

Compulsion Games, one of the six game studios Microsoft acquired back in 2018 will release the Xbox-exclusive South of Midnight on April 8, 2025. It’s a third-person action-adventure game set in the “American Deep South” with a distinctive hand-crafted art style. This will be Compulsion Games’ first new title since the release of We Happy Few back in 2018, and you can also get more information about it on Xbox Wire.

Microsoft’s Xbox Developer_Direct also put the spotlight on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the debut title from French Studio Sandfall Interactive. It’s a turn-based RPG set in a fantasy version of late 19th Century France, and it will be released on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Game Pass on April 24, 2025.

Last but not least, Doom: The Dark Ages, one of the most anticipated games of the year now has a release date: It’s coming on May 15, 2025 on Xbox Series X|S, the Xbox App for PC, Game Pass, Steam, and Sony’s PlayStation 5, and developer iD Software detailed today why it was the most ambitious Doom game to date.

Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel to the Doom reboot from 2016 and its sequel Doom Eternal released back in 2020. The game is set in a dark fantasy/sci-fi world, and today’s presentation focused on the game’s combat, exploration, and story.

A strange omission from today’s livestream was Avowed, Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming fantasy RPG launching on Xbox Series X|S and PC on February 18, 2025 . Despite Microsoft now releasing all of its first-party games on Game Pass on day one, some of these titles seem to get very little buzz ahead of their release. It’s hard to remember that the company launched two big games during the past holiday season with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The latter may actually get more momentum once it’s released on the PlayStation 5 later this Spring.